Clinton won’t mix Iraq with faith and an American Idol

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will not be attending a 90-minute debate on Iraq this week, although she will attend one forum on faith, values and poverty and another one sponsored by organized labor.

Clinton is scheduled to talk at a Monday forum sponsored by Sojourners, a multidenominational Christian advocacy group for social justice, and Saturday at a town-hall style forum sponsored by the AFL-CIO in Detroit.

The reason she won’t be debating Iraq at the Wednesday event sponsored by John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Financial Times newspaper?

“We have a prescheduled event,” Clinton’s spokesman, Phil Singer, explained. In addition, she is only attending “a handful” of forums other than the debates that are sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, according to Singer.

The Wednesday conflict involves a downtown Washington fundraiser that features former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee and pop singer-songwriter Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds.

Robert Guttman, director of the Johns Hopkins school sponsoring the debate, said he offered to delay the start to as late as 9 p.m. in order to accommodate Clinton’s 5-7 p.m. fundraiser.

The school is a little more than a mile from the Clinton fundraiser.

Clinton isn’t the only candidate Guttman has had trouble getting to attend. As of Thursday only one Democratic candidate – Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware – had accepted.

Clinton will appear with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at a one-hour forum at 7 p.m. Monday on faith, values and poverty. CNN, a co-sponsor, will broadcast live from the Washington campus of George Washington University.

Each of the three candidates will appear separately and take questions from an audience of college students and Sojourners members.

Sojourners is planning a similar forum for the three leading Republican presidential candidates in September.

On Saturday, Clinton will be the lone Democratic candidate at the AFL-CIO forum, which is one in a series organized labor is holding for each Democratic presidential candidate.