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New York Daily News
(KRT)
NEW YORK - It's not only President Bush who's getting flak over Iraq.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's war stance is also coming under fire from the right and left.
The former first lady told supporters this week she stood by her vote to support the invasion of Iraq, but claimed she had been misled by "false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war."
Jeanine Pirro, the Republican challenger for Clinton's New York Senate, seat said the statement was a refusal by Clinton to accept responsibility for her support of the war.
"Once again, Hillary Clinton has new talking points on Iraq. It's time she stop shifting blame in an effort to position herself for the presidency, and take full responsibility for her actions," Pirro said.
Even Clinton's traditional liberal base ripped her refusal to condemn the war.
"This statement is an attempt to make nice with her political base, but Hillary Clinton is out of touch with her constituents," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for New York-based anti-war group United for Peace and Justice.
"This city does not support the war. She has not only failed to stop it, but she has rubber-stamped it. Now she's feeling the heat, which is why she has put out this statement."
Clinton again criticized President Bush's tactics as she reacted to his speech to the U.S. Naval Academy Wednesday.
"The president ... focuses on training Iraq security forces," she said while attending an event promoting World AIDS Day in Harlem. "That's very important, but I think we have to look in the broader context. We need a political, diplomatic and international strategy as well as a military one."
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