Text 28879, 105 rader
Skriven 2007-05-25 01:10:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Pandering
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This will be remembered next year.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070525/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_iraq_4

Clinton, Obama vote 'no' on Iraq bill

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



WASHINGTON - Courting the anti-war constituency, Democratic presidential rivals
       Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) both
voted against legislation that pays for the        Iraq war but lacks a
timeline for troop withdrawal.


"I fully support our troops" but the measure "fails to compel the president to
give our troops a new strategy in Iraq," said Clinton, a New York senator.

"Enough is enough," Obama, an Illinois senator, declared, adding that
President Bush should not get "a blank check to continue down this same,
disastrous path."

Their votes Thursday night continued a shift in position for the two
presidential hopefuls, both of whom began the year shunning a deadline for a
troop withdrawal.

On a vote of 80-14, the Senate cleared the measure and sent it to Bush.

Both Clinton and Obama have faced intense pressure from the party's liberal
wing and Democratic presidential challengers who urged opposition to the
measure because it doesn't include a timeline to pull forces out of Iraq.

Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) of Connecticut, who also voted
against the legislation, was among the Democratic candidates calling for
rejection of it, along with former Sen.        John Edwards of North Carolina
and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Of the four Democratic hopefuls in the Senate, only Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware
supported the bill. He said he did so reluctantly because he viewed the measure
as flawed. But he added: "As long as we have troops on the front lines, it is
our shared responsibility to give them the equipment and protection they need."

With their "no" votes, Clinton, Obama and Dodd earned praise from the party's
left flank, which has been pushing for a quick end to the war and is an
important part of the Democratic base in the primaries.

"This bold stand by three of the four presidential candidates in the Senate
won't soon be forgotten," promised Eli Pariser, executive director of
MoveOn.org's political action committee.

Although they appeased the Democratic base, Clinton, Obama and Dodd did open
themselves up to criticism from Republicans that they were denying 165,000
troops the resources they need  an argument that could be damaging in a general
election.

Both Clinton and Obama had remained publicly uncommitted in the hours before
the vote. Neither were on the Senate floor as voting began. Halfway through,
Obama walked into the chamber and cast his "no" vote. Clinton did the same a
few minutes later.

Obama framed the vote as a choice between "validating the same failed policy"
and "demanding a new one."

"I am demanding a new one," he said. "We must fund our troops. But we owe them
something more," Obama said, calling for "a clear, prudent plan to relieve them
of the burden of policing someone else's civil war."

Clinton put the blame on Bush, saying that he should have "followed the will of
the people" and signed an earlier bill that would have both funded the war and
started a troop withdrawal.

"But the president vetoed Congress's new strategy and so Congress must reject
the president's failed policies," she said, adding that Bush should begin a
phased withdrawal and "abandon this escalation."

Clinton voted to authorize the invasion in 2002. She has since become a
constant critic of the Bush administration's handling of it but has refused to
call her initial vote a mistake. She had adamantly opposed setting a hard
deadline for troop withdrawals, but a week ago she voted to advance a bill that
would cut off money to force a troop withdrawal by March 2008.

Obama wasn't in the Senate in 2002. But he, like Clinton, prominently shunned
earlier proposals to set a fixed timetable for an end to the war only to vote
to advance last week's bill that included a date to bring home troops.

The voting went as expected in the GOP field.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), a staunch supporter of the troop
increase and the war itself but a longtime critic of the way Bush waged it, is
the only top-tier Republican candidate in Congress, and he voted for the
measure. A lesser-known GOP hopeful, Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting
record) of Kansas, did not vote.

In the House, long-shot Reps. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record),
R-Calif., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., supported the bill, while Rep. Ron Paul
(news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, and Rep.        Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio,
opposed it.

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