Clinton's Foes Go on the Attack
Democratic Front-Runner Criticized Over Iran, Iraq and Secrecy

By Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 31, 2007; A01

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 30 -- With just over two months until the first primary contest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals aggressively challenged their party's front-runner here Tuesday night, accusing her of being dishonest and of emboldening President Bush to declare war against Iran.

Former senator John Edwards (N.C.), lingering in third place in most polls, took the lead in attacking Clinton as Democrats gathered for the fourth of their six official debates. He mocked Clinton for voting to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, and he all but accused her of being corrupt.

Voters, Edwards said, "deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth, and won't say one thing one time and something different at a different time."

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) -- under pressure to take sharp aim at Clinton -- criticized her directly for not releasing her correspondence as first lady. But he kept his cool demeanor, describing her tendency toward secrecy as simply "a problem."

The most telling exchange came minutes before the debate ended, when Clinton declined to answer repeated questions about whether she supports New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer's proposal to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, after earlier suggesting that she does. Edwards pounced, arguing that Clinton had offered evasiveness when Americans want honesty and consistency from their leaders. "What we've had seven years is double talk from Bush and Cheney, and I think America deserves us to be straight," he said.

Under fire, Clinton defended her positions on Social Security and Iran and denied assertions -- made most forcefully during the debate by Edwards -- that she is mirroring the Republican Party in her actions and rhetoric.

"Well, I don't think the Republicans got the message that I'm voting and sounding like them," Clinton said. "If you watched their debate last week, I seemed to be the topic of great conversation and consternation. And that's for a reason: because I have stood against George Bush and his failed policies."

The debate, moderated by NBC's Tim Russert and Brian Williams and held at Drexel University, offered by far the liveliest exchanges among the Democratic candidates so far.

After months of civility, the contenders raised their voices more frequently and addressed one another by first name. With a few exceptions, the six other candidates heaped criticism only on Clinton.

Debates on specific policies inched forward only incrementally. On Social Security, Clinton sought to address an apparent contradiction between her public posture of avoiding specifics about how to fix the program and a private conversation with an Iowa voter, overheard by an Associated Press reporter, in which she said she was open to asking wealthy Americans to pay more in payroll taxes.

Asked whether she was taking one position in public and another in private, Clinton said no. Asked to explain the remark overheard by the reporter, she said, "I do not advocate it, I do not support it." Clinton repeated her view that fiscal responsibility would begin to revive the Social Security system.

Obama pursued Clinton most pointedly over her White House papers, most of which are still locked away in her husband's presidential library in Little Rock. She said that she had approved the release of the papers, a point that national archivists dispute.

"We have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history, and not releasing, I think, these records at the same time, Hillary, that you're making the claim that this is the basis for your experience, I think, is a problem," Obama said. Clinton has built her candidacy on the assertion that she is the most experienced challenger in the race, in large part because of her time as first lady.

The most pointed back-and-forth came over Iran. Clinton supported a Senate resolution last month that urged the administration to label the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. The measure was approved by a vote of 76 to 22, but all of Clinton's rivals last night opposed it as the Bush administration enabling a rush to war with Iran.

Clinton defended the vote, saying that early this year she had argued that Bush has no authority to use military force to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. "I am not in favor of this rush for war, but I'm also not in favor of doing nothing," she said.

Her opponents, however, challenged her interpretation of the measure. Edwards said the resolution read as if it were "written literally by the neocons" and added that "it literally gave Bush and Cheney exactly what they wanted. It didn't just give them what they wanted. They acted on it."

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), recalling the 2002 congressional resolution on Iraq, said that the vote on the Iran resolution could come back to haunt those who supported it. "What you didn't learn back in '02, you should've learned by now," he said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called the resolution "saber rattling" by the Senate that would embolden the administration, while Obama said the measure "is yet another rationale for what we're doing in Iraq, and I think that's a mistake."

Edwards also said that voters have a clear choice on the issue of Iraq. "If you believe that combat missions should be continued in Iraq over the long term, if you believe that combat troops should remain stationed in Iraq and if you believe there should be no actual timetable for withdrawal, then Senator Clinton is your candidate," he said. "I don't."

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) accused his fellow Democrats of being "enablers" for not ruling out war against Iran. He said the Democratic support for labeling the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group amounted to "licensing President Bush."

On Iraq, Clinton at one point suggested that, if elected president, she would enlist her fellow contenders as diplomats to elicit cooperation from Iraqi officials -- inviting "Bill, Joe and Chris" to help her cause. Later, asked to respond to quotes from Republican front-runner Rudolph W. Giuliani about her relative lack of governing experience, Clinton cited criticism from her GOP rivals as evidence that her campaign is working.

"In a perverse way, you know, I think the Republicans and their constant obsession with me demonstrates clearly that they obviously think I am communicating effectively about what I will do as president," she said.

Edwards shot that theory down. "I mean, another perspective on why the Republicans keep talking about Senator Clinton is, Senator, they may actually want to run against you, and that's the reason they keep bringing you up," he said.

Dodd chastised Edwards for criticizing Clinton for taking lobbyists' money while Edwards accepted contributions from trial lawyers -- accusing the former North Carolina senator of adopting "situational ethics." But Dodd also took on Clinton's electability.

"Whether it's fair or not fair, the fact of the matter is that my colleague from New York, Senator Clinton, there are 50 percent of the American public that say they're not going to vote for her. I'm not saying anything that people don't know already. I don't necessarily like it, but those are the facts," Dodd said.

Richardson defended Clinton briefly, a move that seemed destined to fuel speculation that he is interested in being chosen as a vice presidential running mate. He said the debate had gotten "pretty close to personal attacks that we don't need."

"We need to be positive in this campaign," Richardson said.