Clinton allies reject her funding bill

[Rose Siding]

Even though Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has raised millions of dollars to aid her Democratic colleagues and is a de facto party leader in Congress, the possible presidential candidate in 2008 failed to persuade her colleagues this week to fork over homeland security money for her state.

Clinton made an impassioned plea in a closed Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday for her amendment to direct that the Homeland Security Department follow a “threat-based” approach when allocating homeland-security money. Such an approach would send more aid to cities such as New York and Washington, where the terrorist threat is deemed greatest.

But Clinton was beaten back by senators fearful that their states would lose out under a system that guaranteed less money for each state, with more money based on such factors as population or level of threat. Since small states have outsized representation in the Senate, with two senators representing each state, Clinton never had much of a chance.

Even typical Clinton allies, such as Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), opposed Clinton on her amendment. (Plains states had a particularly good week, when the Senate tacked $3 billion in drought relief onto the homeland security bill.)

http://www.thehill.com/news/091604/clinton.aspx