Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who aides recently said supported Gov. Spitzer’s controversial plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, yesterday hit reverse and for the first time came out forcefully against the idea.
Clinton’s about-face came hours after a besieged Spitzer withdrew his proposal because of massive opposition and just a day before today’s latest Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
Clinton has taken heat from her Democratic and Republican rivals after fumbling over the issue during the last debate on Oct. 30.
In expressing support yesterday for Spitzer’s decision to abandon his plan, Clinton, like the governor, blamed Congress and the White House for failing to pass a “comprehensive” immigration-reform package.
“As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration, including border security and fixing our broken system,” Clinton said in a statement.
That’s a far cry from her statements during the debate two weeks ago, when Clinton would not take a position, first saying that Spitzer’s plan “makes a lot of sense” given the federal government’s failure on immigration reform but then stressing her comments didn’t mean she supports the plan.
Her aides shortly afterward said she backed giving driver’s licenses to illegals but wouldn’t comment on the specifics of Spitzer’s approach. She subsequently said it would be decided on a state-by-state basis.
Yesterday, her rivals jumped on the Democratic front-runner for taking yet another position.
“I’m dizzy,” said John Edwards’ spokesman, Eric Schultz.
“It’s flip-flopping cubed,” said Chris Dodd’s spokesman, Colleen Flanagan.
Barack Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, said: “When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them.”
Since the last Democratic debate, a recent Rasmussen poll showed that 77 percent of Americans oppose granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Clinton’s spokesman, Blake Zeff, said that while her opponents use “hot rhetoric,” there are “basic differences between the candidates: Sen. Clinton would not give driver’s licenses to undocumented people, Sen. Obama would, and nobody seems to know what Sen. Edwards believes on this issue.”
Meanwhile, critics of Spitzer’s plan claimed victory yesterday while some one-time supporters blasted the governor for caving.
“I don’t feel betrayed, I was betrayed,” said Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx). “The governor failed me; the governor failed the immigrant community.”
Noting that Spitzer referred to strong public opposition in killing the license plan, Diaz said the governor should now listen to the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who say he should testify under oath and turn over documents in the Dirty Tricks Scandal.
Additional reporting by CarlCampanile