LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. – President Bush on Tuesday accused rival John Kerry of changing positions on the Iraq war by adopting the language of one-time presidential candidate Howard Dean when Kerry called the conflict “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Kerry’s criticism came Monday during a campaign stop. Dean had used such phrasing in early 2003 when he was the Democratic candidate most critical of the war. At the time, Kerry took a more moderate stand, criticizing the president for failing to build a broader coalition of allies but not condemning the war altogether.
Kerry “woke up yesterday morning with yet another new position, and this one’s not even his own; it is that of his one-time rival, Howard Dean,” Bush told thousands of supporters Tuesday at a rally in the Kansas City suburbs.
Bush said Kerry “even used the same words Howard Dean did back when he supposedly disagreed with him … Senator Kerry flip-flops. We were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein from power.”
In February 2003, Dean was a little-known candidate for the Democratic nomination when he said Bush was focused on “the wrong war at the wrong time” concerning Iraq. The month before Dean’s remarks, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., used a similar phrase when he said, “I continue to be convinced that this is the wrong war at the wrong time.”
In the summer of 2003, Kerry was accusing Bush of breaking his promise to build an international coalition to oppose Hussein and waging a war based on questionable intelligence. “He misled every one of us,” Kerry said in June 2003. However, he said, it was still too early to conclude whether or not the war was justified.
Bush also said Kerry is blocking lawsuit restrictions that would help generate new jobs.
“I understand my opponent changes positions a lot, but for 20 years he’s been one of the trial lawyers’ most reliable allies in the Senate,” the president said.
Bush, campaigning in suburbs that he won four years ago, said Kerry has consistently voted against legal changes that would protect workers and businesses.
“His fellow lawyers have responded with millions of dollars in campaign donations,” said the president.
Bush said that “ending junk lawsuits” is necessary to create more jobs and that “the cost to our economy of litigation is conservatively estimated to be over $230 billion a year.” Kerry running mate John Edwards is a personal injury lawyer.
Campaigning in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the nation faces the threat of another terrorist attack if voters make the “wrong choice” on Election Day, suggesting that Kerry would follow a pre-Sept. 11 policy of reacting defensively.
The Kerry-Edwards campaign immediately rejected those comments as “scare tactics” that crossed the line.
Associated Press
President Bush speaks during a campaign appearance Tuesday in Sedalia, Mo., where he defended the war in Iraq.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
