LOS ANGELES -- As White House hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama competed for major California Democratic donors the last few days, the campaign trail took the rivals to uncharted territory.

The Bill Clinton elephant entered the room.

The matter of former President Clinton's personal behavior -- you know the references -- surfaced in Maureen Dowd's New York Times interview with movie mogul David Geffen, who co-hosted a $1.3 million fund-raiser in Beverly Hills for Obama on Tuesday.

Geffen's acidic remarks about the Clintons triggered a mudslinging exchange between the Clinton and Obama camps.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson started with a demand for Obama to disavow the Geffen comments; Obama communications chief Robert Gibbs countered by bringing up a controversial supporter of Clinton's in South Carolina and harkening back to the campaign finance scandals dating to the President Clinton era.

Obama calls for end to 'tit-for-tat' politics

WASHINGTON -- Fresh off a spat with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he'd like to see an end to the ''tit-for-tat'' that dominates politics.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns fired off dueling news releases this week over a top Hollywood donor who was a supporter of Bill Clinton but is backing Obama in this race.

The Clinton campaign demanded that Obama return DreamWorks studio co-founder David Geffen's money after Geffen criticized the Clintons as dishonest. Obama declined, and his spokesman criticized Clinton for accepting the support of a South Carolina lawmaker who said Obama can't win because he's black.

Obama told donors at a Houston fund-raiser Thursday that the nation will stay at a standstill ''if we continue to engage in small and divisive politics and tit-for-tat.''

In an interview in Friday's New York Times, Obama said he didn't know beforehand about the statement put out by his campaign responding to the demand by Clinton's camp.

Clinton Picks the Wrong Quarrel With Obama: Margaret Carlson

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- There's a lot of time left in campaign '08 for a list of worst moments, but it may be hard to beat Senator Hillary Clinton's decision to engage Senator Barack Obama in a fierce battle over who's a better friend of Hollywood producer David Geffen.

Geffen's sin was to hold a fund-raiser for Obama a few days before supermarket owner Ron Burkle was to throw one for Clinton, forcing the California billionaires to take sides. Geffen then colorfully described a bad case of Clinton fatigue to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times.