Former presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton today apologized to rival Barack Obama for any offense he may have taken from the way former Sen. Bob Kerry endorsed her candidacy this week.

Mr. Kerrey, who ran for president in 1992, in his endorsement remarks mentioned that Sen. Obama's middle name is Hussein and that he has Muslim ancestors, "not that there's anything wrong with that."

Sen. Clinton, in a written statement said: "While I'm grateful for Bob's endorsement, which generated headlines across the country and even some stories that briefly mentioned me, his choice of words may have left some people with the impression that Sen. Obama is related to Saddam Hussein -- a fanatical dictator who gassed his own people, cut off ears and tongues of dissidents and littered Iraq with mass graves. Any implied comparison was purely accidental, I'm sure."

"There's nothing to be gained," Mrs. Clinton said, "by repeating Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. It's as immature as noting the similarity between the name Obama and Osama bin Laden."

She called Mr. Kerrey's reference to Sen. Obama's Muslim relatives "fundamentally irrelevant, and radically inappropriate."

"When you think about it, Barack's body is made up of cells," she said, "but that doesn't mean he's connected with al Qaeda terror cells. It's silly, you know, to link Hussein, Obama, Osama, Islam, al Qaeda."

Sen. Obama said he took no offense at the endorsement remarks, noting, "After all, Bob Kerrey's last name sounds like John Kerry, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a failed former presidential candidate, whose political life will be a mere footnote in the history books, if he's lucky. And of course Hillary Clinton has the same last name as…well…you get the point."

The Illinois senator added, "At least he didn't remind people that I'm related to Dick Cheney, which could actually hurt my chances in the Democrat primaries."

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