Friday, December 5, 2003

BLOOMBERG NEWS

NASHUA, N.H. - Criticizing President Bush for challenging enemy forces to "bring 'em on" earlier in the Iraq occupation, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said yesterday only someone who has not witnessed combat "would ever say anything as fatuous" as the commander in chief's remark.

"You don't make policy by taunting the enemy," said Clark, a retired Army general who was wounded in the Vietnam War. Bush was a Texas Air National Guard pilot, but never flew in battle.

Clark told students and faculty at Daniel Webster College that Bush had played a game of bait-and-switch by suggesting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a national security threat after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Clark said the 2004 election would be decided on foreign policy. Democrats should avoid being labeled anti-war, he said, predicting that Republicans would question the patriotism of Democrats as they attacked his party over the war.

Offering himself as the best candidate to oppose Bush, Clark said Democrats need a candidate who understands how to balance force with diplomacy. He called the Bush administration "all bully and no pulpit."

GOP accused of exploiting 9/11

Democratic leaders accused Republicans yesterday of exploiting Sept. 11 by holding their presidential convention in New York less than two weeks before the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"All indications are that the Republicans have gone to New York to exploit a terrible moment in our country," said Rod O'Connor, chief executive officer of the Democratic National Convention Committee in Boston.

Democrats are holding their convention there next summer.

The Republicans begin their gathering in New York on Aug. 30 - later than most nominating conventions - and end it on Sept. 2, nine days before the third anniversary of the attacks. Organizers of the Republican convention did not return calls seeking comment.

Gephardt hits S.C. airwaves

Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt began airing his first television ad in South Carolina yesterday, using a biographical commercial that has run in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Gephardt has been using radio ads for more than a month in South Carolina, which has the first-in-the-South presidential primary Feb. 3.

His television message debuted three days after Clark hit the airwaves in the state.

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards began his ad campaign in August and Howard Dean also ran television spots here briefly.

Lieberman sets goal on recount

Looking for a bright side to Al Gore's loss in the 2000 Florida recount, former running mate and current Democratic hopeful Joe Lieberman is asking donors to help raise $1,000 for each of the 538 votes that cost the Gore-Lieberman team the election.

Lieberman's campaign sent a fund-raising e-mail yesterday playing off the Dec. 12 anniversary of the end of the Florida recount.

Lieberman's count was slightly off. Bush won Florida by 537 votes out of more than 6 million cast.

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