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

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (508642)	12/13/2003 12:58:29 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769667

Edwards, Gephardt Take Turns Criticizing Dean By Jim VandeHei Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 13, 2003; Page A10 Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), trying to distinguish himself as a more optimistic and centrist alternative to Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, yesterday broadly criticized the former Vermont governor's strategy for winning the White House. Edwards, who lags far behind Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire, hit Dean for wanting to "duck the values debate," which has particular resonance in the South, and for pursuing an "angry" and "divisive" campaign of limited appeal nationwide. Although Edwards never mentioned Dean by name, he was the target, an Edwards adviser said. "If all we are is divisive and angry and if all we do is attack President Bush and each other, then we will not win the White House in 2004," Edwards said, according to a text of the speech he delivered in San Francisco. "And we won't deserve to." While Edwards was whacking Dean from the right, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) hit him from the left. He accused Dean of "gross hypocrisy" for offering corporations -- including Enron -- generous tax benefits to set up shop in Vermont while he was governor. Dean routinely criticizes Bush for offering tax breaks that benefited the Houston-based energy giant, which set up a subsidiary in Vermont before scandal rocked and eventually ruined the company. According to a report in yesterday's Boston Globe, Dean gave tax breaks to companies to set up insurance businesses in his state. The insurance firms, known as "captives," are established to insure their parent companies. In addition to offering tax incentives, Dean helped defeat an effort by President Bill Clinton to eliminate federal tax breaks for these insurance companies, the article said. Dean "has been hiding the fact he turned Vermont into a tax shelter," said Gephardt. Dean governed, Gephardt said, "under the Bush model" by pushing such tax breaks while his state was cutting programs for children and the elderly. Dean spokesman Jay Carson said Dean is "not going to make any apologies for working to strengthen the economy of Vermont." It is not uncommon for governors to offer companies tax incentives to bring business to their state, a practice Gephardt criticized as un-Democratic. Yesterday's attack continued Gephardt's campaign to paint Dean as a weak defender of "Democratic values," whether it is Medicare, because Dean advocated slowing the growth of the program in the 1990s, or tax breaks for captives. The twin attacks from Edwards and Gephardt could have the unintended consequence of making Dean look like a centrist. The more Dean gets criticized from the left and the right, the easier it gets for Dean to shed his image as an antiwar, anti-tax-cut Northeast liberal, his supporters say. Still, there is little evidence the intensifying attacks are altering the race or eroding Dean's support. In his speech, Edwards slammed Dean's strategy for victory in the South. To win in Dixie, where Al Gore went winless in 2000, Dean has advocated forcing the debate beyond "guns, God and gays." "Some in my party want to duck the values debate," said Edwards. "They want to say to America: 'We're not interested in your values; we want to change the subject to anything else.' That's wrong. You can't tell voters what to believe or what to vote on. Where I come from, voters are looking for answers, not attitude." Edwards, who is banking on winning South Carolina and several other southern states to capture the nomination, has tried to run a positive and issue-oriented campaign, but he has detoured a few times to take issue with Dean on race and regional matters. Carson, Dean's spokesman, said: "This is more desperate attacks from the Washington politicians."