Opinion: Absences explained

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Where are Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd, we couldn’t help but wonder as we watched most of the Democratic presidential candidates troop before major gatherings of union members and liberal activists Tuesday and today in Washington.

Dodd’s absence from the conference of progressive groups was especially puzzling --- more so than his Senate colleagues, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he’s pushed for an aggressive congressional stance in pushing for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

And Biden’s appearance at the conference likely would have been worth watching --- although he’s offered a detailed plan aimed at extricating the U.S. from Iraq, he broke with Dodd, Clinton and Obama and voted for the latest emergency war spending bill, rather than continue a stalemate on the issue with President Bush over the withdrawal issue.

The answer to the Dodd and Biden no-shows, as it turns out, was pretty prosiac. They were invited to each event but sent their regrets, citing scheduling conflicts.

-- Don Frederick