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Clinton calls for probe of Bhutto killing
2007-12-29
Democrat Hillary Clinton called on Friday for an international probe of Benazir Bhutto's killing and candidates in both parties sparred over foreign policy six days before Iowa kicks off a close presidential nominating race. Clinton, battling rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards for the lead in Iowa, questioned the reliability of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government after opposition leader Bhutto's assassination. "I don't think the Pakistani government at this time under President Musharraf has any credibility at all," Clinton said in an interview with CNN as she campaigned across Iowa. "Therefore I am calling for a full independent international investigation." On January 3, Iowa kicks off the battle to choose Republican and Democratic candidates for the November 2008 election to replace President George W. Bush, and polls show close races in both parties. Clinton, Obama and Edwards are essentially deadlocked at the top among Democrats, while rivals Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney battle for the Republican lead in a state where a win can provide valuable momentum. Bhutto's killing on Thursday prompted candidates to flex their foreign policy muscles and, in the case of Clinton and Edwards, tout their experience. Several other Democrats leveled harsh criticism at Musharraf. "We have poured billions of dollars in support to President Musharraf -- and he has not focused on dealing with the terrorist threat that is growing," Obama, an Illinois senator, told a crowd in a school gymnasium in Willamsburg, Iowa. Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticized his Democratic rivals for not backing Musharraf's removal. He called for an end to U.S. military aid to Pakistan not directly related to fighting terrorism until Musharraf resigns. "Some of my Democratic opponents have misplaced faith in Musharraf. Like the Bush administration, they cling to a misguided notion that Musharraf can be trusted as an ally to fight terrorism or to change his despotic ways," Richardson said in Des Moines. Republican Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who is lagging in Iowa polls and trying to make up ground, warned against rushing to a conclusion on Musharraf and said candidates should be more "deliberate" on Pakistan. "I don't think it would be a good idea to call for him to step down now," Thompson told CNN. "I hope that we as candidates out here don't start lobbing these ideas that get plenty of attention but are not very sound." NEW ADS The debate over Bhutto's death came as Democratic and Republican candidates braved a fresh snow storm to hit the road in Iowa and candidates launched a blizzard of new ads. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has seen big leads disappear in Iowa and the state that holds the next contest, New Hampshire, launched direct attacks on his two nearest rivals. In New Hampshire, where John McCain has sliced his lead, he criticized the Arizona senator's stances on immigration and taxes in a new ad slated to air in the state. "John McCain, an honorable man. But is he the right Republican for the future?" asks the narrator in an ad highlighting the growing intensity of their fight in New Hampshire, which votes five days after Iowa. The ad criticizes McCain's backing for a Senate bill giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, a move that angered many conservatives, and his vote against two of Bush's early tax cut packages. McCain fired back with a dig at Romney's changing positions on issues like abortion rights, which he now opposes but once supported. "I don't know how to respond to a lot of his charges because tomorrow he may have a different position," McCain said on Fox News. McCain unveiled his own ad in New Hampshire, touting his endorsement by 20 state newspapers including the influential Union Leader in Manchester. In Iowa, Romney released an ad attacking surging rival Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who has rocketed into the lead in polls fueled by support from the state's sizable bloc of religious conservatives. The ad criticizes Huckabee's record in Arkansas of backing state benefits for illegal immigrants and granting more than 1,000 pardons and commutations. "Two good men. But who is ready to make tough decisions?" the ad says. (Additional reporting by Scott Malone, Caren Bohan, Ed Stoddard, Andy Sullivan, Carey Gillam; writing by John Whitesides, editing by David Alexander and Jackie Frank) (For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
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