Iowa senator criticizes Obama's Iraq comments

May 9, 2007 (DES MOINES, Iowa) -- Republican Sen. Charles Grassley says Democrat Barack Obama was not acting like a proper senator when he called on Iowans to lobby Grassley to change his position on the Iraq War.

The Iowa senator, speaking to reporters during a conference call on Wednesday, bristled at Obama's decision to call him out on his home turf.

"Let's say -- pretty much -- that it's not senatorial and if you can't be senatorial, how can you be presidential?" Grassley said.

At a campaign event in Waterloo on Sunday, Obama told the crowd, "We intend to force our colleagues in the Senate and House to take vote after vote until we overcome (the president's) veto. I'm not going to name names, but there's at least one senator in Iowa who could be helpful."

That was a thinly veiled reference to Grassley, who has stood by President Bush's Iraq policy. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is a vocal critic of the war.

"When you're from another state, you don't take pokes at another senator," Grassley told reporters "I would find that very difficult to do ... tell his constituents to get on him about something."

In response, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor repeated Obama's call to action.

"Senator Obama said that we are 16 votes away from overriding the president's misguided veto and ending this war, but we'll only get those votes if ordinary Americans across the country contact their senators and congressman to make clear that they want to start bringing our troops home."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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