Clinton last Dem to back torture pledge

As senior Democrats vowed Thursday to obtain secret legal opinions that the Justice Department allegedly issued to sidestep limits on harsh interrogations, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) became the last Democratic candidate to endorse a liberal group’s pledge against torture.

{mosads}The party’s presidential front-runner had stayed mum on the pledge from the American Freedom Campaign (AFC), which also puts candidates on record against wiretapping without a warrant and withholding prisoners’ habeas corpus rights. But Clinton sent a letter of support Thursday to acting AFC director Steve Fox, reiterating the total opposition to torture of terrorist suspects that she stated during last week’s New Hampshire debate.

“As I said in September, I could not agree more” that torture of detainees undermines U.S. security, Clinton told Fox. “Torture cannot be American policy. Period.”

Clinton also backed the AFC’s opposition to the Bush administration’s wiretapping and habeas corpus policies. After the AFC noted earlier this week that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had signed the pledge — leaving Clinton alone without a response — the New Yorker had begun to hear from several liberal bloggers who have long eyed her hawkish position on Iran with skepticism.

“Certainly she needs to” sign the pledge, Fox said before Clinton’s campaign released the letter. “That’s the bottom line. We need to make sure our candidates are going to be 100 percent committed to defending the Constitution.”

The AFC was created by a co-founder of MoveOn.org, among others. The conservative American Freedom Agenda circulated a similar pledge among GOP presidential hopefuls, but only Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has signed on.

Before last week’s debate, Clinton had signaled support for what some dub the “24” torture exception, a reference to the popular TV drama: If a suspect was thought to have knowledge of an imminent threat against Americans, Clinton said, brutal interrogation would be necessary. The shift last week occurred after Clinton met with retired generals, the campaign told reporters afterward.

Undoubtedly the Bush administration’s torture policy moved to the front burner of Democratic oversight efforts on Thursday, after The New York Times reported on alleged interrogation memos secretly issued by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) immediately sought copies of the memos, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said his chamber would follow. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a presidential candidate lagging behind Clinton and Obama, called for yanking the funding for the office that issued the secret opinions if they are not given to Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called for “a full investigation of what [former Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales and his minions did to undermine the will of Congress.” The Times alleged that as Congress took up a 2005 ban on “cruel, inhuman and degrading” interrogations, Gonzales approved a secret memo exempting CIA techniques from that standard.

Durbin hinted that interrogation policy would be a flashpoint in the confirmation of Michael Mukasey, who was tapped to succeed Gonzales. Durbin said he asked Mukasey whether Congress’s 2005 ban should be the “law of the land,” adding that the nominee “did not give me a clear answer.” Mukasey’s hearings could begin as soon as Oct. 17.

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse issued a statement declining to comment on any private legal advice the department provided. But he added that the original 2004 memo restricting torture “remains binding on the executive branch. Neither Attorney General Gonzales nor anyone else within the department modified or withdrew that opinion.”

— Elana Schor

’08 Dems coy on Iraq withdrawal

Congress’s most ardent opponents of the Iraq war are shrugging off Democratic presidential candidates’ reluctance to commit to removing troops by 2013. Just politics, they figure.

“This is what happens every presidential cycle,” Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “They don’t want to get pinned down on what they say. I have no doubt that every Democratic presidential candidate wants to get us out of Iraq. If I didn’t believe that [Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)] would get us out of Iraq, there’s no way in hell I’d be out there campaigning for her.”

At a Sept. 26 debate in Hanover, N.H., leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded they could not guarantee they would withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

“Everybody was being cautious,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) supporter Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said. “What I’m looking at is their withdrawal plans.”

Those who haven’t chosen a candidate were a little more put off. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), as a member of the Democratic National Committee, doesn’t endorse in primaries.

“It’s scary,” Honda said. “Somebody has to have a plan to get us out by 2013.”

— Mike Soraghan

Johnny from the block

It was not a hangover that kept Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from voting on the 2008 defense authorization bill on Monday, although he had spent the previous day as the center of attention at a block party in Hollis, N.H.

The ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and therefore the GOP manager of the defense policy bill, McCain spent Monday traveling from New Hampshire to New York City, where he had several meetings, according to a McCain aide. 

With the campaign for the primaries intensifying, McCain on several occasions during the debate of the defense bill left the floor-managing duties to Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the defense panel.

On Monday, the bill passed 93-2 in McCain’s absence. With such overwhelming support, McCain’s vote would not have affected the final passage of the defense authorization bill, the aide said.

McCain’s job was already done after he spearheaded efforts to provide soldiers with resources to fight the war in Iraq and after efforts to change the strategy in Iraq failed on the Senate floor. Those failed efforts ensured the passage of the bill, the aide said.

McCain was not the only high-profile senator and presidential candidate to skip Monday’s vote. Also absent were Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

— Roxana Tiron and Mike Laws