Clinton Urges Dems to Press Bush on Iraq

By MIKE GLOVER

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Democrats should pressure President Bush to agree to a withdrawal of troops from Iraq rather than concede that he will veto such a plan, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

Bush has promised to veto House and Senate versions of a war spending bill that includes timetables for drawing down troops, but Democrats shouldn’t give up, said Clinton, the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

“I’m not ready to concede that,” Clinton said. “We’re actually back into a bipartisan government where we have a Democratic Congress and a Republican president. What has historically happened is there has to be some negotiation and compromise and we may not get it, but I’m not willing to concede.”

Clinton, speaking with reporters during a campaign stop in Iowa, said she hadn’t decided whether to support legislation calling for a cutoff in war funding – a move that would force withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“I’m looking at that,” Clinton said. “I don’t know anything about it.”

Also campaigning in Iowa, Rudy Giuliani, the GOP front-runner in national polls, appeared to back Bush, and said he had reviewed the Constitution earlier in the day.

“Congress has to have power to declare war. Congress has the power of the purse. The president has the sole power to direct the war,” Giuliani said at a stop in Cedar Rapids. He added that he hoped Congress and the president would “all get together and figure out how to kind of do it the way” the founding fathers wanted.

“This idea that I find the most difficult is this idea of announcing your retreat. I just think it’s fundamentally irresponsible. I’ve never heard of a retreating army giving their enemy a schedule for retreat. I just doesn’t make any sense to me,” the former New York City mayor told reporters.

Clinton said that before taking on the funding question, Congress should pressure Bush to go along with the budget bills already approved.

Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor said Clinton in the past has opposed setting a deadline for pulling out troops, and he was taken aback by her apparent support.

“It must be confusing for the voters of Iowa,” said Taylor.

Clinton said her husband, former President Bill Clinton, managed to work with a Congress often opposed to his proposals.

“I saw a lot of what happened when my husband had a Republican Congress,” said Clinton.

Clinton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination on a two-day trip to Iowa, said Congress should assert its authority

“I’ve challenged the president not to veto this, but to sit down and work with a bipartisan, representative sampling of the House and Senate and see whether we could figure out what we’re going to do going forward.”

Democrats took control of Congress largely due to their opposition to the war, Clinton said, and the party must push that agenda.

“I’m challenging the president not to veto the will of the American people,” she said.

Clinton also criticized Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, whom she said have questioned the patriotism of war opponents.

“They have been very vocal in impugning the patriotism of members of Congress and citizens who disagree with them, and I don’t think that’s a very useful approach to take,” said Clinton.

Clinton said she’s launched a petition drive to gather signatures calling for Bush to go along with Congress.

Democrats will suffer if they don’t assert themselves after winning control of Congress, she argued.

“We are now a Democratic majority and we are continuing in a very responsible manner to make it clear to the president that we are a coequal branch of government,” said Clinton.

On her Iowa trip, Clinton was joined by former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, both of whom have endorsed Clinton’s presidential bid. Clinton started her day with a breakfast at Vilsack’s Mount Pleasant home, mingling with local activists and sounding an anti-war theme.