White House Credibility Attacked
Democratic Hopefuls Cite Iraq, Leak of CIA Operative's N
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 4, 2003; Page A04
Democratic presidential candidates and congressional leaders, reflecting their growing belief that President Bush can be ousted in 2004 if voters lose faith in his words and policies, yesterday harshly questioned the honesty and competence of a White House facing its biggest controversies to date.
At a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington, several of the party's candidates and top lawmakers blamed Bush for the recent spate of bad news: the rising number of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance, reports that inspectors found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and allegations that Bush aides leaked the name of a CIA operative to retaliate against a critic of the Iraq war.
In the day's sharpest attack, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) accused Bush of deceiving Americans over everything from national security to helping the poor. "There has been one value repeatedly missing from this presidency, and that value is integrity," Lieberman said. "By deception and disarray, this White House has betrayed the just cause of fighting terrorism and tyranny around the world." Leaking the CIA employee's name "was the politics of personal destruction at its worst," he said.
Polls show Bush still gets high marks for integrity and honesty.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said Democrats "will not quit" pushing the leak matter "until people are brought to justice." The crowd erupted in applause.
Nearly 500 of the party's most committed activists have gathered for three days of meetings and to take another look at the 10 presidential hopefuls auditioning for their support. With the exception of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who let loose on his rivals (though never by name), the candidates who spoke yesterday spent most of their time bashing Bush. In a departure from the DNC's meeting six months ago, each candidate who spoke -- former Vermont governor Howard Dean, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), former senator Carol Moseley Braun, Kerry and Lieberman -- treated Bush's handling of Iraq as among his biggest liabilities.
The latest reason: a New York Times/CBS News poll that found support for Bush's Iraq policy slipping to all-time lows. "We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency," Kerry said.
Clark, whom many Democrats came to scrutinize not only for his ideas but his commitment to the party, spent several minutes insisting he shared their political values. Clark, who entered the race last week, said he supported organized labor, education, the environment, health care and abortion rights.
"If that ain't a Democrat, then I must be at the wrong meeting," he said. He said he has campaigned, raised money and voted for Democrats, including Al Gore in 2000.
Clark, speaking later at the Military Reporters and Editors conference in Arlington, called for an independent commission to investigate the administration's handling of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq and the alleged leak of the CIA operative's name.
"Nothing could be a more serious violation of the public trust than to consciously make a case for war based on false claims," Clark said.
Dean emphasized that he has raised $25 million so far, tops among the Democratic candidates. He noted that it came from 200,000 donors. Dean said that if Bush and his staff were "real patriots," they would acknowledge how they "misled us on the way into Iraq" and demand the resignation of whoever leaked the CIA operative's name.
Dean also offered a warning about the upcoming elections. "We are not out of power in the White House and Senate and the Congress because George Bush ran a great campaign," he said. "We're out of power . . . because we didn't stand up for what we believe in."
Republicans said such criticism will backfire. "They have come to the conclusion that it's in their short-term political interests to adopt this political hate speech," said Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie. "It's not in their long-term interest, which is fine by me."
Kerry used much of his speech to take shots at his rivals. He talked about fighting for the Democratic Party for decades, a slap at Clark, who announced he was a Democrat last month and attended a GOP fundraiser as recently as 2001.
Kucinich, who drew several supporters to the meeting, continued his calls for the United States to pull out of Iraq, while Braun insisted she was "in it to win it" despite raising scant money and polling in low single digits in most polls.
Lieberman, like others, happily highlighted reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger improperly touched women and that conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh is under investigation for possibly buying illegal drugs.
"After reading the paper this morning about the pill-popping, skirt-chasing and Hitler-praising, it would be very tempting to point out Republican hypocrisy on values," Lieberman said. "But would that be the right thing to do? Absolutely." Schwarzenegger has been accused of making positive comments about Adolf Hitler in 1975.
The other four presidential candidates will address the DNC today.
Staff writer Vernon Loeb contributed to this report.
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