Just as John McCain is pulling back from his personal attacks on Barack Obama, his surrogates appear to be planning to expand those attacks. During a campaign conference call with reporters, the McCain campaign introduced John Murtagh. The Weatherman firebombed Murtagh’s family home in the 1960’s.

While the majority of the conference call was about the relationship of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn with Barack Obama, the new charges arose on a possible relationship between Dohrn and Michelle Obama.

Murtagh stated that Dohrn worked at the Chicago law office of Sidley & Austin from 1984 to 1988 as a paralegal. In that time, Michelle Obama also worked as an attorney for that firm.

Murtagh did not state that the two women knew each other, but that they might have:

“If it is true” that the two women knew each other, the relationship is almost a decade older than Senator Obama has acknowledged. And that can very easily be resolved by Senator Obama, by Mrs. Obama, by Mr. Ayers and by Ms. Dohrn.”

“And incidentally, I would emphasize that we’ve all been focusing on Senator Obama. I think we need to speak to his wife.”

Just to put this into perspective, Sidley & Austin currently employs 500 lawyers at its Chicago office. One news source estimates over 1,800 people currently working there. Even if it is assumed that the firm employed fewer people in the 1980’s, this charge stretches the guilt by association line even thinner.

This conference call is also a major break from the assertion by both candidates that spouses should not be an issue in the campaign.