Bush, Kerry step up attacks on each other
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-12 07:58

US President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry escalated their campaign battle on Thursday, with Bush launching television ads criticizing Kerry by name and Kerry fighting back against the "Republican attack squad."

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Ma) (L) welcomes U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC), on the street before entering a private meeting at a hotel in Washington, March 11, 2004. [Reuters]

Bush, shrugging off recent criticism for using images from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in his campaign ads, traveled to New York to appear at a groundbreaking ceremony for a 9/11 memorial, bowing his head in prayer and calling it "a devastating blow."

Bush launched his campaign's first attack ads, accusing the Massachusetts senator of planning to raise taxes by $900 billion, weaken the Patriot Act that expanded law enforcement powers and seek UN approval for defending the United States.

Kerry, facing criticism for calling his Republican critics on Wednesday a "crooked, lying group," refused to apologize for his remarks and said the claims in Bush's ads were false.

"There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative," Kerry told reporters after a series of meetings with Democrats on Capitol Hill. "I think the president needs to talk about the real priorities of our country."

U.S. President George W. Bush smiles at a little girl and her mother after a groundbreaking ceremony of the Nassau County 9/11 memorial at Eisenhower Park, in East Meadow, New York, March 11, 2004. [Reuters]

Kerry said Bush was attacking him because he "can't talk about his positive vision for America, because at each turn he has put this nation on the wrong track."

Kerry, returning to Capitol Hill for only the second time this year, held meetings with House and Senate Democrats and the black and Hispanic caucuses before concluding the day by meeting with former rival John Edwards, who dropped out of the race last week, and dozens of his top financial supporters.

At the memorial service in East Meadow, New York, Bush bowed his head in prayer and turned a spade of dirt to break ground for a 9/11 memorial. He left afterward for a fund-raiser that was expected to bring in $1.6 million for his campaign.

The White House said Bush's attendance was not in response to last week's controversy over his use of images of the blasted World Trade Center and firefighters. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the organizers invited Bush in mid-February and he accepted soon afterward, before the ad flap.

ADS CALLS KERRY "WRONG"

Bush's second round of campaign ads, airing on national cable networks and in 18 battleground states, include one that flashes from a classroom to more ominous images, including a person in a gas mask and someone running in the dark.

In addition to raising taxes and weakening the Patriot Act, the narrator warns that Kerry would "delay defending America until the United Nations approved" and concludes: "John Kerry: Wrong on taxes, wrong on defense."

The Kerry campaign released a lengthy rebuttal, calling the $900 billion figure "completely made up." Kerry has proposed eliminating the tax cuts on those making more than $200,000 but expanding tax cuts for middle-class families in specific areas.

Bush campaign aides defended the ads, saying Kerry has been running negative spots about the president for months.

"These ads demonstrate the clear choice the American people face in November," said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.

After his meetings at the Capitol, Kerry told reporters he would not apologize for his remarks on Wednesday. Apparently unaware he was being picked up by microphones, Kerry told a worker in a Chicago factory his Republican critics were "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

Kerry refused to back down, citing Bush's bitter presidential primary campaign against Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2000 and attacks on Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs in the war, in 2002 as examples of the "Republican attack squad" at work.

"I haven't said anything that's incorrect about them," Kerry said. "They said lots of things that are incorrect."

Republicans welcomed Kerry back to the Capitol with a joint Senate and House leadership news conference to condemn his voting record on defense, energy, taxes and the economy.

Republican House Leader Tom DeLay of Texas said Kerry and Democrats had no agenda for the future and "haven't produced anything but hate."

"Listen to John Kerry, either off-microphone or on-microphone, it's all about how bad George Bush is and very little about what he would do and what is the agenda," DeLay said.

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