Barack Obama’s chief strategist leveled the campaign’s harshest counterattack yet over John McCain’s recent rhetoric on national security issues, and defended himself against charges that threaten to make him a focus of the campaign tit-for-tat in the coming months.

The chief strategist also defended himself against a recent Newsweek story charging that he had essentially lobbied Chicago officials on behalf of his communications firm’s clients. He called the piece a “red herring,” and contrasted his record with that of his counterpart in the McCain campaign, chief strategist Charlie Black, who Axelrod labeled “the most powerful corporate lobbyist in Washington.”

“I never lobbied anybody,” Axelrod said.