Hillary to unions: I'm with you

U.S. SEN. HILLARY Clinton, attacking what she called the "Bush-McCain philosophy" of protecting only the wealthy and the well-connected, vowed yesterday to battle for organized labor.

Speaking in Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Clinton also repeated a series of economic criticisms of her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

_ She said that while Obama talks about favoring clean energy, "when he had a chance to do something about it, he actually voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill. I voted against it."

That's a reference to a 2005 vote on legislation that started with the vice president's energy priorities but evolved into a series of negotiations in Congress.

_ She said Obama talks about universal health care but would leave out 15 million Americans, including 400,000 in Pennsylvania.

"I'm not just going to talk about universal health care," Clinton said. "I'm going to get it done."

Obama's plan would not force consumers to purchase health-insurance policies.

_ She defended her record on the labor-loathed North American Free Trade Agreement, signed into law by her husband during his presidency, saying that she'd never come to Pennsylvania to say one thing while having a staff member tell a foreign government something else. That refers to a February meeting between an Obama economic adviser and Canadian officials. A Canadian memo about that meeting said that the adviser had reassured Canadian officials on NAFTA, although Obama later said the memo misconstrued what was said.

Clinton insists that she lobbied against NAFTA as first lady. "The president made a different decision," she said of her husband.

Obama will speak to the AFL-CIO convention this morning.

Clinton's toughest comments targeted President Bush, whom she repeatedly linked to U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

On the rising cost of gasoline, Clinton said that Bush is focused on tax cuts for oil companies and other corporations and that McCain wants to continue that policy.

"The president is too busy holding hands with the Saudis to care about the American truck drivers who can't afford to fill up their tanks anymore," Clinton said. "They give tax breaks to people who don't need them, and our children get stuck with the bill."

Clinton volunteered that she and her husband, who has made millions since leaving the White House, benefited from those tax cuts.

"I can tell you, I didn't need them, I didn't want them and I didn't ask for them," she said.

She also hasn't shown them. Clinton has faced weeks of criticism for not releasing her tax returns. Her campaign says that she will do so on or around April 15, just one week before Pennsylvania's primary. Obama released his taxes from 2000 through 2006 last month.

Clinton referred to McCain's statement that he doesn't understand economics, saying that he is proving it on the campaign trail.

"The Bush-McCain philosophy could not be clearer," she said. "It's the ownership society. Which really means you're on your own. If you're not a crony, if you're not wealthy, if you're not well-connected, you fend for yourself. The others get taken care of."

As with most of her speeches, Clinton zeroed in on experience.

"I've apprenticed," she told the union crowd familiar with the ways of working into a job. "And I've learned how you do it. I've watched it being done for eight years. I've been on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. And I know very well what it takes for a president and a Congress to make the changes we need." *