Lieberman, Kerry Insist They Can Beat Bush and Dean Can't
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2003; Page A02
After greeting lunch patrons at the Gateway diner here in this southeast New Hampshire town, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) declared Dean's recent foreign policy statements on subjects such as a trial for Osama bin Laden and the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein "impulsive" and "ill-advised." In a reference to Dean's relative dearth of international experience, Lieberman said, "This is no time for on-the-job training."
Gail Tanner said she once considered herself a Dean supporter, but she turned against him after former vice president Al Gore endorsed Dean without notifying Lieberman, Gore's 2000 presidential running mate.
When Tanner asked Lieberman how he planned to win in the South and Midwest, his response seemed to refer back to Dean, as did many of his statements Sunday. "First we have to convince people in the South and Midwest that we have a candidate who is at least as capable of keeping us as safe and secure as George Bush," Lieberman told her.
Later, Lieberman told reporters that his candidacy, mired in single digits in recent New Hampshire polls, offered the starkest contrast to Dean, who last week said that the capture of Hussein had not made America safer and that bin Laden's guilt should not be prejudged.
"The clearest choice people have in this primary is between Howard Dean and me," Lieberman said. "We're not going to convince people to replace George W. Bush with someone who's taken the repeated, impulsive, ill-advised positions he's had."
In Concord, Kerry helped dish up chili for 300 voters and then took questions for 45 minutes, annoying handlers who kept reminding him he was late for another event.
Afterward, Kerry said that the disclosure of the Vermont energy task force should lead Dean to open all of his gubernatorial records -- about half of which are under seal. "If you're going to ask other people to come clean, you have to come clean yourself." |
