Clark Rebuts Rivals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2004Jan14.html
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Clark Rebuts Rivals' Attacks as 'Old-Style Politics'
Poll Shows Kerry Pulling Even With Gephardt in Iowa as Dean's Lead Shrinks
By William Branigin, Dan Balz and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 14, 2004; 12:41 PM
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley K. Clark today dismissed as "old-style politics" his rivals' accusations that he has been inconsistent on the war in Iraq, and he charged that the Bush administration has not been "serious about going after terrorism."
Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, slipping somewhat in the latest polling in Iowa, meanwhile launched his toughest attack to date on front-runner Howard Dean, accusing the former Vermont governor of engaging in "cynical politics" and charging that he is "unprepared" to be president.
Clark, a retired Army general, made his remarks on ABC's "Good Morning America" program during a break from campaigning in New Hampshire, where some polls show him gaining on front-runner Howard Dean.
Dean planned a campaign stop in New Hampshire today before flying to Iowa to resume campaigning there for Monday's caucuses. Clark is skipping Iowa to concentrate on New Hampshire, which holds its closely watched primary Jan. 27.
A Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby tracking poll released today showed Dean's lead in Iowa shrinking to three percentage points, with Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts moving into a tie with Gephardt for second place. The results indicated a tightening race in the state, as the numbers for all three candidates fell within the 4.5 percent margin of error for the rolling poll of 501 likely caucus participants.
The poll showed Dean favored by 24 percent of those likely voters, a loss of four points, followed by Kerry and Gephardt with 21 percent each. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina gained one point to reach 15 percent, with 13 percent of the likely caucus-goers still undecided.
Appearing at a morning rally in Nevada, Iowa, north of Des Moines, Gephardt attacked Dean on trade, Medicare, assault weapons and on what the Missouri congressman described as Dean's shifting foreign policy views.
"The only way we can beat George Bush is to be clear about where we stand and to be completely truthful with the American people," Gephardt said. "To me there is no room for the cynical politics of manufactured anger and false conviction. I believe in standing for something, and I think all of you do, too."
Gephardt ticked off several varying comments Dean has made about terrorism, adding, "And we thought George W. Bush was unprepared to be president."
Gephardt said, "Howard Dean clearly thinks it's provocative or clever to say the outrageous, no matter the consequences. Well, there's no place for provocation in American diplomacy. As Democrats, we all feel anger, but these times demand more than heat and emotion. They demand the best in all of us."
Kerry was scheduled to give a speech at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, that his campaign billed as defining his candidacy.
In the remarks prepared for delivery today, the Associated Press reported, Kerry sought to distinguish himself from Dean and Gephardt on the issue of President Bush's tax cuts.
"While we must repeal the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, I will fight -- and I ask you to join me in fighting against -- proposals to increase taxes on the middle class," Kerry said, according to the AP. "I disagree with those in my own party who are so mad at George Bush that they want to take it out on working families in Iowa by raising their taxes an average of $2,000 a year."
Kerry also took a jab at Dean's style of anti-Bush rhetoric, saying, "I ask you to vote for answers not anger."
Kerry appeared to be in an upbeat mood following a concert by singer Carole King, a long-time friend, at the 1,900-seat Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids last night. King plans to spend several days campaigning for Kerry in Iowa, then stump for him in New Hampshire next week, Kerry said.
The Dean campaign, meanwhile, began deploying out-of-state volunteers to help persuade Iowa caucus-goers to vote for their candidate Monday night. The campaign said it expected as many as 5,000 volunteers from all 50 states to join the effort, canvassing door to door in orange ski caps.
In his appearance on ABC's morning show, Clark took issue with Dean's characterization of him -- along with Kerry, Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman -- as having "supported the war [in Iraq] at the time."
Clark told interviewer Charles Gibson, "I was consistently against this from the time the guys in the Pentagon told me two weeks after 9/11 that we were attacking Iraq. It didn't make any sense to me. . . . This was a war we didn't have to fight. It was an elective war."
Clark also dismissed critics' questioning of his Democratic credentials. He said he voted for Al Gore and Bill Clinton in presidential elections, and he defended his earlier votes for Ronald Reagan by saying he "voted for people who were strong on national security."
Clark added: "I think we ought to be welcoming people who declare that they are Democrats, not trying to run them off."
Asked about his previous assertions that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were preventable and that, as president, he would head off such attacks in the future, Clark said: "There is no guarantee, but I will tell you this: We can lift the cloud of fear that's been hanging over America. Because we've got an administration that from the beginning didn't do everything it could have done to have prevented 9/11. And after 9/11 they took us into a war in Iraq that we didn't have to be in. They weren't serious about going after terrorism. They were serious about going after Saddam Hussein."
Clark charged that "even today . . . they [Bush administration officials] are not doing everything they could to keep the American people safe." |
Many good points in this article. +1 Clark
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aka Tits McGee
aka Chesty LaRue
aka Busty St. Claire
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