Rivals Chide Clinton on Vote

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

TAKING HER TO TASK

Rivals Chide Clinton on Vote

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals have seized on a new line of criticism: her support for a bill that urges the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of Iran's military, a terrorist organization.

The authors of the bill, including Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), cast it as a rebuke of the Guard for supporting insurgents in Iraq, but liberals have depicted it as a proposal that could lay the groundwork for U.S. military action against Iran. The bill passed in the Senate 76 to 22 late last month, with Clinton among the Democrats who backed it.

Clinton was questioned sharply about the bill by a voter in New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday. And yesterday, former senator John Edwards and Barack Obama linked her vote to one of the more controversial elements of her candidacy, her 2002 vote for the war in Iraq.

On the radio show of liberal host Ed Schultz, Edwards said: "What it makes me wonder is if six months from now he goes to war in Iran, are we going to hear her once again say if only I had known then what I know now?"

Obama, in an interview with ABC News, said: "Her willingness to once again extend to the president the benefit of the doubt I think indicates that she hasn't fully learned some of the lessons that we saw back in 2002."

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer rejected the criticism. "They know that Senator Clinton was one of the first in Congress to say that Bush must seek an explicit authorization from Congress for any military action against Iran," he said, "and that she is the lead co-sponsor of legislation by Jim Webb to prohibit funds for military action in Iran without approval from Congress."

-- Perry Bacon Jr.

AN ENERGY PROPOSAL

Obama's Cap-and-Trade Plan

Just months after being chastised by environmentalists for backing a controversial coal technology, Barack Obama put forward a wide-ranging proposal on energy and climate change with calls for sharply reduced carbon dioxide emissions, higher vehicle mileage standards and greatly increased energy efficiency.

In a speech in Portsmouth, N.H., Obama framed energy policy as an area in which the Washington establishment has failed the country. While his speech did not name Hillary Clinton, it contained veiled criticisms of her vote in 2005 against increases in mileage standards and her past opposition to ethanol subsidies and mandates.

"There are some in this race who actually make the argument that the more time you spend immersed in the broken politics of Washington, the more likely you are to change it. I find this a little amusing," Obama said, according to the Associated Press.

Obama's plan calls for a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse gases that aims to slash carbon emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, a target that has also been endorsed by his rivals. Obama's plan would auction off emissions permits, unlike other cap-and-trade proposals in Congress that give out permits at no cost.

Obama would use revenue from auctioning emissions permits to invest $150 billion over 10 years in research to develop the next generation of biofuels, plug-in hybrids and coal plants that could capture and store emissions. Unlike Edwards, who opposes expanded use of nuclear energy, Obama acknowledges that reducing carbon emissions means relying more on nuclear, as long as there are improvements in nuclear fuel security and waste storage.

Obama's plan omits mention of subsidies for converting coal to liquid transportation fuel, an approach he pushed earlier this year in a nod to coal-rich southern Illinois. He has since backed off of it in the face of criticism from environmentalists who note that coal-to-liquid produces even more carbon emissions than gasoline.

-- Alec MacGillis

UNION DISAPPOINTS EDWARDS

No Endorsement From SEIU

The national leadership of the Service Employees International Union, whose backing Democratic presidential candidates had been assiduously courting, announced it would not issue an endorsement, allowing the union's locals to make their own choices in the nomination battle.

The announcement was a disappointment to Edwards, who had aggressively wooed the union, which has nearly 2 million members, and who had the support of the majority of SEIU leadership, according to union sources.

Edwards's aides tried to put a positive spin on the decision, arguing that it would allow locals in key states to help him. "It is a victory for the campaign as we now can mobilize the support from SEIU members," Edwards spokesman Eric Schutlz said.

-- Perry Bacon Jr.

A SIZABLE SHAKE-UP

GOP Race Tightens in Iowa

The latest Iowa Poll, published Sunday in the Des Moines Register, has drawn attention largely because of what it shows about the Democratic race: Hillary Clinton is now leading in the state. What has drawn less attention are the gyrations underway in the Republican race.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has spent the most money and campaigned the hardest in the state, has maintained the double-digit lead he established in the spring. But the order of finish among the rest of the field has undergone a sizable shake-up -- and even Romney should be nervous about what the poll reveals. Second place goes to former senator Fred Thompson at 18 percent. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is third at 12 percent in a virtual tie with Rudy Giuliani, who has dropped to 11 percent.

Giuliani's weakness in Iowa is twofold. First is his support for abortion rights. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said his position on abortion was a major factor in their decision not to support him. But Giuliani also has stopped campaigning in Iowa -- or at least has not been here since early August.

Thompson has made himself a force in the state by virtue of his generally conservative image and by showing up, even though he has played to mediocre reviews in the national press.

But Huckabee, who lacks the resources and the celebrity status of the other candidates, appears poised to embarrass several of them in January. Huckabee was virtually tied with Giuliani on the question of who would truly be the best president among the Republican candidates, and he remains the intriguing dark horse in the race -- someone whose appeal in Iowa could further shake up a contest in which none of the candidates has been able to take control.

-- Dan Balz