“Today on the eve of World AIDS Day, I call on the President and my colleagues in Congress to pledge $50 billion over the next five years for our global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs. My father used to say, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.

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Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) has repeated his pledge to impeach President Bush if he attacks Iran without congressional approval.

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The Republican presidential candidates’ heavy emphasis on immigration spilled out into their latest debate (NYT), featuring questions relayed via YouTube. Foreign policy questions did not make the candidates depart from that familiar theme– they spent the first 20 minutes of the debate answering questions relating to the issue. In fact, the Republicans were not asked about almost any foreign policy topic other than immigration and Iraq last night. Even Iran, a favorite focus of rhetoric in this campaign, was only mentioned once in the entire debate, in passing. Pakistan was not discussed, despite recent upheaval there.

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“This is a step forward in the direction of democracy and hopefully will help revive Pakistan’s political progress. However, there are still many steps that must be made. Since emergency rule was declared earlier this month, thousands of political activists have been arrested and a media blackout has ensued. I urge President Musharraf to continue in the direction of democracy, end emergency rule, and holding fair and free elections.”

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Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) hosted a foreign policy forum for an audience of New Hampshire voters Tuesday, featuring advisers to his campaign including Richard Danzig, Former secretary of the Navy under President Clinton; Tony Lake, National Security Advisor to President Clinton; Adm. John Hutson (USN Ret.), a New Hampshire resident and the Dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center; Samantha Power, professor at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy; and Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice.

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John Edwards responded to the White House’s “declaration of principles” for cooperation with Iraq yesterday, calling them “further proof that despite talking about a withdrawal, Bush is planning to pursue a ‘Korea-style’ American occupation of Iraq for 10 years or more.”

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Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) criticized the Bush administration’s newly released plans to establish a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq yesterday. A statement on Dodd’s website said he is “fearful that the lack of clarity on the long-term presence will be used as a justification by this Administration for a permanent military presence in Iraq, at precisely the time when we should be declaring the opposite.”

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Republican candidate Mike Huckabee said on CNN’s Late Edition yesterday he would only support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if there was “some guarantee of security and concessions on the part of the nations that would surround Israel.” He also said the United States is “enslaved” to Saudi oil, at the expense of human rights and the war on terror.

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is receiving foreign policy briefings (Huffington Post) from former UN Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, fueling speculation that he may be preparing to run for the Republican nomination.

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Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) again attacked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for what she called a lack of foreign policy experience. The Obama campaign responded (NYT) that the Bush administration “along with Hillary Clinton” have “led us into the worst foreign policy disaster in a generation.” The exchange came after Obama on Monday cited his experience growing up abroad as an influential factor in his foreign policy outlook.

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