HILLARY SAYS "NOT ONE MORE CENT" FOR BUSH'S IRAQ AGENDA

It's taken long enough, but today on Face the Nation and Meet the Press Hillary told Tim Russert that she won't be voting to authorize any more of the Regime's demands for the countless billions Bush needs to keep the occupation of Iraq going. We should expect no less from any candidates for any federal office-- or from any of the incumbents we support with our votes, our efforts and our contributions.

RUSSERT: As you well know you voted to authorize this war, voted to fund this war at lest ten times. Are you now saying that you will not vote one more penny for the war in Iraq.

HRC: Tim I am saying that. You know I've been guided by what I believe is the principle that should govern any decisions that any member of the senate and any one in public life makes and that is I try to do what is best for my country and for the troops who serve it. And I have seen no evidence that this administration is willing to change course in any significant way. We're now nearly at 3800 dead, we have more than 30,000 injured, the Iraqi government has failed to fulfill its part of the bargain to deal with the political issues that all of us know have to be addressed. I don't think the Bush administration has pursued the diplomatic agenda the way that it needed to be pursued and there is no military solution.

And these extraordinary brave young men and women should begin to come home out of refereeing this sectarian civil war. I voted against funding last spring-- I understand we are going to have vote shortly about funding and I will vote against it. Because I think it's the only way that we can demonstrate clearly that we have to change direction. The president has not been willing to do that and he still has enough support among the Republicans in the senate that he doesn't have to. And so on occasion after occasion I have made it clear that if the president does not begin to extricate us from Iraq before he leaves office-- which apparently, based on what he himself has said, he will not - when I am president I will immediately ask my Secretary of Defense, the Join Chiefs of Staff, and my security advisors to tell me exactly what the state of play is. I don't think we even know everything we need to know about what the plans for withdrawal are, how best to implement that and I will. And our involvement at the level we've seen has not proven to be successful.