Republicans Attack Kerry in Video and E-Mail
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: February 13, 2004
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 — Republicans attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts on an array of fronts Thursday, the beginning of what party officials said would be an attempt to undercut Mr. Kerry's reputation at a time when he is riding high from repeated victories in primaries and caucuses.
On Thursday night, Mr. Bush's campaign posted on its Web site an advertisement-style video juxtaposing Mr. Kerry's promises to stanch the influence of lobbyists in Washington with news articles about large numbers of donations to Mr. Kerry from lobbyists. The video gave a hint of the television advertising war to come between the two men.
The Internet commercial appeared hours after Ed Gillespie, the Republican National Committee chairman, gave a speech accusing Mr. Kerry's campaign of running an already unreasonably harsh campaign.
And the Republican National Committee sent out e-mail messages accusing Mr. Kerry of changing his stands on major issues.
The broadsides have come as some of President Bush's most prominent supporters have been loudly urging him to engage in a fight with Mr. Kerry, concerned that the re-election campaign is not doing enough to slow the Mr. Kerry's momentum.
Mr. Kerry's campaign aides said the attacks were evidence that the president was nervous about the increasing possibility that Mr. Kerry he would be the Democratic nominee.
"There's one person they don't want to run against and that's John Kerry," said Mr. Kerry's press secretary, Stephanie Cutter. Citing polls showing Mr. Kerry beating Mr. Bush in a head-to-head contest, she added: "They have no choice but to attack below the belt. It's not as if they can talk about the issues."
In alerting the news media to the new Web video Thursday night, Mr. Bush's campaign aides said they were merely responding to millions of dollars of advertisements that Mr. Kerry's campaign has run during his primary bid that have used the White House as a whipping post.
"After months of John Kerry attacking President Bush on special interests," said Scott Stanzel, a campaign spokesman, "this Web video provides and opportunity for our supporters to see how Senator Kerry's rhetoric doesn't match his record."
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