Leahy implores Clinton to step aside

WASHINGTON – Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Friday called on Hillary Rodham Clinton to drop out of the presidential race, saying there is no way the New York senator can wrest the nomination from her rival Barack Obama.

“There is no way that Sen. Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination,” Leahy, an Obama supporter, said in an interview with Vermont Public Radio Friday morning. “She ought to withdraw, and she ought to be backing Sen. Obama.”

Saying Republican John McCain “has been making one gaffe after another (and) is getting a free ride,” Leahy said the sniping between Democrats hurts them more than anything the Arizona senator has thrown their way.

Leahy was the first prominent superdelegate to call on the New York senator to withdraw, but his comments came on the same day that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged superdelegates to make their preferences public.

“There’s 800 of them, and 450 have already said who they’re for,” Dean said on CBS’ “Early Show.” “I’d like the other 350 to say who they’re for at some point between now and the first of July so we don’t have to take this into the convention.”

Dean said he had warned Obama and Clinton to avoid personal attacks.

Clinton’s campaign, in a fundraising e-mail to supporters Friday, noted a pattern to calls for her to withdraw.

“Every time our campaign demonstrates its strength and resilience, people start to suggest we should end our pursuit of the Democratic nomination,” said the note, which made no mention of Leahy. “Those anxious to force us to the sidelines aren’t doing it because they think we’re going to lose the upcoming primaries. The fact is, they’re reading the same polls we are, and they know we are in a position to win.”