'08 hopefuls campaign amid vote on surge

Democratic presidential hopefuls in the Senate cast symbolic votes Saturday against President Bush's effort to boost troop levels in Iraq amid calls by campaign rivals for Congress to embrace far stronger measures to end the war.

Republican senators eyeing the White House split in their support for the president's policy. One, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, skipped the procedural vote to campaign in Iowa.

"Meaningless," McCain grumbled during a question-and-answer session with voters in the state. He derided the Senate vote as a Democratic stunt and said it was insulting to the public and the soldiers.

"No matter whether we pass or defeat this resolution, those young men and women are still going over to Iraq," said McCain, a top tier candidate and staunch supporter of Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional combat troops.

In New Hampshire, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., told voters that the nonbinding resolution amounts to a vote of no confidence in Bush and his policy.

"This is the beginning," Clinton, a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said before rushing back to Capitol Hill.

She said it was important to get GOP senators on record objecting to the policy "in order to have them as possibly the core of Republicans who will stand with us to cap troops or cut funding."

In the majority, Democrats needed 60 votes to advance the resolution rebuking Bush over the troop increase. Democrats fell four votes short as Republicans foiled the attempt.

Democrats still claimed victory, arguing that a majority of the Senate was now on record opposing Bush's policy. The House approved identical legislation Friday.

After a week of stalemate in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled the rare Saturday vote. He needed Democrats and Republicans who oppose Bush's plan to stand with him to advance the legislation.

That prompted some of the half-dozen or so senators with presidential aspirations to rearrange their campaign schedules in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other states that hold presidential nominating contests early next year.

On the Democratic side, Clinton, Barack Obama of Illinois, Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut all voted to advance the measure opposing Bush's Iraq policy _ and then made a beeline to return to the campaign trail.

Two Democratic candidates not in Congress _ John Edwards, the former one-term senator from North Carolina, and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor _ have demanded that Congress take stronger action by cutting off money for U.S. troops. Vilsack proposes cutting all funding for the war, while Edwards says funding should be cut for Bush's troop increase and the force capped at 100,000.

In Dover, N.H., Clinton argued before the vote that such calls fail to acknowledge the legislative reality that Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate.

"I understand the politics of this. I could very easily stand up here and say, 'I'm all for cutting off funding,' knowing we don't have the votes," Clinton said. "We have to end this war and we can't do it without Republican votes."

Added Biden: "Opposing the surge is only a first step. If the president won't act, Congress must."

As for the Republicans, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska _ the most outspoken Republican critic of Bush's policy _ sided with the Democrats, while Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas stood with a majority of Republicans to block the resolution.

Because McCain supports the troop increase, his presence or absence would have made no difference in the outcome of the vote. So, he stuck to his itinerary to hold Iowa town hall meetings. Iraq and the boost in troop levels dominated the discussions.

"I don't know what the other options are because if we fail here ... I think it's going to be very difficult to maintain the support of the American people," McCain said. "And when the American people don't support a war ... then we aren't able to maintain a foreign endeavor."

McCain's decision to skip the vote drew criticism from Vilsack.

"If Senator McCain believes that our country should stay the course with Bush's failed policy in Iraq, then he has a moral duty to stay in Washington and explain why," Vilsack said.