Presidential aspirants assail plan for Iraq buildup
Presidential aspirants assail plan for Iraq buildupWASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday led a parade of potential 2008 presidential candidates — including two Republicans — in blasting President Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq.Clinton, D-N.Y.,who has been criticized on the war by liberals in her own party, announced that she'll support a resolution disapproving of Bush's policy and will introduce legislation designed to keep troop levels in Iraq from going up. In her first detailed comments on the president's plan since returning from a four-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Clinton said the Bush strategy is "not working."
The maneuvering underscored the deteriorating political situation for the president on Capitol Hill as Bush and Republican congressional leaders scrambled to head off a potentially embarrassing vote of no-confidence on his Iraq policy.
It also heightened the stakes for the State of the Union address that Bush will deliver to Congress on Tuesday. The following day, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., plans to have the panel vote on a bipartisan resolution that declares Bush's planned increase in troops "not in the national interest."
The measure, which gained the support Wednesday of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was co-authored by Biden, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a Vietnam War combat veteran. "I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy," Hagel said at a news conference to announce the resolution. "I think it's dangerously irresponsible."
Biden and Hagel have said they are considering running for president in 2008. Other potential presidential candidates who aired misgivings about the president's policy Wednesday:
•Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced he'll introduce a bill, similar to Clinton's proposal, to cap troop strength in Iraq at current levels.
•Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who said he returned from a trip to Iraq discouraged about its prospects, observed in a floor speech: "The United States seems to care more about a peaceful Iraq than the Iraqis do. If that is the case, it is difficult to understand why more U.S. troops would make a difference."
•Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said he'd support a cap on troop levels but also would introduce legislation calling for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Obama's announcement came minutes after Clinton's, intensifying the competition between the two celebrity Democrats. Obama announced this week he's raising money to explore a White House run.
His interest increases pressure on Clinton. The New York senator, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, has not yet declared her intention to run but is the front-runner among Democrats in public opinion polls.
She was booed last summer, however, at a conference of Democratic liberals when she refused to back a definite timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Clinton said Wednesday she has not changed her position; she favors a redeployment of U.S. troops but is not willing to put a date on when that should happen. "We do have national security interests in Iraq," she said.
In addition to capping troop levels, Clinton said, she wants to increase troops in Afghanistan and tie U.S. aid to Iraq to certain benchmarks. White House spokesman Tony Snow called Clinton's proposed cap "pretty extreme" because it would "tie one's hand in a time of war."
Bush spent part of Wednesday meeting with Republicans about his Iraq strategy. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the president and his aides spent more time listening to lawmakers' concerns than trying to persuade them to back the plan. Voinovich, still undecided about how he'll vote, said the main accomplishment of the session was to give the president a sense of how much convincing he has to do.
"I think we clarified for them what the reality is," he said.
Contributing: David Jackson
Posted 1/17/2007 8:34 AM ET http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-17-clinton-troops_x.htm?csp=34
The maneuvering underscored the deteriorating political situation for the president on Capitol Hill as Bush and Republican congressional leaders scrambled to head off a potentially embarrassing vote of no-confidence on his Iraq policy.
It also heightened the stakes for the State of the Union address that Bush will deliver to Congress on Tuesday. The following day, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., plans to have the panel vote on a bipartisan resolution that declares Bush's planned increase in troops "not in the national interest."
The measure, which gained the support Wednesday of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was co-authored by Biden, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a Vietnam War combat veteran. "I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy," Hagel said at a news conference to announce the resolution. "I think it's dangerously irresponsible."
Biden and Hagel have said they are considering running for president in 2008. Other potential presidential candidates who aired misgivings about the president's policy Wednesday:
•Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced he'll introduce a bill, similar to Clinton's proposal, to cap troop strength in Iraq at current levels.
•Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who said he returned from a trip to Iraq discouraged about its prospects, observed in a floor speech: "The United States seems to care more about a peaceful Iraq than the Iraqis do. If that is the case, it is difficult to understand why more U.S. troops would make a difference."
•Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said he'd support a cap on troop levels but also would introduce legislation calling for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Obama's announcement came minutes after Clinton's, intensifying the competition between the two celebrity Democrats. Obama announced this week he's raising money to explore a White House run.
His interest increases pressure on Clinton. The New York senator, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, has not yet declared her intention to run but is the front-runner among Democrats in public opinion polls.
She was booed last summer, however, at a conference of Democratic liberals when she refused to back a definite timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Clinton said Wednesday she has not changed her position; she favors a redeployment of U.S. troops but is not willing to put a date on when that should happen. "We do have national security interests in Iraq," she said.
In addition to capping troop levels, Clinton said, she wants to increase troops in Afghanistan and tie U.S. aid to Iraq to certain benchmarks. White House spokesman Tony Snow called Clinton's proposed cap "pretty extreme" because it would "tie one's hand in a time of war."
Bush spent part of Wednesday meeting with Republicans about his Iraq strategy. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the president and his aides spent more time listening to lawmakers' concerns than trying to persuade them to back the plan. Voinovich, still undecided about how he'll vote, said the main accomplishment of the session was to give the president a sense of how much convincing he has to do.
"I think we clarified for them what the reality is," he said.
Contributing: David Jackson
Posted 1/17/2007 8:34 AM ET http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-17-clinton-troops_x.htm?csp=34
posted by presgore19 at 8:26 PM
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