New York Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been "more sensitive" to the needs of oil companies than to the needs of consumers and other businesses that’re paying record-high prices for gasoline.

Clinton suggests Bush and Cheney have a "bias" toward big oil. "The oil companies have been subsidized," Clinton says. "Now when they don’t need the money from the taxpayer because the price is so high, there’s been no effort by the administration to try to either diminish that subsidy or switch it to renewable fuels."

According to Clinton, President Bush should consider using his authority to dip into the strategic petroleum reserve to beef up supplies, as diminished supplies are blamed for the recent price spike in gasoline. "I remember my husband threatening to do that during one period of time and, low and behold, the prices started to drop," Clinton says.

Clinton has called on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy to examine the recent spike in gas prices. "This is just becoming too common an occurence," Clinton says. "We have reports of oil and gas refinery outages — something we heard last time the prices spiked. We need to investigate whether we need stronger inspections or other processes in place to ensure that refiners, number one, are leveling with us when they talk about refineries being down and, number two, that they invest adequately in maintaining and improving their facilities to avoid this in the first place."

Clinton cites the example of Enron, which she says was found to be deliberately shutting down refineries in order to manipulate prices.

Clinton is urging the lead committee in the U.S. Senate on energy issues to also investigate whether oil companies have been engaged in price gouging. "I think we’ve got enough questions that deserve answers," Clinton says.

Clinton made her comments during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says President Bush may be "getting" the message that the American people want the troops to come home from Iraq.

During a telephone interview with Radio Iowa, the New York senator and presidential candidate discussed Bush’s announcement earlier today that he now would consider "benchmarks" in a bill that provides war funding.

"The message may be getting through. He met with a group of moderate Republicans…at the White House and from press reports they made it very clear that he was losing Republican support. That’s what I’ve been saying now for weeks, that on our own the Democrats cannot force or require this president to change course in Iraq but when the Republicans start to bail out on him and tell him that he has to change his policy, then he will start to listen," Clinton said.

President Bush recently vetoed an Iraq spending measure that set timetables for troops withdrawal. On Wednesday, a group of moderate Republicans who serve in congress went to the White House to talk about fading public support for the war in Iraq and news accounts of the meeting had participants describing the discussion as "frank" and "candid."

"Apparently he must have gotten the message because he went over to the Pentagon this morning and made it clear that he was going to at least consider benchmarks," Clinton said. "We’re not sure exactly what that means, but that’s quite a move on his part."

Illinois Senator Barack Obama, another Democratic presidential candidate, will campaign in Indianola this evening and his campaign aides expect the issue may come up during his town hall meeting there.

John Edwards, another Democratic presidential candidate, is currently running ads on Iowa cable television stations, urging Iowans to lobby congress to stand firm and convince Bush to end the war in Iraq.  Edwards issued the following written statement today:  "The president today asked for yet another chance. We can no longer afford to bet American troops on a chance. In fact, even members of the president’s own party are running out of patience with the relentless pursuit of his failed Iraq policy. Why on earth would Congress make a concession to Bush when support to end the war may be climbing? Congress should stand firm. The only real power it has to end this war is to cut off funds. They passed a plan to support our troops and bring them home, and they should do it again. Nothing else will work. And if the president vetoes it, then it is his willful behavior alone that is standing in the way of what our troops need."