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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (400276)	4/29/2003 12:20:26 AM
From: Bald Eagle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Discussion? No point in having a discussion with someone who just fires out wild accusations with no basis in fact.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (400276)	4/29/2003 12:45:31 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

This seems a more appropriate place to bring this discussion. You need to create a thread called "Hard core Lefty Conspiracy Theorists for Dean." Only those types would "discuss" it with you.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (400276)	4/29/2003 1:00:13 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

washingtonpost.com Kerry Campaign Blasts Dean's Credentials Democratic Presidential Candidates Trade Barbs in Tense Aftermath of Iraq War By Dan Balz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 29, 2003; Page A02 The aftermath of the war in Iraq has not been easy for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. The former Vermont governor, who boosted his political standing among antiwar Democrats with a series of attacks on President Bush's policies in the months before the war, has been on the defensive since the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Yesterday, the campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who earlier was accused of trying to straddle the question of whether he favored going to war, sought to make things worse for Dean. Kerry aides questioned Dean's credentials as a potential commander in chief after the former governor was quoted on Time.com as saying, "We have to take a different approach [to diplomacy]. We won't always have the strongest military." Dean's statement, made to a New Hampshire audience earlier this month, "raises serious questions about his capacity to serve as commander in chief," Kerry communications director Chris Lehane said in a campaign news release. "No serious candidate for the presidency has ever before suggested that he would compromise or tolerate an erosion of America's military supremacy." Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi called the Kerry campaign charge "absurd" and said in a written rebuttal that his candidate "will never tolerate an erosion of American military power, nor has he ever said such a thing." Trippi, in a phone interview, did not dispute that Dean had made the statement quoted by Time.com, but he took issue with its interpretation. He said Dean believes that Bush's foreign policy ultimately will leave the nation less safe in the war against terrorism by relying too heavily on military force at the expense of diplomacy. Kerry's campaign, he said, is playing politics to damage Dean's candidacy. "There's no one running for president of the United States who isn't committed to America's military strength and to defending and protecting this nation," Trippi said. "This is just crass politics, and that's all it is." The exchange follows weeks of tension between the two campaigns and comes as all the Democratic candidates prepare for a debate Saturday in South Carolina. The Kerry campaign comments appeared designed, in part, to help set the debate's agenda. Kerry's campaign has nervously watched Dean, touting his antiwar views, build support in New Hampshire, whose first-in-the-nation primary the Massachusetts senator cannot afford to lose. Kerry advisers have bristled privately whenever Dean has attacked Kerry for criticizing Bush's war policies after voting in favor of the congressional resolution authorizing the war. Trippi renewed that attack yesterday, saying Kerry's foreign policy appears to be as "short-sighted" as the president's. "This is a disturbing pattern in which John Kerry votes one way on the Senate floor and then says the opposite on the campaign trail." Kerry's campaign has been trying to call attention to what it has said are inconsistencies in Dean's position on the war. Yesterday's attack was a more direct effort to question whether Dean is fit to lead the party against a wartime president in 2004. Dean has said the U.S. military's relatively quick success has not changed his mind about the wisdom of going to war. On the day Baghdad fell, the candidates appeared together at a forum sponsored by the Children's Defense Fund. In response to a question about the war, Dean said of Hussein, "We've gotten rid of him, and I suppose that's a good thing." Last week on CNN, Dean was pressed about the war's impact on the Iraqi people: Were they better off with Hussein gone? "We don't know yet," Dean said. As he continued his response, CNN's Wolf Blitzer interrupted him: "You think it's possible -- excuse me for interrupting -- that whatever emerges in Iraq could be worse than what they have [had] for decades under Saddam Hussein?" "I do. I do," Dean said, adding that if Iraq comes under the control of "a fundamentalist Islamic" regime, the United States will be under a greater security threat than the one posed by Hussein. washingtonpost.com