Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson is using the release of thousands of his candidate’s White House schedules to shame Barack Obama into putting his own state senate records into the public domain.

On a campaign conference call, Wolfson told reporters that “11,000 pages of the former First Lady’s schedules are now part of the public record and I believe that is approximately 11,000 more documents than the Obama campaign has released up until this point relating to any part of his service, especially as a State Senator.”

He also chided Obama for failing to give a consistent explanation for why his information remains private. “We’ve heard different answers from Senator Obama about this when asked about it. At one point he said he had documents, another point he said he did not have documents. Apparently he left his office with nothing,” he said derisively. “There is much that Senator Obama can do on the subject of disclosure if he chooses to make this an issue as he has.”

Wolfson also suggested that the press has been easier on Sen Obama on the issue of transparency than it has on his candidate. “I think in many respects he has gotten a free ride on this but there is a voluminous amount of information that presumably should be available relating to his tenure in the State Senate that he could release and make available at any time since he thinks that this is so important. I would again call on him to do so.”

As for the heavy redaction in the documents, Spokesman Jay Carson, who seems to have been put in charge of all things document-related, laid them all at the feet of the National Archives — saying the President’s lawyer Bruce Lindsey actually sent the documents back asking for more information to be revealed. “As a result of President Clinton’s work, these documents are far less redacted,” he said.

Two new statements by Sen Clinton and her campaign have her rivals saying she’s copying their positions.

On Wednesday, Sen Clinton told a woman in Elkader, IA who asked about Iraq that, “I think we can bring nearly everybody home, you know, certainly within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily.” NM Gov Bill Richardson called that a “stunning flip-flop,” interpreting the remarks as a commitment to bringing all troops back.

“It is clear that she is responding directly to my latest ad and my statements that she repeatedly has called for leaving thousands of troops in Iraq indefinitely,” he said. “Rather than defending her position, apparently she simply changed it.” The Clinton campaign strenuously objects to that characterization, saying the statement was consistent with her position that she’d withdraw 1-2 of the 19-20 combat brigades in Iraq per month.

And on Thursday, Clinton released a statement on legislation she proposed to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, saying the bill “will provide a direct raise to about 20 million working Americans. It would put extra money in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Iowa families.” That prompted John Edwards to congratulate Clinton on accepting his months-old challenge to raise the minimum wage to that level, saying “just 14 days before the Iowa caucuses, Senator Clinton has answered my call.”

Clinton has yet to mention the new bill in three events on the campaign trail. You can read her campaign’s statement on the new legislation after the jump, and read Major Garrett’s take here.

(more…)