To be expected. Always try to cut down the "Tall Poppy."
______________________________________
October 10, 2003
Democratic Candidates Single Out Clark in Debate
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JODI WILGOREN
PHOENIX, Oct. 9 — Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the newest entrant into the Democratic presidential contest, was repeatedly upbraided by his rivals at a debate here on Thursday night for what they said was a muddled position on whether he would have supported the resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who until now had been the target of attacks from the other candidates, first noted that General Clark had advised a candidate for Congress last year to support the resolution, then appeared to change his view.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut followed up by saying he had been "disappointed" in General Clark and recited a litany of apparently alternating views.
"The American people have lost confidence in George Bush because he hasn't leveled with them," Senator Lieberman said. "We need a candidate who will meet the test of reaching a conclusion and have the courage to stick with it."
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts joined the chorus, criticizing General Clark not only for his views on the war but for appearing with Republicans. General Clark had called the Bush administration "the right people" when he attended a Republican fund-raiser in May 2001.
General Clark, who has soared to the top of some national polls in his first three weeks as a candidate, responded by saying, "I'm not going to attack a fellow Democrat," then proceeded to attack everyone on the stage.
"I think it's really embarrassing that a group of candidates up here are working on changing the leadership of this country," he said, "and can't get their own stories straight."
In clarifying his view on the war, General Clark said he would have supported a resolution that took the matter to the United Nations. "I would not have voted for a resolution that would have taken us to war," he asserted. "It's that simple."
He added that he had praised President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain "for sticking with the offensive in Iraq once it had begun." But, he said, they did not send in enough forces, they had "no plan to deal with it afterwards" and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq was not an imminent threat.
At another point in the 90-minute debate, General Clark asserted: "People want straight talk and they want leadership." He called on the candidates who are in Congress to work to stop President Bush's doctrine of pre-emption, warning that it could lead to even more explosive situations around the world. Stopping the doctrine, he said, could not wait until the election next year.
This debate, the second to include General Clark, contained some heated exchanges. The questioners from CNN, which sponsored the event at the historic Orpheum Theater, persisted in trying to delineate differences among the nine candidates.
One difference that was featured was the economic backgrounds of some of the candidates. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina has been particularly vocal about his blue-collar roots, especially when compared with the more patrician backgrounds of Dr. Dean and Senator Kerry.
Senator Edwards said his background gave his proposals credibility. "When I lay out a college-for-everyone plan, that's personal to me," he said. "I was the first person in my family to go to college." He added that the wealthy backgrounds of Dr. Dean and Senator Kerry did not mean they were insincere.
"When I was in Vietnam," Senator Kerry said, "no one asked you where you came from. You fought together, you lived together and you bled together." In a reminder that the debate was taking place in a state with a large Latino population, he added that Latinos and blacks who were drafted were "on the front lines in far greater numbers than my friends from Yale."
Dr. Dean was dismissive of the question, saying that the important question was what kind of president each would make. He then turned the conversation to General Clark's views on Iraq.
Much of the discussion — and the answers — concerned allegiance to the party, highlighting General Clark's announcement of his Democratic affiliation on Sept. 3.
Asked how the Democratic Party could win back middle-class voters, the Rev. Al Sharpton said, "We have to use everything from the Internet to the interstate highways to get the message out."
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, citing the economic plan of the Clinton administration, said, "We know how to do this, they do not. If you want to live like a Republican, you've got to vote for the Democrats, and we've proved it over and over again."
Dr. Dean reiterated his contention that the Democratic Party had lost power because its leaders — some of them standing next to him on the stage — failed to stand up for the party's values.
"We can't just change presidents here, we're trying to change America," he said. "The minute you're willing to say whatever it is to get elected, you lose, because the people in America are not nearly as dumb as the people in Washington think we are."
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, who voted against the war resolution, joined Dr. Dean in criticizing some candidates for supporting the invasion at the time.
"The reason why people don't trust the Democrats is because our Democratic leadership stood with the president in the Rose Garden, and now stands on this stage and attacks him on the war," Mr. Kucinich said, referring to Mr. Gephardt, who was the House Democratic leader at the time.
The intraparty sniping prompted Reverend Sharpton to refer at one point to the election on Tuesday of Arnold Schwarzenegger. "The whole notion of our showing our differences is good," he said. "But let us not forget that our differences should be toward the aim of winning against Bush. We are 48 hours away from watching an actor that couldn't win an Oscar win to be the governor of California. We need to deal with how we beat George Bush in 2004."
After an hour of questioning by CNN correspondents, the candidates took off their jackets and formed a tight semicircle on stools just a few inches above the audience, and took questions from several undecided voters seated in the first three rows. One was a soldier recently returned from Iraq. Another was a stroke survivor. Senator Kerry, then Senator Edwards, stood up and walked toward the questioners, trying to turn what had been a combative exchange into a homey town-hall chat.
"Karen, how long have you been without any kind of coverage for your prescription drugs?" Senator Edwards asked Karen Dickinson, who had survived a stroke, and said she had to choose food over drugs for six months.
Responding to the soldier's questions, several candidates promised to improve health care for veterans and housing and pay for enlisted troops. "Every single one of us up here would believe we're tired of hearing Tom DeLay and Dick Cheney and others throw patriotism at us," Senator Kerry said. "We're taking back the flag for the United States of America."
nytimes.com |
