NASHUA - In addition to the as yet unconfirmed rumors that Carville and Begala are returning to try and save the Clintons' bacon (UPDATE: Major Garrett says it's a done deal according to senior advisers in the Clinton camp, which he called "solid" sources), Tom Edsall at the Huffington Post reports that the special interest groups backing Clinton are throwing around the idea of consolidating resources into an "anti-Obama" 527 group in an effort to try and "Swift Boat" the Illinois Senator turned Presidential front runner. Edsall writes:

Three groups conducting independent expenditure campaigns in behalf of Clinton - Emily's List, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) - have explored the possibility of trying to put together a multi-million dollar effort privately dubbed the Anybody-But-Obama 527 Committee, but they have run into problems finding any Democratic operative willing to become the director of a campaign against the man who now is the odds-on favorite to become the party's nominee.

This raises a question I've been mulling for a while. How ironic is it that Bill Clinton - once dubbed America's first black president - is now in the position, along with his wife, of having to go negative against a black man who appears to have the first legitimate chance of winning the White House? If the Clintons are successful in snuffing out Obama's insurgency with swift boat like tactics, how much venom and hatred will that unleash against them by progressive activists and the African-American community - and how might that play a role in the general election?