Clinton Fires at Rivals After Debate Pile-On

Jan. 6, 2008 — -- Sen. Hillary Clinton isn't just hinting around about issues in Sen. Barack Obama's record anymore or having her team talk up what they view as inconsistencies in his record (although they are still doing that, too).

Today, after mixing it up personally with Obama, D-Ill., and John Edwards at Saturday night's debate, Clinton, D-N.Y., delivered some of the punches herself.

In one section of her speech to a crowd of hundreds at Nashua North High School in Nashua, N.H., the senator rattled off a series of charges, rapid fire.

"You know, if you give a speech saying you're going to vote against the Patriot Act, and you don't, that's not change," she began, referring to a speech Sen. Obama once gave.

"If you say that you're going to prevent members of Congress from having lunch with lobbyists sitting down, but they can still have lunch standing up, that's not change."

The crowd cheered loudly.

But there was more. And this time the target was Edwards.

"If you say that you passed the Patients' Bill of Rights but you forget to add it never got signed into law, that's not change," she said, referring to a claim Edwards made during the debate.

Edwards adviser Jonathan Prince countered in the "spin room" after the debate by telling ABC News that the public should know the former North Carolina senator shouldn't be blamed for the Patients' Bill of Rights' failure to pass the House and be enacted into law -- because he was a member of the Senate at the time.

Edwards himself expressed outrage today at the Clinton campaign over another matter -- a Clinton aide's remarks about the way Edwards at campaign stops invokes the story of Natalie Sarkisyan, a California teenager whose family blames her death on an insurance company's failure to quickly authorize payment for a liver transplant.

"In order to be president, you need to do more than read articles about people who need help and talk about them," said Clinton aide Jay Carson. He added that Clinton is "somebody who's actually going to help people and not use them as talking points."

"My reaction is this campaign doesn't seem to have a conscience," Edwards said in Keene, N.H. "This is not about them, it's about families like the Sarkisyan, Lowe, Lakeys -- who desperately need a voice."

Clinton later rejected Edwards' claim that her campaign lacked a conscience.

"Oh, that's just totally untrue," she said. "You know, what I said is that he answered a question about what his biggest accomplishment was in the Senate by trying to mislead people that a bill he had worked on actually became law, and of course, it did not."

Earlier, after her swipe at Edwards at Nashua North High School, Clinton resumed her focus on Obama -- continuing the list of charges.

"If you rail against the special interests, like the oil companies and all the giveaways and tax breaks they've been given, but you voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill, that's not change."

"If you gave a speech, and a very good speech, against the war in Iraq in 2002, and then by 2004 you're saying you're not sure how you would've voted, and by 2005, 2006 and 2007 you vote for $300 billion for the war you said you were against, that's not change."

The Obama campaign also is pushing back, saying that the former first lady isn't telling the whole story.

Obama aides said Obama voted for the Patriot Act after pledging to oppose it because the bill underwent "three key changes" -- on business records, the right to consult privately with an attorney after receiving a national security letter, and greater protection for libraries.

On energy, the Obama campaign said the senator voted for the bill "reluctantly" and that he has subsequently introduced legislation to end "some of the most egregious tax breaks to the oil industry."

While Obama told The New York Times that he was not privy to Senate intelligence reports, he has consistently maintained that he would have opposed the authorization to use force in Iraq based on the information available to him.

Speaking to reporters in the "spin room" following Saturday's debate, Obama's top strategist portrayed Clinton's latest line of attack as borne of frustration.

"His deficiencies in the eyes of the Clinton campaign," said Axelrod, "is that he won the Iowa caucuses."

Obama spokesperson Bill Burton added, "The Clinton campaign's false negative attacks were rejected by Iowa voters, and we expect that they'll suffer the same fate here in New Hampshire."

A top Clinton official in New Hampshire rejected the suggestion that the former first lady is turning negative out of desperation.

"What attacks?" asked Kathy Sullivan, Clinton's New Hampshire co-chair, on a conference call with reporters. "When did looking at someone's record become an attack or negative? That's not an attack. That's looking at someone's record."

ABC News' Talal Alkhatib contributed to this report.