Audio: Senate candidates on Iraq
The News & Record's editorial board held a group interview with the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate today. I sit in on some of these types of interviews on the off chance they make news.
State Sen. Kay Hagan, Chapel Hill investment advisor Jim Neal, lawyer Marcus Williams and trucker Duskin Lassiter showed. Podiatrist Howard Staley was invited but did not come.
There were some pretty sharp differences on display, including in answer to a question on the war in Iraq. Editorial Writer Doug Clark asked how the candidates would deal with a President John McCain administration that wanted to keep troops in Iraq passed when Democrats would want.
Neal said: "I will not vote for any further funding for the war until such time as the administration ... has come to the negotiating table with the Congress." He said those negotiations would include a timetable for withdrawal. The actual withdrawal, he said, should be left to military commanders to manage.
Hagan said: "I would never use the funding of the military as a political tool." Hagan said she would hold hearings and begin managing the federal budget more responsibly.
You can listen to the full exchange among all four candidates by clicking here.
