Clinton steals Tony Soprano's swan song to unveil her song

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton took a whack at humor Tuesday, casting herself in the role of mob boss Tony Soprano in a clever online spoof of the HBO series' now-infamous final scene.

The video parody — which also stars Bill Clinton and one of the more memorable members of "The Sopranos" cast — was posted at hillaryclinton.com to announce the end of her "choose my campaign song" contest.

The winner by popular acclaim was French-Canadian Celine Dion's "You and I (Were Meant to Fly)," a syrupy song used in a 2004 Air Canada ad campaign.

But while the song choice wasn't terribly interesting, the clip of the former president and his wife sitting in a suburban diner playing The Clintanos was burning up the Internet.

In the video, Hillary Clinton arrives at a diner near the Clintons home in New York and starts flipping through the tabletop jukebox as Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" plays.

The former president ambles in. Hillary says she ordered "for the table."

Bill looks down woefully at a basket of carrot sticks.

"No onion rings?" he asks.

Chelsea is late. She's outside, parallel parking.

From the counter, actor Vincent Curatola, who played New York boss Johnny (Sack) Sacramoni, gives the couple a long, ominous glare.

Bill shrugs, then asks how the campaign is going.

"Well, like you always say, focus on the good times," Hillary says.

As the senator is about to tell her husband who won the song contest, the screen goes black.

Then a link appears to a page announcing the winning song and asking for more donations "before the upcoming FEC deadline."

Three push antiwar views

WASHINGTON — A trio of Democratic presidential candidates appealed to anti-war passions that run deep in their party Tuesday, with each portraying himself as most strongly against the war in Iraq.

Sen. Barack Obama told some 3,000 liberal activists at the "Take Back America" conference that he opposed the war from the start.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson argued that unlike his rivals, he would pull out every troop from Iraq.

Former Sen. John Edwards pressed his fellow candidates still in Congress to force an end to the war.

"No more we'll-get-around-to-it-next-time," Edwards said. "No more taking half a loaf. No more tomorrow. For the men and women who are leaving this country to serve in Iraq, there is no tomorrow."

Obama said he warned his rivals and others serving in Congress in 2002 not to authorize the war.

He was serving in the Illinois Legislature at the time and won election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Richardson stressed that he would leave "zero troops" in Iraq.

Giuliani defended for quitting group

WASHINGTON — Rudolph Giuliani's campaign Tuesday defended the ex-New York mayor's decision to quit the Iraq Study Group, saying Giuliani did not want his impending presidential run to politicize the group's work, or time conflicts to limit his participation.

Newsday reported Tuesday that Giuliani quit the blue-ribbon panel after failing to attend a single meeting.

He also delivered paid speeches and attended a political fundraiser on days when the group met.

Campaign officials emphasized Giuliani's concern that his presence would turn the Iraq Study Group into a "political football" when the group was supposed to give a bipartisan, consensus view of the way ahead in Iraq.

Giuliani himself did not cite his concern about politicizing the group in his May 2006 resignation letter to Republican co-chairman James Baker, which offered only his "previous time commitments" as a reason.

Baker had made clear he expected Giuliani to attend the meetings or leave the group, several sources told Newsday.

Sikh fundraiser rips Obama memo

WASHINGTON — The fundraiser who held a gathering for Hillary Rodham Clinton with members of the Sikh community said Tuesday it was "unacceptable" for Barack Obama's campaign to circulate a memo critical of her financial ties to Indian Americans.

Rajwant Singh, national chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said he welcomed "Senator Obama's regret of his campaign's misconstrued remarks."

But he called on Obama to apologize directly to the Indian community.

Obama gave an interview Monday to India Abroad, a newspaper for Indian expatriates, in which he conceded the concerns over his campaign memo "are entirely justified."

"My support among Indian Americans, South Asians and Asian Americans generally has been very strong, and that's the culture within which I was raised, as having grown up in Hawaii and Asia myself," he told the newspaper.

Singh, in an e-mail and in an interview, took issue with the campaign's characterization of Clinton as the "Democrat from Punjab."

The reference was to Singh's joking introduction of Clinton at the fundraiser as the senator "not only from New York but also Punjab."

Seattle Times news services