Washington – In what sounded to many Washington ears Tuesday like an early shot in the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., singled out Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as he denounced the Clinton administration’s policies toward North Korea.
“I would remind Sen. Clinton and other Democrats critical of Bush administration policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure,” McCain said in a speech near Detroit, where he was campaigning for a Republican Senate candidate.
“Every single time the Clinton administration warned the Koreans not to do something – not to kick out the IAEA inspectors, not to remove the fuel rods from their reactor – they did it. And they were rewarded every single time by the Clinton administration with further talks.”
Aides said McCain was responding to Hillary Clinton’s comments Monday, when she criticized North Korea for its announcement of having tested a nuclear weapon.
Her comments, made in response to reporters’ questions during a Columbus Day Parade in New York City, drew modest attention Monday, but McCain pounced on them before the cameras Tuesday in Michigan, and other Republicans were soon distributing his remarks.
The two senators are considered serious contenders for the 2008 presidential nominations. McCain’s comments seemed designed to highlight his foreign policy differences with Hillary Clinton and to link her to aspects of her husband’s presidency that some Republicans feel can be successfully attacked.
Philippe Reines, spokesman for Hillary Clinton, said of McCain’s remarks: “Now is not the time to play politics of the most dangerous kind.
“President Bush has been in charge of North Korea policy for six years, and two days ago we saw the brazen result.”
Reines said that the New York senator “supports an approach that protects us from the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons, as the Clinton administration successfully did for eight years.”
