Moreon last night's debate
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Dean, Lieberman Clash Over Mideast
Foreign Policy, Terrorism Dominate Democrats' Debate
By DAVID LIGHTMAN
Washington Bureau Chief
September 10 2003
BALTIMORE -- A debate designed to focus on issues of concern to minority voters erupted into a duel over Mideast policy between former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Democratic race's front-runner, and Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman.
Dean began the controversy last week, saying the United States should not take sides in the Middle East. He also said an "enormous number" of Israeli settlements should be dismantled.
Dean softened that position somewhat at the Tuesday debate. "We need to be a credible negotiator, a facilitator in the Middle East," he said. "We have to be trusted by both sides."
Lieberman, who was interrupted by hecklers, took on Dean. "We have to be respected and trusted by both sides," he said, later adding, "We have had a unique relationship with Israel."
"[Dean] said he wouldn't take sides. Then he said Israel ought to get out of the West Bank. ... That's up to the parties in negotiations," Lieberman said.
"I'm disappointed with Joe," Dean said as Lieberman tried to interrupt. "America needs to be an honest broker. We need peace in the Middle East ... It doesn't help, Joe, to demagogue this issue."
Lieberman had come into the debate with other worries. It was sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, and the last time he met with caucus members he was criticized for his views on Liberia and affirmative action. Shortly afterward, he skipped the NAACP convention in Miami and was labeled "persona non grata" by President Kweisi Mfume.
Lieberman likes to brandish his credentials as a 1960s civil rights activist; that's not enough, said the caucus chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., before Tuesday evening's debate at Morgan State University, one of the nation's historic black schools.
"Most people are concerned with what you're doing now," he said. "I told my daughter, who is 21, how I marched when I was young. I don't think it means that much to her."
Though caucus members hoped to focus on the economy, education, affirmative action and other issues of special concern, those subjects have been overshadowed in the presidential campaign by foreign affairs. The first part of the debate dealt entirely with Iraq and terrorism.
The candidates aimed their fire at President Bush. Asked if the president deliberately misled the American people, Florida Sen. Bob Graham curtly answered, "Yes," and the crowd cheered.
The Rev. Al Sharpton aimed his criticism at some of his Democratic rivals who had backed Bush on the Iraq war. Why, Sharpton asked, did they not insist on an exit strategy. "That's a miserable failure," said Sharpton.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Dean and Lieberman have also been dueling over Iraq. Kerry suggested Lieberman has only recently begun discussing how to manage the post-war period. Tuesday, Lieberman campaign director Craig Smith fired back that "John Kerry couldn't be more wrong.
"For him to attack Joe Lieberman for only recently focusing on this issue is as shaky a charge as Kerry's own, ever-wavering position on the war itself."
During the debate, Lieberman reiterated his vow to send more American troops to Iraq if necessary. "What President Bush gave the American people Sunday night was a price tag, not a plan."
Dean did not directly criticize Lieberman, but recalled his own opposition to the war. "This was a mistake," he said, "but if we leave Iraq to chaos, al Qaeda may move in."
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich went further. "What we need to do now is get the U.N. in," he said, "and get the U.S. out."
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt urged more efforts at international cooperation. Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun spoke of how Bush "frittered away international goodwill," and Graham complained about the administration's "blank check mentality" regarding Iraq policy.
The black caucus, though, wanted this debate to shift the focus to issues of special concern to many of its constituents. The African American vote could very well be the determining factor in some crucial early primaries and caucuses, notably Feb. 3 in South Carolina and four days later in Michigan.
"We want to show America we will not be taken for granted," said Cummings. There is no clear favorite for the African American vote, though all nine contenders bring strong voting records.
Lieberman has been trying for months to establish his credentials as a champion of civil rights, but is in an unusual political quandary. No one questions his loyalty to civil rights causes, but he began to attract controversy when he became a vocal member, and later chairman, of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council. Many black leaders, notably the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saw the group as a way to woo more conservative white voters. Jackson derided the DLC as "Democrats for the Leisure Class."
Copyright 2003, Hartford Courant |
