MICHIGAN REVOTE DOUBTFUL AS STATE SENATE RECESSES

The prospects for a do-over Democratic primary in Michigan faded further yesterday as the state senate recessed for an Easter holiday without taking action on legislation to authorize a new vote. Senator Clinton blamed Senator Obama for the impasse. “For the life of me, I don’t understand why Senator Obama seems to be afraid of letting there be a revote in Michigan,” she said while campaigning in Indiana, according to Fox News. “The people of Michigan and their legislature made it very clear that they would proceed with a revote. Unfortunately, Senator Obama’s campaign said no.” For its part, Mr. Obama’s campaign signaled a willingness to seat a Michigan delegation, even if no new vote takes place.

McCAIN AIDE SUSPENDED IN OBAMA VIDEO FLAP

Senator McCain suspended an aide yesterday for circulating a video that calls into question Senator Obama’s patriotism. The aide — Soren Dayton, who works in Mr. McCain’s political department — sent out a blast e-mail, which included a YouTube link of a video titled “Is Obama Wright?” The video, which has since been taken down, includes images of Malcolm X, the black Olympians raising their gloved hands in the black power salute and the song “Fight the Power” from the rap group Public Enemy. A spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, Jill Hazelbaker, told the Politico Web site that Mr. Dayton had been suspended and “reprimanded by campaign leadership.”

OBAMA DEPLORES COST OF WAR

Campaigning in West Virginia yesterday, Senator Obama decried the financial burdens that the five year-long Iraq war has imposed on the government and broader economy and attempted to tie the war’s costs to the economic hardships of everyday Americans in a speech. In his speech Mr. Obama said that the Iraq war had contributed to rising gasoline prices and a growing national debt that has weakened America’s standing. “When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war,” Mr. Obama said.

NEW OPERATIONS CHIEF FOR CLINTON CAMPAIGN

Senator Clinton has hired Howard Paster, a public relations executive who served as President Clinton’s chief congressional liaison, as her chief operating officer. Mr. Paster will report directly to campaign manager Maggie Williams organizing staff and supervising budgets. Mr. Paster has business ties to the campaign’s senior strategist, Mark Penn. Mr. Paster heads WPP, the global advertising consortium, while Mr. Penn serves as chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller, one of WPP’s subsidiaries. Mr. Paster was also responsible for recruiting Mr. Penn to join Mr. Clinton’s political team before he launched his 1996 re-election bid.

JUDGE OKAYS PROBE OF RECORDS QUEUES AT CLINTON LIBRARY

A judge yesterday gave a conservative group, Judicial Watch, the green light to look into the complex system the National Archives has established to sequence requests for information from President Clinton’s library in Little Rock, Ark. At a hearing in federal court in Washington, Judge James Robertson granted Judicial Watch’s request that it be able to seek documents and take testimony about the records queues, the Associated Press reported. Judicial Watch sued last year for access to Senator Clinton’s schedules and phone logs. About 11,000 pages of schedules were released this week, but the Archives has said it could be years before 20,000 or more pages of her phone logs can be processed.

TRIBUTE TO OBAMA’S EX-PASTOR MOVED OVER SECURITY

A banquet honoring Senator Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., has been moved off the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, for security reasons, university officials told the Dallas Morning News. Rev. Wright, whose fiery and sometimes anti-American preaching has landed Mr. Obama in hot water this week, was to be saluted next weekend at a Black Church Summit organized by Brite Divinity School. No new venue for the event was announced.