Clinton Says She Does Not Support Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

WASHINGTON _ Hillary Rodham Clinton executed a stunning U-turn on Eliot Spitzer’s illegal immigrant driver’s license plan on the eve of Thursday’s debate in Las Vegas _ saying she now opposes the plan she supported just a week ago.

“As president, I will not support drivers’ licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform,” she said in a statement hours after Spitzer abandoned his proposal.

In early November, Clinton aides said she backed the basic concept of granting licenses to illegal immigrants in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. She skidded when questioned on the issue during an Oct. 30 debate, seeming to both support and oppose Spitzer’s plan in consecutive answers.

But Wednesday, her top spokesman hinted she was ready to use the issue against Barack Obama, who still backs Spitzer’s overwhelmingly unpopular effort.

“Look, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama have a clear disagreement on the issue,” communications chief Howard Wolfson told Newsday Wednesday night. “She wouldn’t give driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and he would.”

Aides to Clinton and Spitzer claimed the senator didn’t directly pressure the governor to drop the plan. But Clinton had plenty of proxies pleading on her behalf, including Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y.,, a major Clinton supporter, according to congressional sources.

Clinton will be hammered on the issue at Thursday’s debate in Las Vegas, and is likely to face tough questions about her campaign’s admission her staff planted questions during a town hall meeting in Iowa earlier this year.

In reversing her stance on the Spitzer plan, her campaign seems to have calculated that a flip-flop is less politically dangerous than supporting the proposal three-quarters of voters revile.

“It’s a calculated gamble,” said one New York Democrat who backs the former first lady.

But Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod views the shift as pure political chutzpah and a sign her $50 million campaign is running off the rails.

“She decided the kitchen was too hot, so she got out,” said Axelrod. “It was a stunning reversal by her and it underscores her unreliability, that her position will change from week to week. . . . It’s amazing to me that the gears of this vaunted political machine are really starting to show.”

“Her campaign is badly damaged,” CNN anti-immigration crusader Lou Dobbs said.

John Edwards has parsed his position more carefully, saying he opposes Spitzer’s plan, but would support issuing licenses if they were part of a comprehensive reform effort.

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(Newsday staff writer John Riley contributed to this report.)

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