By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A veteran US senator is calling for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to abandon the race, for the sake of the party, and rival Barack Obama has harvested an unexpected endorsement - winning support from a moderate Pennsylvania senator, three weeks before the state primary.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, an Obama supporter, chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee and six-term lawmaker from the tiny northeastern state of Vermont, became the first senior member of the upper chamber of the US Congress to publicly recommend Clinton drop out of the race.
"Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out," Leahy said in a statement issued Friday.
Campaigning in Indiana, Clinton said Leahy was wrong. "There are millions of reasons to continue this race: people in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, and all of the contests yet to come," Clinton told reporters. "This is a very close race and clearly I believe strongly that everyone should have their voices heard and their votes counted."