Boy, is Kerry off message. The more he talks about Bush's military tour, the more it reminds people to remember his controversy.
Kerry Again Chides Bush on Guard Duty
Some Democrats Fear Focus on Vietnam Service Has Hurt Senator's Campaign
By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 28, 2004; Page A04
CLEVELAND, April 27 -- Sen. John F. Kerry on Tuesday rolled through a crucial state hit hard by the manufacturing recession to talk about a national job "crisis" and his program for economic change.
But, in what is becoming a familiar pattern in the early days of the presidential campaign, the Massachusetts Democrat was distracted, if not drowned out, by the political war over war and military service exploding around him. President Bush's allies have been questioning Kerry's credibility on national security as well as his military record and antiwar activities.
In an interview with an Ohio newspaper, Kerry continued the fight over Vietnam-era military service, chiding Bush and Vice President Cheney for avoiding active service.
One day after Kerry attacked Bush's National Guard service for the first time, the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign circulated a dossier designed to undercut the president's contention that he fulfilled his service duties more than 30 years ago. Bush served in the Texas National Air Guard from 1968 to 1973, although it is unclear what he did during his final year.
"I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard, and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do, criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served," Kerry told the Dayton Daily News. Kerry's campaign provided the media access to his remarks.
Nicolle Devenish, the Bush-Cheney campaign's communications director, issued a statement reviving a comment Kerry made in a Senate floor statement in 1992. "Instead of explaining his record, John Kerry has turned to political attacks on the president," she said. "John Kerry is doing exactly what he said he would never do, 'divide America over who served and how.' "
Former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.), a Vietnam veteran who was defeated in 2002 after Bush campaigned for his opponent, was tapped by Kerry's campaign to go after Bush in a more expansive way.
"I wish that George Bush had actually been exposed to combat. Then he could feel the sacrifice of many in this country who depend on the veterans administration alone to mend their wounds and take care of their need," Cleland said. "What we have here is an administration that wraps itself in the flag, spends $200 million to get itself reelected, trashes a man who is an authentic American hero, but lives in a glass house."
Bush has left political attacks to Cheney and other surrogates. He did not mention Kerry by name Tuesday and again focused on narrow policy proposals. Bush spoke about medical technology at a veterans hospital in Baltimore, to an audience that included veterans who had been hurriedly rounded up.
Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot was in Bath, Maine, as part of a "Winning the War on Terror Tour" to call attention to defense cuts Kerry has supported, including ones affecting destroyers made at the ironworks there. The appearances back up a Bush ad called "Weapons" that is running heavily in swing states where the systems are made.
Kerry was described by aides as furious with the attacks on his military service and antiwar protests, and is intent on fighting back -- even if it interferes with his campaign strategy. This week, he is leading a bus tour through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to tout his ideas to create jobs, balance global trade and revive the economy.
Some Democrats worry Kerry is falling into a trap of making the 2004 election all about national security -- past, present and future. In recent weeks, Kerry has been dragged into fights over his position on the Iraq war, his votes to cut or eliminate weapons programs and, most recently, whether he tossed away his Vietnam War medals during a war protest 33 years ago. In many cases, Kerry defended himself at the expense of promoting his plans to balance the federal budget, clean up the environment and create jobs.
A few days after Kerry telegraphed his new ad campaign defining him as a war hero, Republicans and conservative groups began questioning one of three Purple Hearts he earned. This week he faced questions about the war medals or ribbons he tossed away during an antiwar rally in Washington in 1971. Kerry has maintained for years that he tossed ribbons, not his Silver Star and Bronze Star or three Purple Hearts, along with medals of two veterans who could not attend the protest rally.
ABC's "Good Morning America," however, on Monday aired a 1971 interview with Kerry in which he talks of throwing as many as nine medals.
On Tuesday, Bush basked in the applause of veterans and service members in uniforms who were rounded up to attend remarks he made about medical technology at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The flags of the United States and the Department of Veterans Affairs hung on stage. At least 13 of the audience members wore American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars caps.
William Reisz, a physician's assistant at the hospital who is a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, had his wife rush his crisp uniform to him when he was asked to participate. Robert S. Banker, president of the Maryland chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association, said a state veterans official contacted him at 5 p.m. Monday about coming.
Kerry spent his day talking jobs -- first in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, where more businesses were closed down than are still open for business, and later in Cleveland, where thousands of jobs have been lost in recent years.
In an election-year debate that could be called a tale of two economies, Kerry largely avoided positive economic indicators such as the stock market, housing prices and interest rates. He complained about job losses, calling Bush the "worst jobs president" since Herbert Hoover; soaring health care and education costs; and the growing number of Americans without health care.
"It's a crisis across the board," he told several hundred in Youngstown.
In Cleveland later Tuesday night, Kerry met privately with 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, who endorsed Howard Dean in this year's party primaries.
Allen reported from Baltimore.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
