Posted on 04/26/2004 10:14:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
FULTON, Mo. -
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said Monday that John Kerry (news - web sites) "has given us ample grounds to doubt" his judgment on national security even as the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) chairman urged the White House to stop such attacks.
"Call off the Republican attack dogs," DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe told reporters in Washington. Half a country away, Cheney told a friendly crowd at Westminster College that Kerry wavered in views to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) as well as the strength of the Persian Gulf war coalition built by President Bush (news - web sites)'s father.
The vice president dug up several quotes in which Kerry supported the removal of Saddam Hussein and praised the effort of the first Bush president. The vice president also criticized Kerry for supporting military budget and intelligence cuts during his four terms as Massachusetts senator.
"In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of 100 in the U.S. Senate and fortunately on matters of national security, he was often the minority. But the president always casts the deciding vote and the senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security."
Cheney's speech coincides with a $10 million television advertising spree by Bush's re-election campaign, starting this week, that seeks to portray Kerry as weak on national security. Other Bush ads have questioned the Massachusetts senator's fitness for the presidency because he voted against a $87 billion funding measure for U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites). Bush, Kerry has said, threatened to veto the bill.
"George Bush has sent Dick Cheney to kick off a misleading ad campaign attacking John Kerry's commitments to defending America. And Dick Cheney is still able to stand by with a straight face and watch these attacks unfold," McAuliffe said during a news conference.
"The American people have better things to do with their time than listen to more misleading attacks from a man who has been misleading them from the day he took office," McAuliffe said.
A spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, Steve Schmidt, responded that McAuliffe has "a staggering lack of credibility" on the issue.
"During the height of the Cold War John Kerry advocated canceling the critical weapons systems that helped win the Cold War and are still being used to win the war on terror," Schmidt said. "After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Vice President Cheney helped transform the military from the Cold War era to the 21st century military that serves America today."
In a preview of his news conference, McAuliffe said Sunday that Cheney has "zero credibility" when it comes to criticizing Kerry's national security credentials. Cheney as secretary of defense had proposed cuts to weapons programs being used by U.S. troops in Iraq, McAuliffe said.
Cheney, who was defense secretary from 1989-1992, "tried to kill" more than 81 weapons programs, including M-1 tanks, Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter planes and B-2 bombers, McAuliffe said. He also pushed for closing more than 70 domestic military installations, and reducing the size of the military by 500,000 active duty personnel and 200,000 reservists, McAuliffe said.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a case seeking to force the disclosure of members of Cheney's energy task force. Bush and Cheney testify together and in private Thursday before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks.
Saturday marks the first anniversary of Bush's visit to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, where, under a giant banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," he declared the end of major combat in Iraq. Most of the more than 700 U.S. troops killed in Iraq lost their lives after Bush's May 1, 2003, declaration.
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On the Net:
Democratic National Committee: http://www.democrats.org
Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com
Bush campaign: http://www.georgewbush.com
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Associated Press Writer Sam Hananel contributed to this report.
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) waves to supporters following a fund-raising visit for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels in Indianapolis, Friday, April 23, 2004. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Oh..OK...sure Terri, but only if you say please.
AP White House Correspondent Ron Fournier goes over notes, 1998. Fournier came to Washington with President Clinton in 1993 from AP's Little Rock bureau. Fournier joined the AP in 1989 after working for the Arkansas Democrat and the Hot Springs (Ark.) Sentinel-Record.
"I knew John F. Kennedy and John F. Kerry is no Jack Kennedy" Pretty good putdown by VP Cheney. Kerry is like a gigalo deer in the headlights (along with the Heinz Ketchup Queen wife). Has anyone seen that woman on stage wondering around as if she doesn't know where she is supposed to be seated?
I'll do one better, since the President declared an end to major combat ops on May 1st, 2003, an estimated 5000 children per month have been saved - over 22 million innoculated from disease, whole villages with clean water for the first time...and a whole bunch of stuff Ron F. and his terrorist-appeasing AP pals neglect to mention - and that's just the first 6 months. Plenty of mostly unreported progress over the next 6 months, as well - hard won victories for our troops and the majority of Iraqis.
Ron and AP dishonor our troops daily with their pretense of caring about our fallen, even as they hype the rotten actions of an enemy that would willingly mass-murder children, and ignore the mighty good works of our courageous liberators who willingly risk their lives for the children of strangers daily in Iraq.
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