With little more than a week to go before the primary, Hillary Clinton is attempting to run out the clock on debating Jonathan, because she does not want voters to know where she stands on the war (she's for it). It's a cowardly tactic. Below, an excerpt from Antiwar Primaries by John Nichols, in this week's issue of The Nation.

Every vote Sheeler wins against Whitehouse, the choice of party leaders, will tell Washington Democrats that party activists want to see more muscular opposition to Bush and his war. The same goes for votes cast in the New York Senate primary for former National Writers Union president Jonathan Tasini, who is taking on Hillary Clinton. The Lamont win in neighboring Connecticut is focusing attention on Tasini's antiwar challenge to Clinton, who has responded by edging away from her Lieberman-like support for the Administration's stay-the-course policy. Even with the New York Times telling Clinton she should debate Tasini--if only to clarify exactly where she now stands--the low-budget challenge to the presumed frontrunner for the party's 2008 presidential nomination faces daunting odds. But Tasini's run has succeeded in making the war what it should be in every 2006 contest: the central issue.