SEATTLE (AP) - Congress should "give no ground" in the fight over withdrawing troops from Iraq, and should keep sending President Bush the same spending plan until he signs it, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Tuesday.

At a packed labor hall, Edwards said Bush's promised veto of the newly passed Iraq spending bill contradicted the will of voters who tossed the Republican party out of power in Congress last fall.

Bush vetoed the measure shortly after Edwards' speech concluded, but Edwards said the choice was clear for lawmakers.

"We have to stand our ground. This is not politics; we have men and women dying in Iraq," Edwards said. "If George Bush vetoes these bills, it is the president of the United States who's trying to thwart the will of the American people."

Edwards addressed a long list of other issues in a question-and-answer session with AFL-CIO affiliated unions, part of the labor groups' presidential endorsement process.

The former North Carolina senator got big cheers for his positions on several issues, including a pledge for simpler labor organizing rules and universal health care.

Aletha Johnson, a union machinist at Boeing Co.'s commercial airplane factory north of Seattle, wanted to know what Edwards would do to stop companies from outsourcing work to other countries. Boeing's newest passenger jet, the 787, is being assembled in Washington state with large sections shipped in from manufacturers around the world.

Edwards responded that the U.S. should cut tax incentives tied to outsourcing and ensure that free trade agreements have enforceable environmental and labor standards.

"We need to be able to trade and do business with people in the rest of the world, but it needs to be done in the right way," he said.

Washington state Democrats do not have a clear consensus favorite in the race for their party's presidential nomination.

Edwards came in fourth during the state party's last presidential caucus, but he also was John Kerry's running mate when Democrats carried the state in the 2004 election.

Washington state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser took issue with Edwards' claim that the showdown between Congress and the president over the timing of Iraq troop withdrawal was not about politics.

"It's entirely been about politics," Esser said. "Now that he's not even in office at the present time, he's just a cheerleader for the most extreme liberal position possible."

Edwards voted to authorize the war, but has since said he regrets that vote. He repeated that position later Tuesday at another public meeting in Everett.

Also on Tuesday's schedule for Edwards, a successful courtroom attorney, was an appearance at a private fundraiser in downtown Seattle and at the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association's annual Law Day dinner.