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

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (491343)	11/12/2003 10:34:52 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

For Gephardt, Congress Role Is Both Platform and Hurdle His wife of 37 years, Jane Gephardt, did not really want him to make another race for the presidency, and much of the conventional wisdom argued against it. This was not the political year, many of the pundits said, for a consummate insider like Representative Richard A. Gephardt, inextricably linked with every Democratic compromise, victory and defeat on Capitol Hill for the last 20 years. Indeed, to some Democrats Mr. Gephardt's support of President Bush on the war with Iraq seemed an example of all that was wrong with the party establishment. But Mr. Gephardt, a 62-year-old Missourian, decided to run anyway. To him the question was different: How could he not? He has worked under five presidents, "and I just know I can do this," he said. "And I know I can do it better than the present occupant." He has already lived through too many missed opportunities — for himself, the party and the country, he suggests. His 1988 presidential campaign famously faltered when he ran out of money on the eve of Super Tuesday, a round of critical Southern primaries. He chose not to run in 1992, which turned out to be a Democratic year. Instead, he led House Democrats through the brutal and sometimes fruitless legislative struggles of the 1990's, a history that he now angrily defends against the sweeping dismissals of other candidates, like the "outsider" Howard Dean. "I don't mind him congratulating himself for what he's done," Mr. Gephardt says coldly, "but don't say we're all laggards and have done nothing, because it's just not true." He had to hand over the speaker's gavel to Newt Gingrich in 1995, after Democrats lost the majority for the first time in 40 years, and he led the even more bruising political battle to try to win it back, four elections in a row, falling short each time. He is, in short, the paradigmatic Congressional Democrat — too tactical and attuned to the polls, critics say, but battle-tested by a generation of partisan combat and hungry for one more race. He has suffered setbacks in recent days. He had hoped for solid backing from organized labor, after years of loyal advocacy for the unions on trade and other issues. But while the industrial unions are, in general, rallying to his side, two of the most politically potent ones — the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — have endorsed Dr. Dean. nytimes.com