On the May 16 broadcast of his 630 KHOW-AM show, host Peter Boyles and his guest, Republican strategist Bay Buchanan, agreed that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (NY) and “the Clinton team” -- which Buchanan called “the mean machine” -- are “really back-dooring” and “puttin' the blade in” Sen. Barack Obama (IL), Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination. Buchanan attributed separate news reports about Obama's ancestry -- one suggesting that a distant ancestor came from Ireland and another suggesting that an ancestor owned slaves -- to the “drip, drip, drip” of “Hillary's camp,” which purportedly “has done all the research” and fed it to the media. Buchanan claimed that Clinton “will destroy” Obama. As Media Matters for America has noted, Buchanan previously promoted the conservative talking point that Obama should be wary because “the Clinton machine has got him in their targets.”

Buchanan appeared on Boyles' show to publicize her new book, The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (Regnery Publishing, May 2007). Regnery Publishing is a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing, a “leading conservative publishing company.” Buchanan is also a senior adviser to Colorado congressman and Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo. Although he and Buchanan are connected through that campaign, Boyles -- as he has in the past -- failed to disclose that he has been a fundraiser for Tancredo's presidential effort.

In attributing the publication of attacks on Obama's ancestry to Clinton, Buchanan claimed without substantiation that members of the press have told her Clinton's campaign is their source for negative leads about Obama.

From the May 16 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: You think that they're really back-dooring the -- Obama right now, this, the Clinton team.

BUCHANAN: Oh, there, there's no question about it. There's all these things moving -- his great-grandparents owned slaves. You know, as if that's relevant. I mean, that's, that stuff's out there. He's on the defense. They're now looking into his, his Irish heritage. I mean, this is -- I'm talking to the press and they're telling me what is being dropped on them.

BOYLES: So, yeah, 'cause I remember, remember the story came out that he had some, somebody that was slave owners, like in the 18th century?

BUCHANAN: Exactly. Yeah, there's somebody in his background, a great-grandpa or something.

BOYLES: I remember that!

BUCHANAN: A great-, great-grandpa that owned slaves. Well, you know, so did George Washington, but if he was in my background, I'd be telling everybody about him. What's the story here?

BOYLES: Who dimed Obama on that?

BUCHANAN: Oh, that, that's being moved by the mean machine, Hillary. Hillary's camp has done all the research and they just drip, drip, drip. And it's moving out and then the press goes racing around and following it. As, as a member of the press told me, “We are very lazy people. We do not do our research. But we got this nice operation over here that does a fine job, gives us the leads, and we follow them.”

As Media Matters has documented, several media figures and Buchanan have publicly warned Obama of a purportedly ruthless Clinton operation that will attempt to win by brute force, or, as Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund put it, “haul[ing] out the brass knuckles.” Again without substantiation, Buchanan asserted that Clinton is “allow[ed] ... to just operate on a completely different level than, than most any of the other candidates,” which Buchanan called “an outrage”:

BOYLES: So Mrs. Clinton is, she really is puttin' the blade in the guy, isn't she?

BUCHANAN: Oh, oh, there's no question. But this is -- it's, you know what's interesting, Peter? Here I am on national television constantly and, and the press says, oh, she's just gonna destroy him. In my book I pointed out one Democrat said, you know, he's not gonna know what color he is when Hillary's finished with him. I mean, but this is accepted now in Washington.

BOYLES: Oh, yeah.

BUCHANAN: Oh, so she will destroy him, this good and decent man. Sure, he's a left-winger, but, but he's done nothing wrong except --

BOYLES: No.

BUCHANAN: -- that he chose to run --

BOYLES: Yeah.

BUCHANAN: -- in a primary. Therefore, we will destroy him. I mean, that's -- and in, the press says, “Hmm. That's OK. That's part of this deal,” you know?

BOYLES: Yeah, hmm.

BUCHANAN: It's an outrage. It's just an outrage that we, we allow her to, to just operate on a completely different level than, than most any of the other candidates.