Clinton said no Congress war-end leader

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- While Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., claims a leading role in congressional efforts to end the Iraq war other lawmakers say she's been mostly on the sidelines.

In contrasting her experience with that of Democratic presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Clinton was reported recently to have told an audience she had been "working day-in and day-out" to provide Senate leadership "to end this war."

Clinton has been a vocal war critic, aggressively questioning administration officials about the war and introduced three bills to curtail the U.S. military role in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

But, the report said, since Democrats took control of Congress, Clinton has done relatively little to advance legislation to force the Bush administration to withdraw troops, based on congressional records and word from lawmakers and staff members who have worked on the issue.

Clinton was said to have played a marginal role in Democratic efforts to confront the president's troop "surge" and in developing the party's legislative strategy of tying money for the war to a timeline for a withdrawal, the Times said.