Clinton's War Stance Unpopular With
Significant Number in Party
By MARC HUMBERT
The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — It wasn't so much the nine votes. It was the applause that told the story.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's continued refusal to call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq has left her with two long-shot opponents challenging her for the Democratic Senate nomination this year. More problematic is the discomfort the stance is causing among many of her supporters.
That was evident at a gathering of the state's Democratic Rural Conference earlier this month at a hotel on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca.
The conference is made up of party activists from the 41 counties of the state that are not part of the New York City region or the state's more urban upstate counties. In other words, the more conservative Democrats of New York state.
Featured at the event was a straw poll that Saturday of delegates for the various statewide races, including U.S. Senate.
Clinton spoke to the delegates Friday night and, as expected, received a rousing welcome. It didn't hurt, of course, that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi pumped up the crowd by calling on the delegates to work hard for her re-election.
"We have to get out and make sure she is re-elected to that two-year term," Hevesi said in a joke not lost on an audience well aware that Senate terms run six years and that Clinton leads national polls among potential 2008 Democratic presidential contenders.
But the next morning, the delegates got to hear from one of Clinton's anti-war challengers, labor activist Jonathan Tasini. He got a very warm welcome.
"I entered this race because I refused to be silent about the immorality of the war in Iraq," said Tasini, a former president of the National Writers Union. It was one of many lines in a short speech that drew applause from the rural Democrats.
There were also cheers when he called for President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as leaders of "the party of evil," to be impeached.
And more applause after he declared: "Bring the troops home now."
There was no applause, however, when he told delegates that "the people who support the war and voted for the war must be held accountable."
Clinton voted for the war, although she has been highly critical of Bush's handling of it. Despite that criticism, she has agreed with the president that it would be a mistake to set a timetable for troop withdrawal.
When the votes were counted, Clinton had 126, Tasini nine.
To put that in perspective, Tasini got two more votes than Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi received in the straw poll on the governor's race — a test won by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, 148-7. Of course, the Spitzer camp worked the vote hard. Clinton, who didn't even hang around for the Saturday vote, did not.
The kind reception for Tasini didn't come as a surprise to many Democrats.
Even before the straw vote session began, Daniel McNamara of South Colton said the war in Iraq was one of the top issues on the minds of voters in his St. Lawrence County area just south of the Canadian border. Other Democrats said communities are increasingly feeling the pain personally of the war as the U.S. death toll mounts.
In her recent stops across New York and in other parts of the country, Clinton has often been greeted by anti-war protesters....
...While polls indicate Clinton is headed for what could be an easy re-election, her war stance could become more of an issue if she does seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
So far, it is just background noise. But the noise is applause and cheers and chants. It is not in support of her position.
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Marc Humbert has covered New York state politics for The Associated Press for more than 25 years. He can be reached via e-mail at: mhumbert(at)ap.org.
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