Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) would not criticize MoveOn.org on the campaign trail for an offensive advertisement the group produced to attack Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, but she sided with the anti-war lobby in a vote on Thursday.
Motivated by the full-page advertisement MoveOn.org published in the New York Times that accused Petraeus of betrayal, the Senate passed a resolution condemning “attacks of honor and integrity” on the general and other members of the Armed Forces.
The advertisement, purchased at a discounted rate, mocked Petraeus’ name as “Betray Us,” suggested he was “cooking the books” for the White House and characterized the general as a “military man constantly at war with the facts” who “will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war.”
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s “sense of the Senate” resolution passed 72-25.
Preceding the roll call vote on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) declared: “Let’s take sides. General Petraeus or MoveOn.org. Which one are we going to believe? Which one are we going to condemn?”
Clinton did not side with Petraeus.
Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.), who is competing with Clinton for the Democratic nomination, did not vote. The full roll call vote is available here. No Republicans voted against it.
In a press conference Thursday morning, President Bush told reporters he thought the advertisement was “disgusting.”
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