Dodd looks to set himself apart on Iraq war issues

By Ed Tibbetts | Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., sought to set himself apart from rivals Tuesday by challenging them to back legislation to cut off funding for the Iraq war by next spring.

Dodd’s campaign, which began airing a new ad this week in Iowa to drive the point home, pushed other Democrats to support a plan, authored by U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to use Congress’s funding power to require combat troops be withdrawn by March 31, 2008.

There would be a few, narrow exceptions.

Dodd backs the Feingold plan. “Unfortunately, my colleagues running for president have not joined me,” he says in the new ad.

A Senate vote is expected today on a pair of procedural measures related to the war, one of them allowing the Feingold proposal to go to a vote. Sixty votes are required, though, and even Feingold has said he probably will not prevail.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said in a statement Tuesday that he would support the motion to bring the plan to a vote, but that he prefers his own plan, which sets a goal for a troop exit by March 31.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said she also would support the procedural motion. But Clinton added that she would continue to work on a resolution de-authorizing the war by this October.

Both said their votes are aimed at sending a message that it’s time to leave Iraq.

The Senate maneuverings over the war are being watched closely by anti-war activists, many of them in Iowa, which hosts the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

(The Associated Press contributed to this article)

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at

(563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com. Comment on this article at www.qctimes.com.