Delay goes after Teddy
DeLay Blasts Democratic Critics
Dispute Highlights Growing Rift on War
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 20, 2003; Page A11
Democratic criticism of the war in Iraq sparked a new partisan row yesterday, with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) blasting Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other senior Democrats for their verbal attacks on President Bush.
The verbal potshots highlight the escalating divide between the two parties on Iraq, with Democrats becoming increasingly critical of Bush's decision to oust Saddam Hussein. As Congress prepares to take up Bush's $87 billion request for military and reconstruction spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rhetoric between the two parties may grow even more heated.
Kennedy set off the dispute by suggesting in an interview Thursday with the Associated Press that the conflict in Iraq was "a fraud."
"There was no imminent threat," Kennedy said. "This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that the war was going to take place and was going to be good politically."
DeLay fired back yesterday, questioning why Democrats "have spewed more hateful rhetoric at President Bush than they ever did at Saddam Hussein."
"I call on all the vociferous Democrat critics, from [Massachusetts Sen. John F.] Kerry to [former Vermont governor Howard] Dean and from [Sen. Minority Leader Thomas A.] Daschle to [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi, to have the courage to tell their hero Ted Kennedy that he went too far," DeLay said in a statement. "Are they leaders or are they just liberal pundits?"
A White House spokesman also responded to Kennedy's remarks, though in a more muted fashion.
"This is the kind of charged political rhetoric here that obscures the real policy debate, which is how we make America safer in a post-September 11 world," said Scott McClellan. "September 11 taught us we need to confront new threats before they reach the shores."
Kerry, who is running for president, rallied to Kennedy's defense.
"Tom DeLay is a bully," Kerry said. "He tried to bully Democrats in Texas and we're not going to accept his shrill partisan attacks or allow him to suggest that patriotism belongs to one political party."
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