Brownback Jabs At Bush, GOP Rivals On Foreign Policy

Tuesday, August 14th 2007, 2:37 pm

By: News On 6

MERRIMACK, N.H. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback on Tuesday criticized President Bush and two GOP rivals, saying the presidency isn't a foreign policy classroom.

Brownback's criticism that governors often do not have the foreign policy experience necessary to be president was aimed primarily at rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, both former governors. But in the process, he also took a jab at the man they all seek to replace, former Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

``We've got to walk more humbly and a lot more wisely than the current president,'' said Brownback, a Kansas senator and former member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

``I really believe this next president needs to go in with knowledge on foreign policy and not learn it on the job,'' said Brownback, who has been a vocal activist against the genocide in Darfur.

``We have a tendency to elect governors as president because people like executive experience. I don't have any problem with that. The problem is most governors don't have foreign policy experience.''

Brownback finished third in the Iowa straw poll last weekend. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, easily won the contest and Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, finished a distant second.

Brownback's criticism of Bush might help him in New Hampshire, where the unpopular war in Iraq was an important factor in the defeat of two incumbent GOP congressmen in 2006.

Brownback has scuffled with Romney in recent weeks over social and political policy, including fiercely criticizing Romney's changed position on abortion. Again on Tuesday he told New Hampshire's WKXL-FM that Romney ``hasn't been consistent on these positions in the past. He's stated that himself. He continues really even to support new research on the youngest of humans.''

Romney retorted during a recent debate: ``I get tired of people that are holier than thou because they've been pro-life longer than I have.''

Brownback spoke at Thomas More College.

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NEW YORK (AP) _ Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton will join Ellen DeGeneres for the season premiere of her show Sept. 4, the first time Clinton will appear on a daytime talk show since launching her presidential bid.

The New York senator last appeared on the syndicated ``The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' in October 2005, on another DeGeneres visit to New York. Clinton offered DeGeneres a subway fare card and a tourist map of the city and the two dished about seeing theater together and going to clubs.

Throughout her career, Clinton has been a frequent guest on daytime talk shows with largely female audiences. She appeared on ABC's ``The View' late last year to promote the rerelease of her book, ``It Takes a Village,'' and made appearances on several shows to promote her best-selling memoir, ``Living History,'' in 2003.

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PORT ROYAL, S.C. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Tuesday that Congress' failure to act on Social Security shows there is more concern about partisan politics than the good of the nation.

``It's disgraceful and outrageous that Republicans and Democrats have not sat down together and worked out this Social Security problem,'' the Arizona senator told 100 people attending a forum sponsored by the AARP in early voting South Carolina.

The speech came on the 72nd anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act by President Franklin Roosevelt.

``A half a century ago there were 16 American workers who supported every retiree, today it is three and soon it will be two,'' he said. ``Around 2020 you will have more money going out than you have coming in. That's going to be a crucial time. Should we wait until 2020?''

McCain said as president he would deal with the matter, but did not offer specifics. He said a bipartisan effort was needed and a plan should be developed ``working with you, working with AARP, working with the smart people in America and say, 'OK Congress, here's a plan to fix Social Security. Vote up or down.'''

He said Social Security is a $3 trillion unfunded liability and told the group he doesn't want to hand future generations a broken system.

``I want to do the hard things,'' McCain said. ``If Congress doesn't want to do it, let me do it. Let me do it. I'll fix it for them.''