Dean Airs Iowa Ad Attacking Gephardt on War
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 19, 2003; Page A10
Howard Dean has become the first Democratic presidential candidate to launch an attack ad against one of his rivals, chastising Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) for supporting the Iraq war.
Returning to the issue that most excites his core supporters, the former Vermont governor is spending $250,000 this week on an Iowa commercial featuring footage of Gephardt and President Bush in the Rose Garden. "October 2002," a narrator says. "Dick Gephardt agrees to co-author the Iraq war resolution, giving George Bush the authority to go to war. A week later, with Gephardt's support, it passes Congress. Then, last month, Dick Gephardt votes to spend $87 billion more on Iraq." Dean says he opposed the war "and I'm against spending another $87 billion."
Gephardt campaign manager Steve Murphy called the ad a "desperate, desperate" response to Dean's falling behind the Missouri congressman in the Iowa polls. "Voters in Iowa are fully aware that Dick Gephardt wrote that resolution in order to get the president to go to the United Nations, and they're fully aware that he supported the war in Iraq. Nobody in Iowa is going to think Dick Gephardt is George Bush's buddy." Murphy said Gephardt would not be drawn into a "negative slugfest." |
