AP News, February 15th, 2007
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday he would move to repeal the authority Congress gave President Bush in 2002 to send U.S. troops into Iraq and replace it with a narrower mandate.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the legislation was based on the idea that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was designed to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"The WMDs were not there," Biden said at the Brookings Institution, a private research group. "Saddam Hussein is no longer there. The 2002 authorization is no longer relevant to the situation in Iraq."
The Delaware senator, who voted in 2002 to authorize military intervention in Iraq, said he was working to repeal the authorization and to replace it with "a much narrower mission statement for our troops in Iraq."
Congress should make clear the mission is to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq while continuing to combat terrorists, train Iraqis and respond to emergencies, he said.
"We should make equally clear what their mission is not: to stay in Iraq indefinitely and get mired in a savage civil war," Biden said.
Biden long has criticized Bush's strategy in Iraq. It is not clear whether he would be able to draw enough congressional support to succeed in his effort which also would face a Bush veto.
He also proposed that the U.S. military draw up plans to bring combat forces home by next year. Biden said Bush's buildup with some 21,500 additional troops was a "tragic mistake" that would not quell the violence in Iraq.
He renewed his proposed roadmap for a political settlement in Iraq, one that gives its warring factions a way to share power peacefully "and offers us a chance to leave with our interests intact."
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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton paid tribute to Sojourner Truth on Thursday, heralding the likelihood that a statue of the suffragist and abolitionist would occupy the Capitol.
Clinton was co-sponsor of a new law that recognizes Truth's contributions to history by requiring that a bust of her be placed in a "suitable, permanent location in the Capitol." Truth would be the first black woman so honored.
"Sojourner Truth lived for much of her life in New York," Clinton said at a ceremony on Capitol Hill celebrating the achievement. "So I am here as a personal admirer and as her senator," she added to applause and laughter from the audience, which included members of the National Congress of Black Women, which lobbied for the honor for Truth.
"She has a lasting place in the hearts of Americans who care about human rights, who care about women's rights, who care about civil rights and who care about freedom and fighting injustice," Clinton said of Truth.
After escaping from her owners, Truth pressed women's rights and pushed for slavery's end. She met with Presidents Lincoln and Grant, and delivered her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. She died in November 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Mich.
Supporters must raise $2 million to commission and produce the bust by the Dec. 20, 2008 deadline.
"This is historic because Sojourner Truth is that symbolic person," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who also co-sponsored the bill. She announced that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has donated $100,000 for the project.
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) _ Former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani will speak to business leaders at Regent University in April, the school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
On Wednesday, the school announced that GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney will speak at Regent University's commencement May 5.
Giuliani will be the featured speaker at Regent University's monthly Executive Leadership Series on April 17. The luncheon at The Founders Inn on Regent's campus is open to the public. Tickets cost $50.
Founded in 1978, Regent has some 5,000 students studying on campuses in Virginia Beach and Washington, D.C., and also via online education. The school offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from a Christian perspective.
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd on Thursday criticized his congressional colleagues for failing to be more forceful in challenging President Bush's increase in U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Connecticut senator, who trails better-known rivals for the party nomination, said voters gave Democrats power in November to act, not talk as they've done with non-binding resolutions.
"This was debating about debating. This was the House and the Senate at some of its worst. ... I think we missed an opportunity to put our foot down and stop that (proposed increase in troops in Iraq)," he said.
Dodd proposed an alternative to the nonbinding resolution, formally known as a sense of the Senate. He called for capping U.S. troops at around 130,000, similar to proposals offered by rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Dodd's proposal failed, was offered as an amendment and again failed.
"We have a sense of the Senate (resolution) on asparagus," Dodd said, "They don't mean a whole lot."
He later told reporters: "This was all clever stuff. But there are kids dying there."
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Associated Press Writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Philip Elliott in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
National Congress of Black Women: http://www.npcbw.org
Regent University: http://www.regent.edu
