In a move to make over a very low-performing communications operation, Hillary Clinton decided to bring in some new blood.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s press shop, the focal point of her campaign over the summer as she tried to grapple with questions about her use of private email while at the State Department, is adding staff members and reshuffling existing personnel as it prepares for the final months of the nominating contest and the general election.

Such changes in a communications staff during a presidential race aren’t uncommon. But they speak to an urgent need: Mrs. Clinton’s communications team is arguably the most overworked unit on the campaign.

Zac Petkanas, a former communications director for [mc_name name=’Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000146′ ] and the liberal watchdog Media Matters, will join the campaign as the new director of rapid response, a campaign aide confirmed.

Zac Petkanas was also the communications director for Abortion Barbie, Wendy Davis.

I suppose the figured frenetic energy was something the really needed, and who better to supply that than a guy with a history of meth abuse:

Zac Petkanas, who was hired just days ago for the senior post on the Clinton camp’s communications team, was arrested at an Atlanta hospital at 4:55 a.m. Aug. 17, 2013, and charged with possessing methamphetamines, according to a police report.

A nurse who searched Petkanas while he was being admitted to the Grady Hospital found two “small baggies of a controlled substance [in] the right back pocket of the accused,” according to the report.

It isn’t known why Petkanas went to the hospital at the pre-dawn hour.

Petkanas allegedly went into rehab but the thing about substance abuse is that it can be kept in check but it can never really be either tamed or vanquished. One has to worry about the judgement of Petkanas in accepting a job that is going to place demands on him that will make using meth seem like a viable course of action. And now that he is with the Clinton campaign he no longer has to worry about mere law enforcement. So Petkanas promises, if nothing else, to raise “rapid response” to new heights.