This was on CSPAN today.
Chairmen of political parties debate who's responsible for nasty campaign
WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, March 18, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(03-18) 20:09 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe returned to their alma mater Thursday night and debated whether Gillespie's Republicans or McAuliffe's Democrats are more responsible for the nasty tone of the presidential campaign.
The two national party chairmen were cautioned to "fight nice" by Father David O'Connell, president of The Catholic University of America -- and then proceeded to pile blame on each other for the increasingly hostile campaign.
A crowd of more than 1,000 students and alumni watched the hourlong debate on the Catholic campus in northeast Washington.
"There's been a constant stream of attacks," said Gillespie, a member of the Catholic class of '83. "'The president's a liar, we're all crooks and liars.' College Republicans today, John Kerry has called them the most crooked bunch of liars on campus."
McAuliffe, a 1979 graduate, responded that Democrats "continually talk about issues. We talk about jobs, education, health care and Iraq." But he countered that Republicans bring up divisive issues like abortion and gay marriage.
"Every time this man gets in trouble in the polls he becomes a divider," McAuliffe said of President Bush.
McAuliffe said Republicans are responsible for "doctoring a photo of John Kerry at a protest years ago."
"We are not going to stand by and let them do to Democrats what they did in the past," McAuliffe said, referring to past Republican tactics.
Gillespie asked McAuliffe if he would repudiate one of his state party chairmen for referring to "George W. Bush and his band of thugs" in an e-mail. McAuliffe said he was unaware of the comment.
"Right out of the box, you're running attack ads and now we're going to have to respond," McAuliffe said of Bush's ad blitz.
As the debate drew to a close, the chairmen seemed to recall the watchful gaze of students, teachers and priests at Catholic University.
"If you want to bring this discourse to a higher level, I'm for it," McAuliffe told Gillespie.
"We want to be role models to all of you," he told the students. "We want to talk about the issues." |
