The consequences of David Axelrod's offensive remarks linking Hillary Clinton to Benazir Bhutto's assassination continue to reverberate. Today, the Washington Post editorialized:

Mr. Obama . . . began by offering bland condolences to Pakistanis and noting that "I've been saying for some time that we've got a very big problem there."

Then Mr. Obama committed his foul -- a far-fetched attempt to connect the killing of Ms. Bhutto with Ms. Clinton's vote on the war in Iraq. After the candidate made the debatable assertion that the Iraq invasion strengthened al-Qaeda in Pakistan, his spokesman, David Axelrod, said Ms. Clinton "was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit was one of the reasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda, who may have been players in the event today."

When questioned later about his spokesman's remarks, Mr. Obama stiffly defended them -- while still failing to offer any substantive response to the ongoing crisis. Is this Mr. Obama's way of rejecting "the same Washington game" he lambasted earlier in the day? If so, his game doesn't look very new, or attractive.

By making a defense of David Axelrod the centerpiece of the Obama campaign's reaction to the Bhutto assassination, the Obama campaign has allowed this story to fester for 3 days. He is sure to face more questions today after this WaPo editorial. Axelrod is killing the Obama campaign. Instead of serving his candidate, Axelrod has chosen to serve his own ego. What a terrible mistake.