Edwards offers plan for vets, troops

FORT MADISON, Iowa --Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards on Friday unveiled a new policy to support veterans, service members and military families, a popular move for many presidential candidates leading into the Memorial Day weekend.

The recent scandal over substandard treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital is only a small fraction of problems facing U.S. troops, the former North Carolina senator said as he began a weekend trip through southeastern Iowa.

Extended tours of duty are putting pressure on military families, troops are being sent to war underequipped, and the GI bill is failing to adequately provide education to returning soldiers, Edwards told about 100 people gathered in a hotel conference room.

If elected, "I will do everything to support our troops that is not being done today," he said.

Edwards' plan, which he called a "sacred contract," includes:

--Fully funding veterans' health care.

--Providing a plan for coming home, including screening for post-traumatic stress disorder.

--Enacting a new Total Force GI bill, giving Guard and Reserve members benefits proportionate to the service they perform. It would expand benefits for college or technical school tuition and fees for service members coming off of active duty.

--Creating a Military Families Advisory Board to allow families a voice at the U.S. Department of Defense.

--Closing the gap between military and civilian pay.

Edwards unrolled the new policy just two days after he presented his ideas for rebuilding the nation's military at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Edwards drew criticism from a leader of the American Legion last week when he called for voters to speak out against the Iraq war on Memorial Day weekend.

In an e-mail message and on his Web site, Edwards asked supporters to use the holiday to denounce the war -- an effort Paul Morin, national commander of the American Legion, decried as an attempt to "politicize" the day.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rival biographies of Hillary Rodham Clinton are racing to the bookshelves with portrayals of the Democratic presidential candidate as a woman of single-minded drive, dogged by her husband's infidelities.

Revisiting Bill Clinton's marital misbehavior, Carl Bernstein asserts in "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton" that she threatened to run for Arkansas governor as payback for her husband's dalliances and refused a divorce when he raised the subject in 1989.

"Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by longtime New York Times investigative reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., explores her Senate career in depth as well as her past. The Washington Post obtained prerelease copies of both books and reported on their contents Friday.

The Clinton campaign dismissed the books as a "20-year-old rehash" of issues surrounding the couple. "The news here is that it took three reporters nearly a decade to find no news," said campaign spokesman Phil Singer.

"Her Way" depicts the New York senator as a hard-driving politician fixated on secrecy, loyalty and her policy goals.

Yet the book says she voted for the Iraq war without reading the National Intelligence Estimate that contained doubts about the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was said to have possessed, The Post said.

Philippe Reines, Clinton's Senate press secretary, said she "was briefed multiple times by several members of the administration on their intelligence regarding Iraq, which included the classified aspects of the NIE."

Publication of the biographies has shifted ahead several times in a contest for marketplace advantage and with the campaign for the Democratic nomination in full motion.

Little, Brown and Co. initially planned "Her Way" for release in August but moved it to June 19, original date of Bernstein's book. Then both were moved to early June. Alfred A. Knopf is releasing "A Woman in Charge" on June 5, three days ahead of "Her Way."

The Times is excerpting "Her Way" June 3, the day of the next Democratic debate.

The Post says that Bernstein, who teamed with Bob Woodward in the paper's famed Watergate coverage, traces efforts by husband and wife to keep a lid on Bill Clinton's encounters with other women.

Bernstein said Mrs. Clinton considered running for governor as a show of anger at her husband in 1990, when her husband would have been preparing to step down from the post to run for president.

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- North Dakota will join at least a dozen other states holding presidential primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5 in what is shaping up to be a national primary.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger picked Feb. 5 as the date for North Dakota's presidential caucuses next year with encouragement from state Republicans, but over the objections of Democrats who preferred Feb. 12.

Jaeger said Friday that Feb. 5 was the best choice even though a half dozen or more other states are considering moving their presidential contest up to that date as well.

"Although the field is crowded that day, I believe the candidates will not overlook any state with a primary/caucus on or before that day if their goal is to be the clear front-runner on Feb. 6," he said in a statement.

Jaeger said state law does not allow him to select separate caucus dates for each party.

Democrats believe presidential candidates will ignore North Dakota caucuses on Feb. 5 because so many other states -- including California and New York -- are holding events that day, state Democratic director Jamie Selzler said.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Friday swung her support from the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney to the as-yet unannounced White House bid of actor-politician Fred Thompson.

Blackburn, who served as a senior adviser to the Romney campaign and as national co-chairwoman of Women for Romney, cited her long association with Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, as the reason for supporting him.

Blackburn said she has known Thompson for 30 years and once lived two doors from him.

"When you know someone that long you get to know the person beyond just their public image," she said in a release.

Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said Blackburn had called the campaign before announcing her support of Thompson.

"She explained her decision to support her home-state candidate should he decide to run," Gitcho said. "We understood her decision and wish her all the best."

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Associated Press Writers Blake Nicholson in Bismark, N.D., Erik Schelzig in Nashville, Tenn., and Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this report.