Edwards questions sincerity of Clinton's Iran vote

HUDSON, New Hampshire (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has spent two weeks questioning Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's judgment in voting to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

On Sunday, he questioned her sincerity.

Last month, Clinton was one of 75 senators who voted for a resolution giving the president the authority to call the guards terrorists. She has characterized the vote as a way to gain leverage for U.S. negotiations with Iran, but some of her rivals, including Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama, argue it amounted to giving Bush another blank check to go to war.

At several stops Sunday, Edwards referred to a New York Times column in which unidentified Clinton supporters say she voted for the resolution in part because she already has shifted from "primary mode," when she must appeal to liberals, to "general election" mode, when she must find broader support.

"I may have missed something -- and you can tell me -- have we already had the New Hampshire primary? Have we decided who's going to win the New Hampshire primary yet? I think we're going to actually have a campaign and an election," Edwards said at a town hall meeting in a school cafeteria.

"Instead of moving from primary mode to general election mode, why don't we have tell-the-truth mode, all the time, and not say something different one time than we say another time?" he said.

"We need to be able to trust both a presidential candidate and a president of the United States," Edwards said.

Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said of Edwards: "Now that his campaign is stalled he has chosen instead to launch false attacks against other Democrats instead of presenting his ideas to New Hampshire voters. Mr. Edwards knows that Senator Clinton has repeatedly and consistently called for negotiations between the United States and Iran aimed at ensuring that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons."

Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd voted against the resolution. Obama missed the vote to campaign in New Hampshire, prompting Clinton's campaign to argue that if he felt so strongly that the resolution would lay the groundwork for war he should have been there to vote against it. E-mail to a friend

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