Candidates have chat on Senate floor

WASHINGTON -- Suddenly, unexpectedly, they were together, in a place where aides dare not follow.

Eager to talk? Perhaps. Or maybe nowhere else to turn.

Whatever, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton sat down for a quiet little chat Thursday on the Senate floor, colleagues, as well as rivals in a historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

She spoke animatedly, gesturing with her hands. He leaned in to listen, occasionally nodding his head and replying briefly.

Her cell phone rang. But because life does not imitate campaign commercials, it is not red, and on this occasion, evidently conveyed no news of a crisis. She silenced it and slipped it back into her pocket.

After three or four minutes, he gave her a friendly pat or two on the back, a classic senatorial gesture signifying nothing of consequence. They each smiled, and rose.

If anything of consequence was said, it may never be known.

Obama hits McCain

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Sen. John McCain reversed his position on President Bush's deep tax cuts in order to win the Republican presidential nomination, one of his sharpest criticisms yet of the Arizona senator he hopes to face this fall.

Criticizing GOP efforts to extend major tax cuts from Bush's first term and to eliminate the estate tax, Obama said: "These are all steps that John McCain rightly said were irresponsible when they first came up."

"He made a decision to reverse himself on that," Obama told reporters as he flew from Chicago to Washington.

"That was how, I guess, you got your ticket punched to be the Republican nominee," he said of McCain. "But he was right then, and he's wrong now."

McCain has said he supports extending the tax cuts, which he initially voted against, because the economy is struggling and tax reductions offer some stimulus.

"Well, it's very clear that I voted to make those tax cuts permanent several times," McCain said as he flew to Washington. "Senator Obama has stated very clearly his desire to increase Americans' taxes. That'll be one of the great debates we have if he is the nominee of his party."

Pet project silence

Sen. Barack Obama is open about the pet projects he's tucked into federal legislation, but it's a different story when it comes to the extra spending he added to state budgets while serving in the Illinois Legislature.

Public records reveal some of the projects he sponsored as a state senator, from literacy programs and park improvements to drill team uniforms and jazz-appreciation events. They add up to more than $6 million.

But that covers just two of Obama's nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate. State records don't detail his projects from other years, and his presidential campaign has not responded to repeated requests from The Associated Press for information.

While silent about Obama's spending in Illinois, his campaign has criticized Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for withholding similar information about her years in the U.S. Senate.