Dean Goes on Offensive in Iowa
Democrat 'Tired of Being a Pincushion'
washingtonpost.com
By John F. Harris and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 13, 2004; Page A01
The following is an exerpt from the article:
PELLA, Iowa, Jan. 12 -" Former Vermont governor Howard Dean
opened the final week of campaigning before next week's crucial
Iowa caucuses with a sharp attack on his leading rivals Monday,
charging that they are part of a Washington establishment that
failed to hold President Bush to account and that they cannot
bring change to the capital or the country.
The campaign in Iowa remains extremely
fluid, with many undecided voters. Dean's
decision to push back against his
opponents underscored concerns among
his advisers and supporters that he has
spent too much time on the defensive in
recent weeks and that he has sometimes
appeared rattled by rivals' attacks and
lackluster in debate.
Dean's advisers have worried for some time
about how other candidates can gang up
on him. On Monday, Dean explained his
new, more aggressive posture by saying,
"I'm tired of being a pincushion here."
Seeking to recapture the mantle of the
anti-establishment outsider and to stoke
the enthusiasm of a grass-roots movement
he is counting on to deliver him a victory
next Monday and elsewhere, Dean struck
back.
"We need real change, and we don't just
need a change in presidents," Dean said at
a pancake breakfast here Monday
morning. "We need a change in
Washington, and we're not going to get it
by electing someone from Washington."
Although he has been declared the
Democratic front-runner and holds a strong lead in New
Hampshire, Dean is in a tight race in Iowa. With polls showing
him roughly even with Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), and with
Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) behind
them, each hopes to spring a surprise next week.
A loss by Dean could change the dynamic of the Democratic
race, and far from embracing a front-runner's strategy of soaring
above the fray, Dean mentioned all his main rivals by name.
Dean said that "Washington politicians and the established press
. . . have attacked us for months." He added that although his
rivals "want to say they are against the establishment, they are
the establishment."
He dismissed them all as politicians who stand for the
"Washington establishment," and he repeatedly reminded voters
that, with the exception of Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio), the
other elected Democrats in the race supported the resolution
authorizing Bush to go to war with Iraq." |
