A not-so-neighborly feud over the war
By Scot Lehigh
Columnist
The Boston Globe
3/26/2003
MANCHESTER, N.H. - NEW HAMPSHIRE is a key state for the next-door-neighbor presidential hopefuls, which is why Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean are staring long-distance daggers at each other.For months, Kerry had held a decent lead in New Hampshire, where his foreign policy expertise has given him added credibility among Democrats at a time when international affairs are much on the public mind. But in recent weeks, Dean has used that very issue against him.
The Granite State's first-in-the-nation presidential primary is essential to both men. A victory here could catapult either into national orbit. But the cost of a loss in a state that is a backyard for both? Devastating.
That's why Kerry's team is looking over its shoulder these days at Dean, who, from tax policy to education to health care to Iraq, is striving for the support of staunch liberals. So far, Dean is a longer shot, and more of a two-state -- Iowa and New Hampshire -- candidate than Kerry.
But the former governor has used the Iraq issue effectively, staking out an antiwar stance -- no military action absent UN approval or an immediate and undeterrable Iraqi threat to the US -- and accusing Kerry (and other Democratic candidates) of trying to have it both ways. Dean's charge: Although Kerry voted for the October congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to wage war against Iraq if he decided diplomacy had failed, recently the senator has made it sound as though he's antiwar. Is that accurate? Although he has been harshly critical of Bush's diplomacy, Kerry has also been clear that Saddam must be disarmed. Speaking at a Boston fund-raiser on March 12, he recited a litany of Saddam's aggressive acts, telling his supporters that any president had to take the issue of disarming Iraq seriously. And after Bush issued his exile-or-war ultimatum, Kerry offered a statement that, though again criticizing the administration's diplomacy, blamed Saddam for bringing military action upon himself.
''The brave and capable men and women of our armed forces and those who are with us will quickly, I know, remove him once and for all as a threat to his neighbors, to the world, and to his own people, and I support their doing so,'' Kerry said in that statement.
Still, on the stump the senator has tended to tiptoe around the subject of Iraq. Speaking to a gathering of Manchester Democrats on Sunday, Kerry said little or nothing that even hinted he had voted for the congressional resolution. Or that, his criticisms of botched diplomacy notwithstanding, he was ultimately supportive of military action.
But if Dean charges that Kerry is trying to have things both ways, the Kerry camp just as clearly thinks Dean has exploited the war issue in an unbecoming way. ''I think every other candidate in the field would agree that it is unfortunate that Governor Dean's tone has been so negative, so personal, and so divisive so early in the race,'' says one Kerry adviser.
So far, however, there's no doubt the issue has worked for Dean. A new poll shows him pulling even with Kerry in New Hampshire, and Granite State politicos agree that Dean has picked up support.
''Certainly there are people on the left wing of the Democratic Party who support Dean who are certain'' in their opposition to the war, says former governor Jeanne Shaheen, whose husband Bill backs the Massachusetts senator. One could feel the enthusiasm for Dean at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual fund-raising dinner in Manchester on Feb. 27.
''What are we doing supporting unilateral intervention in a country that is not an immediate threat to the United States?'' Dean demanded to loud and sustained applause.
But though they've gritted their teeth as the former governor has gained ground, Kerry advisers think their candidate has taken a measured position that, once the war is over, will be viewed as both thoughtful and presidential while Dean's use of the war will come to be seen as overtly political.
Speaking to reporters after his speech, Kerry called Dean's accusation that he was trying to have it both ways ''patently and unequivocally'' wrong. Although he seemed about to rebuke Dean further, Kerry held his tongue.
''We'll talk about those things further down the road,'' he said.
Look for that not-so-neighborly feud to erupt into a withering debate once the war is over and the Democratic campaign begins in earnest.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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