Among White House hopefuls, it's 3 opposed, 2 in favor

WASHINGTON -- The five Democratic presidential candidates in Congress, who have been critical of President Bush's record in postwar Iraq, split yesterday on whether to provide $87 billion in funding, most of which will deal with the aftermath of a war their party's leaders largely supported.

Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina both voted for the war resolution in October 2002, when popular support for ousting Saddam Hussein was strong and some Republicans were accusing antiwar Democrats of lacking patriotism.

But yesterday, both senators cast votes against the spending package. Call it a protest vote, Edwards and Kerry said, both insisting they did not want to deprive US troops of what they need to be safe in Iraq.

"This is the only chance we get to say to the president, this policy in Iraq is not working," Edwards said in a brief interview, adding that he did not regret his vote for war.

Kerry also said his votes were "completely consistent."

"My vote is a clear statement, making it absolutely clear that this president has not pursued the best policy . . . to make our troops safe," Kerry said. As for the war resolution, "the vote we voted was the correct vote, based on the information we were given, based on the intelligence showed us . . . and based on the president's promise that we would go to war as a last resort, that we would exhaust the UN process, that we would build a coalition. He broke every single one of the promises, and I'm running, frankly, to hold him accountable for it."

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, have delivered scathing attacks on Bush's Iraq policy, yet both supported the president on authorizing war and on paying for post-conflict operations.

"This bill sends a strong signal to the world that the American people are committed to winning the peace," Lieberman said in a statement yesterday, the same day he delivered a speech accusing Bush of "deception and disarray" in his Iraq policy.

Gephardt, who in July derided the administration's "momentary machismo" in Iraq, called a vote for the $87 billion "the only responsible course of action."

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, the only Democratic presidential candidate to oppose Bush on both the war resolution and the spending package, called the spending request "fraudulent," and chided other candidates, though not by name.

"While some of my fellow presidential candidates voted against this bill in the end, their support and the support of some of the candidates who are not members of Congress should have come earlier and stronger," Kucinich said in a statement.

Democrats sense a vulnerability in Bush on the Iraq issue, and are hoping to use it against him during the campaign. Republicans say they feel confident of their party's standing on national security issues, and warn that Americans might be wary of voting for someone who appeared to be weak on defense.

"It's bad enough to be a dove. It's worse to be a hypocritical dove going into the election," said Greg Mueller, a Republican political consultant.