Kerry enlists sharp tongues to attack Bush

[Epitome22]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/s...l=chi-news-hed


Kerry enlists sharp tongues to attack Bush

By Jill Zuckman
Tribune national correspondent
Published September 7, 2004

RACINE, W.Va. -- Sen. John Kerry's campaign has a new, unofficial strategy: To get even, get mad.

Across Ohio and into West Virginia over the Labor Day weekend, Kerry supporters took to the campaign stage with mocking, caustic, scornful rhetoric directed at President Bush's military service and Vice President Dick Cheney's lack of service. Kerry stood by smiling, hands clasped, as the invective flew.

"When John Kerry was dodging bullets in Vietnam, George Bush and Dick Cheney were dodging the draft in the United States," Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, declared Monday at a Labor Day picnic here.

In Akron, Ohio, Mayor Donald Plusquellic described Bush as "hiding in the woods in Alabama" while Kerry "was defending our country."

And in Steubenville, Ohio, Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) introduced Kerry as "a man who was carrying guns through the jungles of Vietnam while George Bush was neglecting his military service and carrying out his responsibilities as a cheerleader at Yale University."

The harsh words came as Democrats have expressed increasing nervousness about the Kerry campaign's agility in responding to attacks on the nominee's military service. With a new set of political operatives from the Clinton White House, however, Kerry and his operation are expected to move faster and more forcefully to repel the attacks.

On Monday during a campaign visit to Poplar Bluff, Mo., Bush took Kerry to task for shifting positions on Iraq. And the Kerry campaign responded to the anticipated attack before Bush had uttered the words.

Also on Monday, Kerry unveiled another slogan to crystallize his message: "W stands for wrong. Wrong choices. Wrong direction," he said in Cleveland.

Mudslinging and the politics of personal destruction are not unusual in competitive political campaigns. It's also not unusual to inoculate a candidate by leaving the tough talk to others.

At last week's Republican National Convention in New York, for example, some delegates wore bandages with Purple Hearts inked on top to belittle Kerry's wartime wounds. He was awarded three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star as a naval lieutenant in Vietnam.

Before the convention, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth launched an advertising campaign questioning whether Kerry deserved his medals and criticizing him for his anti-war protests.

Many of the group's assertions about Kerry have since been discredited, but a new group, Texans for Truth, has sprung up to question Bush's participation in his National Guard unit while in Alabama during the war.

In a television advertisement to begin airing Friday, Bob Mintz, a lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Air National Guard during the time Bush was supposed to have been there in 1972, will say he never saw Bush at the base even though he looked for him, according to a spokeswoman for the group.

Kerry officials said Monday that they have nothing to do with the group or its ads.

As the attacks on Bush gathered force over the weekend, aides to Kerry said their surrogates were speaking from the heart, not from a script, despite the similarities in content and tone.

"Those comments were totally unscripted," insisted David Wade, a Kerry spokesman. "Many thought it was the height of hypocrisy for people who hadn't served to disparage someone who had."

One senior campaign official described some of the weekend's speakers as "a little hot" but added, "this was not a planned effort."

Akron's Plusquellic, for example, said in an interview that no one from the campaign told him what to say and he did not read from prepared remarks. Though he said his primary concern is the nation's loss of jobs, Plusquellic, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, called Bush "a draft dodger."

"It's clear John Kerry was over there serving," said Plusquellic, who described himself as infuriated that Vietnam is an issue in the campaign. "And George Bush did everything he could in his father's power to get out of going over there.

"How they got the upper hand here is beyond me," he added, referring to the Republicans.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt, however, accused the Kerry campaign of engaging in "flailing attacks" to divide the nation. "It's non-stop attacks about the past," Schmidt said. "It is a campaign that has become shrill, negative and pessimistic."

He noted that the only time the Bush campaign has mentioned Kerry's military service has been to praise it. Cheney and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani did just that at the GOP convention, he said, and delegates applauded.

But plenty of other high-profile Republicans have suggested that the swift boat group must know something that others do not about Kerry's conduct in Vietnam, including former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and former President George H.W. Bush.

When campaigns devolve into name-calling, it often is difficult to sort out who went after whom first. But Kerry's supporters insisted over the weekend that they simply were responding to a campaign of lies about the Massachusetts senator and his record, in the military and politics.

Former Sen. John Glenn of Ohio described the Bush tactics as "the politics of distraction," to keep voters from focusing on the loss of jobs and the lack of health care.

In Steubenville he read from the Republican convention speech of Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) asserting that Kerry would not use military force without the approval of the United Nations. Glenn said Kerry's actual words show that he never would allow the UN to dictate American actions.

"They're making claims that are just not true," Glenn said. "And that's the biggest job we have to do for the rest of the campaign to make sure those things are put right."

But to "put it right," many of Kerry's supporters are simply training their fire on Bush.

Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Bush avoided going to Vietnam with the help of his father's connections, joining the Texas Air National Guard and getting stationed in Alabama.

"All he had in Alabama was one tooth filled and then they never found him again," McEntee shouted to the Steubenville rally Saturday. "Who are they to question us?"

"Dick Cheney. Five deferments. One, two, three, four, five deferments so he wouldn't have to go to Vietnam. Five of them," McEntee continued. "John Ashcroft, who thinks he owns the American flag, got a deferment to teach school in Missouri. They're not patriots, they're not for working families."

In Canonsburg, Pa., on Monday, one voter told Kerry during a question-and-answer session that he wanted to apologize "for those who have not served and who have had the audacity to question you, a real American hero."

Kerry said the attacks have only served to cover up the Bush administration's failure to create new jobs.

"I will let the American people decide whether five deferments make you more qualified to serve America in a position of leadership or two tours of duty," Kerry said.

[u2sarajevo]

Word of warning for Kerry: In an election, if a candidate who's trust(perceived or not) is questionable attacks his opponent the end result typically turns out negatively towards the attacking candidate.

May not be a good idea to attack there buddy....

[Drbio]

Last grasp at electoral oxygen.


Kerry is drowning.

[dude1394]

Kerry had better find something postive to talk about. Negative campaigning works but only if you have some credibility or some sort of message yourself. Kerry just doesn't have a message.

If he didn't have the media in his pocket he would really be toast.

[LRB]

Kerry doesn't have a clue on how to extract his head from his @$$. At least he's giving us better comedy than even the parody experts at Saturday Night Live could cook up.

[dude1394]

Note written by John Kerry after the polls came out.

[mavsman55]

Dude - lol

Anger Management is a vital skill involved in leading a country. If he can't take criticism, which he's proven he can not with countless flip-flops, he will fold under the pressure of being the president of the United States. Good grief.