Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the wife of a former president who was criticized for his eleventh-hour pardons, declined to weigh in yesterday on a potential pardon for Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Clinton and nearly all other major Democratic presidential candidates spent yesterday wooing labor unions and liberal groups at a series of forums and events in Washington.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, created a firestorm in 2001 by pardoning Marc Rich, a man whose ex-wife had contributed substantial money to the Democratic Party and the Clintons.

“I would think there would be enough to be said about this without me adding to it,” said Hillary Clinton in response to a question by moderator Chris Matthews of MSNBC about the possibility of a Libby pardon.

When Matthews called her out for a “political answer” and pressed her, he was shouted down by several members of the audience, who asked for a “real question.”

Clinton added: “A question that’s really about the people in this audience … and not what goes on inside of Washington.”

While labor union issues such as the Employee Free Choice Act were key topics yesterday, Iraq and other non-union matters dominated the AFSCME forum and the Campaign for America’s Future’s Take Back America conference, held blocks apart.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who recently laid claim to a fourth spot in the top tier of candidates, sought to separate himself from the three front-runners by pledging to eliminate congressional earmarks and by emphasizing at both events that he would leave no residual troops after withdrawing from Iraq.

At the AFSCME event, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad would require troops, and Clinton said leaving some troops in Iraq to help fight al Qaeda should be an option.

Edwards also advocated laws that give shareholders more control over CEOs’ salaries. Richardson called such salaries “obscene” but said he would rather not legislate the issue, instead using the “bully pulpit” of the presidency to effect change.

Richardson said he would appoint a union representative as secretary of labor. Clinton said later that Richardson’s was a “great idea” but stopped short of committing to it.

Clinton, who in the last debate said the country is safer than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, also had moderate praise for President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for their move toward diplomacy in dealing with Iran.

Asked how he and President Bush differ, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said the president is driven by ideology as opposed to fact.

“George Bush has actually been a good advertisement for the Democratic Party,” Obama said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) got some of the biggest applause lines of the day from the liberal audience at the AFSCME forum, particularly for his harsh criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Take Back America, which included groups like MoveOn.org and Planned Parenthood, largely afforded candidates an opportunity to bash Bush and rev up the left-wing, anti-war base of the Democratic Party.

Obama appeared to be the crowd favorite, receiving seemingly endless, raucous applause with his now-familiar theme of “turning the page” on the old way of doing politics.

Edwards, following Obama, repeated his promise that regardless of the outcome of the nomination battle, he would continue to fight for the poor and disenfranchised.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) spoke in the afternoon to AFSCME and other union members and activists at a rally on Capitol Hill to support the Employee Free Choice Act.