Divisions emerge among challengers to Bush
Some Democrats attack the president's economic policies, others criticize the war in Iraq.
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Register Staff Writer
07/06/2003The Democratic presidential candidates are generally falling into two camps with caucus day now six months away.
Those who supported the war in Iraq are emphasizing in their campaigns President Bush's handling of the economy. Those who didn't support the war generally reject all things Bush, with the war at the top of the list.
The divisions illustrate a fundamental disagreement on how to confront Bush in November 2004 and go to the heart of the battle in the Democratic Party over its direction.
"To win the White House, the threshold issue is whether the American people come to believe the Democratic candidate will keep the country safe," said Al From, chief executive officer of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "I personally believe that it will be hard for any Democrat who didn't support the war, particularly someone not strong on the military, to win the White House in 2004."
Other Democrats disagree.
"I don't believe, in this particular election, that we can beat George Bush by trying to be like him," said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who opposed the war and has earned early support from liberal Democrats. "Democrats have to stop apologizing for being Democrats and stand up for what they believe in again."
Political insiders and experts say it's common for the party challenging a sitting president to experience a fight over principles during the primary season.
The nine-candidate Democratic field once split most prominently over the war in Iraq. As they plan their fall campaigns, the candidates now are deeply divided on a number of key issues, including whether Bush exaggerated the Iraqi threat prior to the war, as well as key domestic issues such as how much of the Bush tax cut they would repeal and how comprehensive a health-care plan they prefer.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who voted against the resolution in Congress to authorize the war, has won support from anti-war Democrats in Iowa. Like Kucinich, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton of New York also opposed the war on the grounds it was an unjustified attack. U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida also voted against the war resolution, but his main reason was that it distracted the United States from the larger war on terrorism.
Despite Bush's declaration that major hostilities had ended by May, the war returned as an issue among the Democratic candidates in early June after a CIA and U.S. Defense Department report from last fall was made public. The report was less than conclusive about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability. The revelation prompted Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to accuse Bush of misrepresenting the facts.
Kucinich followed, maintaining that Bush administration officials "never had the information they said they had. And they misrepresented the information they had." Likewise, Dean has joined some of his rivals in accusing Bush of misleading Congress and the public. "I wish I had more confidence the President was telling the truth," Dean said in Dubuque Wednesday.
The candidates who supported the war - U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and U.S. Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut - support calls for an inquiry about prewar intelligence, leaving open the possibility that intelligence was wrong or skewed. Most have stopped short of accusing Bush of outright lying, although Kerry has said Bush lied about proof that Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons.
Edwards, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, "We need to hold the people accountable who did it" if the information was fudged.
As questions over weapons intelligence remain and American casualties continue in postwar Iraq, issues related to the war continue to divide the field and have prompted candidates who supported the war to reaffirm that support.
"I think that Edwards' view is that there was a fair amount of evidence out there over a series of years and two administrations, that there was ample evidence" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, Edwards' media consultant David Axelrod said. "I think Edwards has tried very hard to be consistent on this and other issues like this.
All of the Democrats criticize Bush for his handling of the economy and blame him for job losses. They also agree that cuts to income tax rates for the top brackets, as part of comprehensive tax-cut legislation in 2001 and this year, have failed to stimulate the economy.
But not all the candidates believe all tax cuts are bad. Edwards, Lieberman, Kerry and Graham support keeping in place rate cuts for everyone except the richest Americans. They also support creating new tax cuts targeted at small business development, families with children and energy conservation.
Gephardt is the only candidate who supported the war to call for repealing all the Bush tax cuts.
"Dick Gephardt believes the strongest distinction that we as Democrats can and should draw with George W. Bush is his abysmal performance on the economy," said Gephardt national campaign manager Steve Murphy.
Dean, Kucinich and others have since said they would also roll back the cuts to pre-Bush levels. Only Gephardt would use all the revenue to pay for a health-care plan built around offering employers generous tax credits, which he says would also stimulate the economy.
Dean and Kerry have proposed plans to expand health insurance access to most Americans but which would cost less than Gephardt's. Edwards, Graham and Lieberman support gradually moving toward universal coverage, starting with children and with emphasis on controlling medical costs. They have said those are goals that can be met in the political climate and which would leave money for other items, such as education.
Joe Trippi, Dean's national campaign manager, said a strategy built on emphasizing Bush's handling of economy above other issues is flawed.
"To hope for the economy to get worse is not a great strategy. It shows a tremendous lack of leadership," Trippi said.
The battle for the direction of the party hits home with Polk County Democrat Nancy Robertson. The 34-year-old lawyer for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Abuse, is leaning toward supporting Gephardt, but is considering Dean as a second choice.
"The war was a difficult issue for me. I didn't agree with us going in there the way we did, but I believe Iraq has or had weapons," Robertson said. "But I think we are now economically so far from where we were four years ago that, besides the war issue, there really does need to be a complete break with Bush." |
