Clinton Criticizes Bush Over Federal Law Enforcement Funding

CHICAGO (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized President Bush for not spending enough on law enforcement and said police officers were ``invisible''

Saturday, August 4th 2007, 2:53 pm

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized President Bush for not spending enough on law enforcement and said police officers were ``invisible'' to him.

At a meeting of the National Association of Police Organizations, the New York senator promised more spending on police programs, including an anti-drug initiative and bulletproof vest program.

``Honestly, it is like the police officers of our country, along with your families, who stand with you every single day in the dangerous and difficult work you do, are invisible to the president,'' she said.

Clinton chastised Bush for a 2008 budget that she said would further cut the Community Oriented Police Services program and other law enforcement initiatives.

That program was created under President Clinton to put more officers on the street. The original program expired seven years ago, but Congress has kept funding it.

The House in May voted to give more money to the program. Democrats have complained it was cut by the previously Republican-controlled Congress when hiring grants for more officers were eliminated in 2006.

``It's like he just looks through you instead of seeing you on the front lines in the war against crime and the war against terrorism. It's like he doesn't see you at all,'' she said.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, who was in Minneapolis, said Clinton's remarks were disturbing.

``On the same day the president is here in Minneapolis meeting with the first responders and police who are helping pick up the pieces of the recent I-35 bridge collapse, that she would make these comments is troubling,'' said Chris Taylor. ``President Bush holds our policemen, firefighters and first responders in the highest regard.''

Taylor also criticized Clinton's participation at the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago.

``It shows how far she's willing to go to pander to the far left to take a cheap shot at the president at both these venues,'' he said. ``She's a calculating politician and, as time goes on, more Americans will see this.''

But Clinton said she was ``tired'' of law enforcement officers getting more responsibilities in the fight against terrorism without enough resources.

``It's really a sad day when the president can find more than $450 billion to wage the war in Iraq but he can't find the money that you need to protect our communities and to have decent wages and working conditions,'' she said.