(Via TPM)

Here we go again. 

Barring any new revelations--like, say, who actually sent the shot to Drudge, and why--I was ready to let the whole "dressed Obama" controversy go the way of the Dodd. (Rimshot, anyone?) As I wrote yesterday, "If it emerges that top Clinton aides did, in fact, authorize the attempted "smear," then Obama's outrage would be justified, and Clinton should book her flight back to Chappaqua. If an unauthorized staffer sent it out, then he or she should be sacked--and the damage should stop at embarrassment." End of story.

But then Clinton surrogate Stephanie Tubbs-Jones had to go and unload a whole mess of crazy on MSNBC this morning--and now here I am, back on the chain gang. Heave-ho. The things I do for Stumper.

Here's what happened. Asked by Pat Buchanan whether "lovely photograph" in question was a "Clintonite dirty trick," Tubbs-Jones at first echoed the Clinton camp's talking points. "Understand this," she said. "The Clinton campaign does not condone people putting out pictures that they seem to believe are inappropriate." So far, so good. But the congresswoman quickly took the conversation in, ahem, another direction--as in, far from the planet earth. "But let me say this," she continued. "I have no shame, or no problem, with people looking at Barack Obama in his native clothing--in the clothing of his country." When she reiterated her analysis at the end of the segment--"We ought to be able to support their ability to wear the clothing of their nation"-- someone off-screen (Joe Scarborough, perhaps?) summed it up perfectly:

"Wow."

Where to begin. There are a couple of explanations for Tubbs-Jones' comments, and, in all fairness, I will heretofore examine each of them.

Perhaps she is insane. That's what it would take, I think, to believe that the largely Somali region of Wajir, in rural northeastern Kenya, is Barack Obama's "country" or "nation" and its garb "his native clothing"--especially considering that Obama was born an American citizen in Hawaii and has lived in America nearly his entire life. Verdict: implausible.

A likelier story? She's merely confused. Obama's father was, in fact, Kenyan, and it's possible that Tubbs-Jones meant "ancestral clothing" instead of "native." Unfortunately, Barack Sr. belonged to the Luo ethnic group of western Kenya, while the ensemble Obama donned in 2006 was of Somali origin--meaning "native clothing" is a bit of a misnomer even when extending the argument to ancestral proportions. But still--it's possible that she was trying to be, um, "gracious" and simply misspoke.

Finally, there is a small but significant chance that STJ is a politician. Whether you want to go the conspiracy-theory route (i.e., the Clintonistas are using an unassailable African-American surrogate to sow seeds of doubt about Obama's origins) or assume instead that she's a free agent, it's hard to deny how conveniently Tubbs-Jones silly remarks, repeated twice, reinforce rather than rebut the presumable intention of the original leak: to make Obama look suspiciously un-American--or even (gasp!) Muslim.  Because even though Hugh Rodham was the son of Welsh immigrants, something tells me that if "shocking" images were to surface of Hillary rocking this little number on a diplomatic trip to Wales, we wouldn't hear Tubbs-Jones complimenting Clinton for wearing the "native clothing" of "her country."

That makes the Clinton camp either a) devious or b) unlucky. Take your pick.