Hillary, Dean differ on Saddam’s capture

Two of the Democratic Party’s leading lights — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and presidential contender Howard Dean — gave conflicting views on what the capture of Saddam Hussein means, as both delivered major foreign-policy speeches yesterday.

“The capture of Saddam has not made America safer,” Mr. Dean, former Vermont governor, said in a speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles. He also noted that his “position on the war in Iraq has not changed.”

But Mrs. Clinton, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, proclaimed herself “thrilled” by the capture, and said she had kept an ear on the radio all day Sunday for the reports.

“We owe a great debt of gratitude to our troops, to the president, to our intelligence services, to all who had a hand in apprehending Saddam,” she said. “Now he will be brought to justice, and we hope that the prospects for peace and stability in Iraq will improve.”

U.S. policy in Iraq is becoming the defining issue as the Democratic Party tries to settle on a nominee to face President Bush in November. And Mr. Dean has jumped from an unknown to the favorite within a year, based largely on his ability to express Democratic frustration with Mr. Bush’s policy in Iraq.

Now, Mr. Dean, the other Democrats running for president, Mrs. Clinton, and indeed the Democratic Party are all trying to discern how their party and the country are reacting to the capture of Saddam, and how they should react.

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, continues to look stronger.

His personal and job approval ratings, which had begun creeping up after his Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq and the strong national economic performance, have continued to improve, according to polls released yesterday.

A Gallup poll taken for CNN found support for the war at 62 percent, up from 59 percent a week before.

For his part, the president, when asked about a political component to Saddam’s capture, said in his news conference yesterday that he will not get involved in political debate.

“There’s going to be plenty of time for politics. And people can debate all they want. I’m going to do my job,” he said.

Mr. Dean, who has become front-runner for his party’s nomination to face Mr. Bush next year based mostly on an outspoken opposition to the Iraq war, will find out whether his campaign has broader appeal.

In his speech, Mr. Dean tried to distance himself from the image that he is a dove on military matters, listing support for several engagements, including the 1991 Persian Gulf war, as well as the efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

He also said he would have supported action in Iraq had “the United Nations given us permission.”

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