WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's office is responding to charges from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay that the Illinois Democrat is attempting to conceal his liberal views and that his record in the Senate is comparable to that of a "Marxist Leftist."

DeLay is also urging conservative bloggers to begin digging into Obama's past.

A spokesperson for the senator says voters want to "move beyond" Delay's "name-calling."

"Former Congressman DeLay's rhetoric is exactly the sort that the American people rejected so resoundingly in November," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "They want us to move beyond the name-calling and slash-and-burn politics that have served this country so poorly and deal with the real challenges we face."

DeLay made the comments to a group of conservative bloggers at a weekly lunch hosted by Human Events and the Heritage Foundation, according to Robert Bluey of HumanEvents.com, who attended the meeting.

Following this week's launch of TomDeLay.com, the Texas Republican is stepping up his efforts to reach out to bloggers and grassroots activists.

DeLay also warned conservatives at the meeting that "Hillary [Clinton] will be the next president of the United States because [liberals] have built a coalition."

A spokesperson for Sen. Clinton, D-New York, declined to comment.

-- From CNN's Peter Hamby