Kerry rips W 'credibility gap'
By JOEL SIEGEL
DAILY NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Thursday, July 17th, 2003
Sen. John Kerry used a Bronx visit yesterday to unleash one of his harshest attacks against President Bush, charging he suffers from a "credibility gap" on national security issues that is putting Americans in danger.
For all of the President's tough talk, the administration did not have a "viable plan to win the peace" in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, and it lacks "a real plan and enough resources" to prevent another terror attack in the U.S., Kerry (D-Mass.) said.
"Americans have a right to ask, 'Are we safer today?'" than after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Kerry told 100 supporters at the Bronx County Courthouse.
The White House hopeful also accused the President of having an "intelligence gap" that leaves Americans unsure if he's trustworthy.
Kerry and the other Democratic candidates have been ramping up criticism of Bush after the White House admitted that faulty intelligence was behind a claim that Iraq tried to buy bomb-making uranium from Niger.
In his speech, Kerry seized on the homeland security issue, saying it was ridiculous that the U.S. was "opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in New York."
He proposed creating a federal fund - to hire 100,000 firefighters nationwide - named after the Rev. Mychal Judge, the FDNY chaplain killed Sept. 11, and reviving a program to hire 100,000 police officers.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan shot back that Kerry, who called for action against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1998, was "trying to rewrite history."
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