Thursday, March 8, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.
Don't mess with Hillary Clinton.
That's the message Clinton has been sending out for weeks, and it was echoed Wednesday by Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton's campaign chairman.
McAuliffe was in Las Vegas on Wednesday as part of a national book tour. The memoir, "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats," roundly criticizes Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, for, among other things, not responding forcefully to the swift boat group's attacks on his military record.
Clinton, he said, would not make the same mistake.
"We want to run the most positive, uplifting campaign," McAuliffe told the Sun in a brief interview before a luncheon hosted by the Las Vegas World Affairs Council. "But we're putting people on notice: If you come out and lie and distort Hillary Clinton's record, we're going to fight back."
He added: "We're fighting for the presidency. This is a contact sport. We're ready. There will be no swift-boating of Hillary Clinton."
For her part, Clinton came out swinging on her inaugural trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate Jan. 27.
"When you're attacked, you have to deck your opponents," Clinton told a crowd of Democrats, prompting laughter and applause. "You can count on me to stand my ground and fight back."
Such warnings are coming regularly from the Clinton camp, serving notice not only on Democratic challengers but telling voters that she has the spine to stand up to Republicans in the general election. Democratic activists want a nominee who is fully prepared to stand up to aggressive Republican attacks.
Clinton's staff showcased their war room instincts last month, when, on Feb. 21, the date of the Carson City presidential forum, the campaign called on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to renounce some remarks made by Hollywood mogul David Geffen, an Obama supporter, and to return the portion of the $1.3 million that he helped raise the previous night.
McAuliffe's stop in Las Vegas also dovetailed a series of important hires the campaign has announced in Nevada.
Alisa Nave, former finance director for state Sen. Dina Titus' gubernatorial campaign, will serve as Clinton's Southern Nevada political director. Pam DuPre, former executive director of the Washoe County Democratic Party, will do the same in the north.
Hilarie Grey, another former Titus campaign staff member, will run communications.
Last week, the campaign snagged Robby Mook, a former deputy field director for the Democratic National Committee and field director for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in New Hampshire in 2004, to head Clinton's Nevada operation.
As for the campaign strategy, McAuliffe said he'll leave that to another politician.
"I'm going to let Rory Reid figure it out for us," he said. Reid, chairman of the Clark County Commission, was named head of Clinton's Nevada campaign last month.
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