ON THE TRAIL

June 28, 2008

A Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hopes to fight off an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to take away her credentials because of her past statement that she would vote for John McCain if Clinton wasn't the nominee. Debra Bartoshevich, a 41-year-old registered nurse, declined to comment on her previous comment, quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that she would vote for the Republican McCain in November if the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama for president. At its convention on June 13, the state convention approved a resolution to challenge Bartoshevich's status as a delegate to the Democratic convention in Denver in August, saying she had violated party rules by expressing support for the presumptive nominee of the opposing party.

John McCain chastised Barack Obama after being asked about a report that his rival said if McCain is elected president, he will appoint a Supreme Court that rolls back gains in women's rights over the past 50 years. "I respect Senator Obama and I admire his success," McCain said yesterday in Lordstown, Ohio. "That kind of a statement or allegation is not worthy of Senator Obama or worthy of the debate that the American people want and deserve." The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported Thursday that Obama made the comment last week during a private meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. An Obama spokesman had no immediate comment on the report.