Clinton: Bush policies spur Pakistan crackdown

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By Ed Tibbetts | Monday, November 5, 2007 4:05 AM CST | () comments

Hillary Clinton speaks at the third annual Bruce, Blues and Barbeque Fundraiser for Congressman Bruce Braley at the River Music Experience in Davenport on Sunday. Buy this Photo

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she’s disappointed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has imposed emergency rule, but she saved her harshest criticism for President Bush whom she accused of incoherence toward Pakistan.

Clinton campaigned in eastern Iowa on Sunday, which included stops in Clinton, Iowa, and Davenport.

“Part of the reason that we’re in this very difficult and dangerous situation is because of the failed policies of the Bush administration,” Clinton told reporters on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

She said the administration has diverted resources and attention away from Afghanistan, ignored her suggestion to appoint an envoy to deal with border issues between it and Pakistan and has “sent mixed messages over several years now to President Musharraf that has rendered our policy toward Pakistan fundamentally incoherent.”

“It’s hard to know what to do right now, given the failures of the administration,” she added.

Musharraf imposed emergency rule Saturday, cracking down on the media, firing the country’s chief justice of Supreme Court and rounding up hundreds of opposition leaders. The move has drawn condemnation and put a cloud over the administration’s relationship with Musharraf, an ally in the war on terror.

Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, responded Sunday that Clinton lacks credibility on national security issues because she has been inconsistent on Iraq and voted against funding for U.S. troops.

On a stop in Clinton at the picturesque Eagle Point Lodge, the New York senator got the endorsement of former Vice President Walter Mondale and called for greater diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, as well as a greater focus on renewable energy in the U.S.

She also pledged, in answer to a local woman’s question, that she would reach out to abortion opponents.

The woman, Gail Devereaux, said “the embryo is not a glob of tissue — it is a baby” and asked that Clinton be the president to end abortion.

Clinton responded that she is pro-choice because the government shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies, but added she has worked over the years to lessen the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies.

“I will be the president who will reach out a hand to the anti-choice/pro-life community and say, ‘we may not agree on the role of government, but let’s see what we can do to reduce the number of abortions in America’,” she said.

Devereaux said afterward she believed Clinton would reach out “a small amount,” but added she couldn’t support any candidate who is pro-choice.

Clinton was on the first of a three-day campaign swing through Iowa. One of the stops was at Davenport’s River Music Experience for a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa. Today in Cedar Rapids, she’ll unveil proposals to boost renewable energy. She said Sunday she would divert subsidies for oil and gas companies to a fund aimed at expanding renewable fuels.

Her tour comes as two of her chief rivals, U.S. Sen. Barack obama, D-Ill., and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, are stepping up their criticisms of her. Both also are making trips to the state this week.

Edwards, who arrived in Iowa on Sunday, said in an interview that Clinton is enabling Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to march toward a war with Iran by voting, in September, to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

“Sen. Clinton voted with them on this issue,” Edwards said. “This is part of a drumbeat and a march to possible war.”

Clinton hardly mentioned her opponents Sunday, but Mondale alluded to them, saying that Clinton is running a positive campaign.

“She knows it is not the time to tear down our fellow Democrats with personal attacks,” Mondale said.

MONDALE FILE

Walter Mondale, 79, served as vice president from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter and was the Democratic nominee for president in 1984.

His career in public service began in 1960 when he was appointed Attorney General of Minnesota, later rising to become a two-term U.S. senator. From 1986 to 1993, Mondale was chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He then served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996.

He is currently senior counsel at the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis.

Source: Clinton campaign

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com. Comment on this article at qctimes.com.