Senate vote upsets '08 hopefuls' plans

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The Senate's informal caucus of presidential hopefuls faces its first test in balancing their jobs with their White House ambitions tomorrow: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a key vote on the Iraq war.

The Nevada Democrat yesterday said he did not take members' 2008 aspirations -- or planned weekend visits to Iowa and New Hampshire -- into consideration for his procedural move to debate President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

"We hope everyone will be here," Mr. Reid told reporters. "It's an important vote."

At least six senators are considering or actively pursuing presidential bids, and most had trips planned to early primary or caucus states in anticipation of Congress' first weeklong recess this year.

The news sent the 2008 hopefuls scrambling to rearrange schedules or, in one case, to insist their candidate potentially missing the vote was a non-story.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, was the first to say he would scrap plans for an Iowa visit to make sure he participated in the 1:45 p.m. Iraq vote.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, has a much-publicized visit to a high school in Dover, N.H., from 9:30 a.m. to noon tomorrow.

She already had to cancel one visit to the Granite State because of a death in the family, but staffers said she will keep the Dover event, fly back for the vote and attempt to keep another scheduled campaign stop in Portsmouth, N.H.

As for Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat with plans to travel to South Carolina, the schedule was a work in progress.

"We're still trying to find that out," one Obama staffer said when asked if the senator would still hold a 10 a.m. town-hall meeting in Orangeburg, S.C., tomorrow.