Laura Bush condemns Democrat 'witch-hunt'
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 20/02/2004)
Laura Bush shed her cosy, non-partisan public image to accuse Democratic chiefs of a "witch-hunt" against her husband, President George W Bush, in interviews released yesterday.
Mrs Bush, whose image as a traditional wife and mother has earned her sky-high personal approval ratings, launched a passionate defence of her husband, who has been under withering Democratic fire over unemployment, Iraq and his Vietnam-era military record.
Laura Bush: speaking out in defence of her husband
"I think it's a political, you know, witch-hunt, actually, on the part of the Democrats," she said. She directly accused the Democratic party chairman, Terry McAuliffe, of lying when he charged that her husband went absent without leave from the National Guard during his service as a fighter pilot in Texas and Alabama.
"I don't think it's fair to really lie about allegations about someone like the Democratic national chairman did," she said. Checking herself, the former school librarian backed away from the word "lie", saying: "Well, he made it up, I guess I should say."
Her talk of a Democratic witch-hunt offered a rare echo of her predecessor, Hillary Clinton, who once alleged that charges against her husband were generated by a "vast, Right-wing conspiracy". In sharp contrast with Mrs Clinton, Mrs Bush has largely shunned raw politics in favour of such wholesome issues as the importance of reading to children.
Away from the cameras, however, Republican campaigners boast that Mrs Bush is a "secret weapon", whose cross-country official tours commonly combine public appearances at schools and libraries with private fund-raising lunches and receptions. Mrs Bush has raised £2.8 million for her husband's re-election war chest.
The First Lady spoke as Mr Bush slipped 12 percentage points behind his leading Democratic rival, Senator John Kerry, in a theoretical head-to-head Gallup poll taken among "likely voters", pollsters' jargon for the roughly 50 per cent of American adults who take an active interest in politics. |
