Dean Tackles Kerry's Record
washingtonpost.com
Old, New Front-Runners Talk Health Care in S.C. Debate
By David S. Broder and John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 30, 2004; Page A01
GREENVILLE, S.C., Jan. 29 -- Howard Dean charged Thursday that John F. Kerry had not passed any of the 11 health care bills he sponsored in the Senate, as the dethroned leader in the Democratic presidential race challenged the new front-runner in a televised debate.
The Massachusetts senator replied that if Dean understood Congress better, he would know that Kerry -- like any other senator -- often saw his ideas come to fruition in bills that did not carry his name. He cited as examples the Family and Medical Leave Act; a bill guaranteeing parity in Medicare treatment for mental illness; protection for veterans suffering from exposure to Agent Orange; and the extension of health insurance to children in all 50 states, including Vermont.
Dean dismissed that response as "what I consider a real Washington answer," suggesting the senator was boasting of legislation rather than results. "With me, you'll get results," Dean said, "because I'm a governor and I've done it."
The Dean-Kerry exchange ranked among the more energetic moments in a 90-minute forum marked by generally polite, policy-oriented comments. Even though Kerry prevailed in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 19 and the New Hampshire primary Tuesday -- making him the man to beat for the Democratic presidential nomination -- Dean was the only one to challenge him directly.
Carried nationally by MSNBC and moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC, the debate among the seven hopefuls came five days before South Carolina and six other states vote on the 2004 campaign's biggest day so far.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who calls South Carolina a must-win primary, allowed Kerry to disclaim a statement earlier in the campaign that it was a "mistake" for Democrats to believe they had to break President Bush's hold on the South to win in November. Kerry told Brokaw, "I've always said I could compete in the South and we can win in the South." That, he said, is why he is endorsed by retiring Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. James E. Clyburn, the state's highest-ranking African American official.
In an earlier debate in New Hampshire, Kerry said Democrats had made "a mistake" with electoral college strategies that began by "looking south." He noted then that Al Gore could have won the presidency in 2000 simply by carrying traditionally competitive states such as West Virginia and New Hampshire, without winning any southern states.
Edwards, called on next, passed up the opportunity to challenge Kerry. Instead, he said it would be an "enormous mistake" for any Democrat to write off the South and its "enormous" stock of electoral votes. "No Democrat has been elected president without carrying five southern states," he said.
Dean, who shook up his campaign staff Wednesday, said there was nothing inconsistent about his turning command over to Roy Neel, a longtime aide to Gore and a lobbyist for telephone companies in private life. Although he has criticized "Washington insiders" throughout his campaign, Dean defended Neel as someone who had "kept faith with his ethics pledge."
Asked by Brokaw how long they planned to stay in the race without a victory, the other four candidates -- retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) and civil rights activist Al Sharpton of New York -- said they expect or intend to break into a winner's circle next week.
The Iraq war dominated large parts of the evening, but there were few disagreements among the candidates. Instead they competed to see who could be most forceful in denouncing the Bush administration's alleged mishandling of intelligence about weapons of mass destruction. Kerry and Dean said they were troubled by Vice President Cheney's prewar visits to the Central Intelligence Agency. Dean said Cheney "sat with middle-level CIA operatives and berated them because he didn't like their intelligence reports."
Kerry, though he voted for a resolution authorizing the war, said, "There's an enormous question about the exaggeration by this administration." Edwards joined Dean in supporting an independent commission to examine inaccurate intelligence about Iraqi mass-weapons capability, as well as possible administration misstatements on the subject.
Lieberman however, said legitimate questions about the Bush administration's handling of intelligence and postwar planning "have all unfortunately given a bad name to a just war. But the fact is, Saddam Hussein himself was a weapon of mass destruction."
Clark found several occasions to stress his theme of "leadership," saying that as an outsider, "I'll be the solution to the problem. If the American people like what's been going on in Washington, then they should vote for people who have been there, been part of the Washington scene. . . . I haven't been." |
