Democrats seek to play nice in public

Top surrogates for Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) on Sunday publicly tried to put behind the divisions that have marred the Democratic presidential race in the past weeks.

{mosads}Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter, refused to criticize Obama for controversial comments his hometown pastor made.

“Look, each campaign is wide-ranging. Supporters are all over the place,” Schumer said. He added that past campaigns have placed too great of an emphasis on such things.

“This election won’t,” Schumer said. “And the reason is people are worried about the future of the country, and they want a real discussion on issues.”

When pressed on the issue, Schumer did not budge.

“As you know, I prefer Senator Clinton for a whole lot of reasons, but I don’t cast aspersions on Senator Obama for what somebody else said,” he stated.

In return, Obama supporter Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) did not criticize Clinton over controversial statements made by one of her surrogates, former vice presidential candidate and Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.).

Dodd said those comments should not be “the central point in the debate.”

On CBS’s Face the Nation, top Obama supporter and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) struck the same chord.

“I’d caution everybody to remember who is and who is not the candidate,” Patrick said. “You know, the good reverend is not the candidate. He’s fortunately not running for president, and neither is Geraldine Ferraro.”

The effort to play nice comes on the heels of a reported meeting between Clinton and Obama on the Senate floor this week. According to the Associated Press, the two agreed to work toward cooling the campaign rhetoric.

In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview with ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos that the tone in the campaign “could be improved” and said Democrats “have to lift ourselves out of all of that.”

However, while both campaigns played nice in public, behind the scenes the attacks continued.

Senior Clinton aides were crying foul Sunday on a conference call with reporters, accusing Democratic rival Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign of using “Republican talking points” to try to “tear down” the former first lady.

Chief strategist Mark Penn said the Obama campaign “is turning heavy negative” in an attempt to “deflect loses in Ohio and Texas” as well as the unfolding story involving indicted fundraiser Tony Rezko.

Communications director Howard Wolfson told reporters “I think it is disappointing that a campaign that promised a politics of hope has come to this,” adding, “If they could make the affirmative case, they would be making it.”

Neither Penn nor Wolfson identified which Obama attacks come from the GOP’s playbook, only claiming Obama will be “attacking Sen. Clinton’s character from here on out.”

The Obama campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.