WASHINGTON — The top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a rare opportunity: He testified before the nation's next commander in chief.
What wasn't clear was which one of the three presidential candidates sitting in two packed hearing rooms would be occupying the Oval Office next year.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) all took a detour from the campaign trail to hear status reports on the Iraq war from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.
The hearings -- held seven months after Petraeus and Crocker last testified before Congress on the war -- turned the spotlight back on the candidates' wide differences on the most important security issue that will face the next president.
At the morning hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain argued that it was "reckless and irresponsible" to call, as Obama and Clinton have, for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But he did not remain in the committee room long enough to hear Clinton's response.
She said it would be more irresponsible to stick with the current strategy.
"It might well be irresponsible to continue a policy that has not produced the results that have been promised time and time again," she said.
Obama, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, attended the afternoon hearing before that panel.
The back-to-back hearings gave the candidates an opportunity to showcase their competing claims to being best-equipped to be commander in chief. But the questioning -- mostly low-key and respectful -- was lacking in fireworks.
At the hearings in September, it was the two Democratic presidential contenders who came under fire. Obama was criticized for giving a speech so long that he left hardly any time to question Petraeus, and Clinton was derided by Republicans for telling Petraeus that it would take a "willing suspension of disbelief" to accept the claim that the troop "surge" was working.
Also different this time was the political context of the hearings. Seven months ago, Clinton was the front-runner in the Democratic presidential contest and Obama was a long shot, while McCain's campaign to lead the GOP ticket was broke and in shambles. Now Clinton is trailing Obama in delegates, and McCain has virtually sewn up his party's nomination.
