Bush Hindering Probes, Kerry Says
washingtonpost.com
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A02
TOUGALOO, Miss., March 7 -- Sen. John F. Kerry, intensifying the election fight over terrorism and national security, accused President Bush on Sunday of "stonewalling" for political reasons separate investigations into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and prewar intelligence on Iraq.
The Massachusetts Democrat echoed Bush's promise to make Sept. 11 a top election issue and, for the second time in the young general election campaign, portrayed the president as playing politics with the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.
"I think one of the most critical questions in front of the country is with respect to 9/11, why is this administration stonewalling and resisting the investigation into why we had the greatest security failure in the history of our country and why is he also resisting having an immediate investigation into the security failure with respect to the intelligence in Iraq," Kerry told reporters at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss.
Kerry's new line of attack, described as a direct response to Bush's Sept. 11 political challenge, highlighted the headlining role terrorism and national security are playing in the 2004 presidential election. Bush is trying to paint Kerry as too wobbly and inconsistent to lead the nation through troubled times; Kerry is portraying the president as reckless and inept with his foreign policy.
Steve Schmidt, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, called the charges "another example of inaccurate attacks by Senator Kerry.
"Senator Kerry feels a great deal of vulnerability because of his record of voting to cut the nation's intelligence budget," Schmidt said.
Marc Racicot, Bush's campaign chairman, asserted earlier on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush has been "entirely cooperative" with the independent panel looking into the Sept. 11 attacks -- formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Just days after blasting Bush for raising Sept. 11 images in election ads, Kerry said the Bush White House has complicated the independent investigation into the terrorist attacks in hopes of shutting it down quickly. "I think they don't want accountability," Kerry said. "They want to get it out of the way as fast as they can so the memory of Americans might be shorter."
A bipartisan independent commission investigating intelligence failures is expected to release its findings this summer, though some commission members have complained of a lack of White House cooperation in getting documents and open interviews with key officials.
Kerry, who voted for the Iraq war, said the British are moving more swiftly than the United States to investigate the prewar intelligence used to justify the invasion, and he accused Bush of "slow walking" a probe here in hopes of pushing the issue off until after the November election.
Last month, Bush named a commission to determine why inspectors have not found the weapons that intelligence experts said Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iraq. He told the panel to report back by the end of March 2005.
Kerry believes "their political agenda has stopped them from doing both quickly or effectively," spokesman David Wade said Sunday.
The senator said he plans to ask a group of Republicans and Democrats to travel to Iraq soon to survey the situation and report their findings. "I do have a responsibility to get the best information possible," he said.
Kerry said he may travel to Iraq himself, but worries that such a trip might be seen as too political during the election season. "That's a possibility and it's something that's been discussed, but the time's difficult and I don't want any sense of politicization in that regard."
Kerry's remarks to reporters came two hours after he used a 15-minute morning speech at a black church to rail against politicians who fail to match their religious words with earthly deeds and seek to divide the nation over race, income and even home states.
"You can run the list of those deeds not matched by words," Kerry said, quoting the New Testament's James, before rattling off everything from broken environmental promises to those who profess to be a "compassionate conservative."
Bush often invokes his religious faith, and Kerry plans to highlight his own beliefs and what he sees as the Bible's call to social action, a top aide said. Kerry will largely confine his Bible-based remarks to church services on the campaign trail as he has throughout his political career, the aide said.
Kerry finished his speech at the Pentecostal church with this warning: "I don't agree with the hollowness, nor do you, that tries to divide black and white, rich and poor, Massachusetts and Mississippi," he said. "In fact, some people just want us pointing fingers at each other. The reason they do that is so no one points a finger at them."
Yet, two hours later, Kerry was pointing the finger at Bush and his administration over delays in finalizing the Sept. 11 report and prewar intelligence. "The American people deserve an answer now," he said. The senator said last week that it was inappropriate for Bush to use images of the Sept. 11 ruins in his election ads, sparking a debate over the politics of terrorism that spilled over into the Sunday morning political shows.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), appearing on ABC's "This Week," said he would not have invoked some of the images used in the Bush ads, but defended the president's reliance on the broader theme.
"Oh, I might not have used the ad of the coffin coming out, or the body coming out of the ruins with a flag on it. But let's be very clear. The president had a defining moment on September 11, and his leadership of the American people clearly is part of the rationale and a large part of the rationale for his reelection."
At the news conference, Kerry said he would meet this week with former presidential rival Howard Dean, who was critical of Kerry through the primaries and caucuses. The Kerry campaign is eager to get Dean on board and tap into the former Vermont governor's fundraising machine, which shattered records in 2003 by raking in more than $40 million.
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