Posted on 05/18/2003 5:22:19 AM PDT by RJCogburn
Democratic presidential candidates challenged President Bush today on his handling of the war on terrorism, questioning the administration's failure to find Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and asserting that Mr. Bush had failed to protect the nation adequately against further terrorist attacks.
The candidates, appearing at a labor forum here this morning, repeatedly castigated Mr. Bush, their presumptive opponent in November 2004, for what the White House has portrayed as one of Mr. Bush's chief strengths: his record in battling terrorism abroad and protecting Americans at home.
The criticisms came in a week when terrorists killed dozens of people in bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, attacks that officials have said bear the trademark of Al Qaeda. The bombings have stirred concerns about the terrorist group's persistence, even after many of its leaders have been detained or killed. They have also reignited questions about whether the war on Iraq might have inflamed suicidal terrorists.
Senator Bob Graham of Florida, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been among the most persistently critical members of Congress of Mr. Bush's antiterror policies before and after the attacks of Sept. 11, said that the White House had neglected the threat of Al Qaeda and instead focused on Baghdad.
"We have let Al Qaeda off the hook," Mr. Graham said, as members of the municipal workers union here rose in applause. "We had them on the ropes close to dismantlement, and then we we moved resources out of Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight the war in Iraq. We let them regenerate."
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, called the war in Iraq a diversion that had not left the United States any safer. "We have a president who talks tough on homeland security but is strangling the city and the towns and not giving them the money that is necessary to protect them," Dr. Dean said.
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri said, "We are vulnerable to future attacks because this administration has not done its job and has not increased our ability to have homeland security."
The union audience was sympathetic to the Democrats' contentions, because its members would benefit if, as many Democrats have recommended, spending for security measures such as police, firefighting, rescue squads and medical care were increased more rapidly than the administration has recommended.
The remarks by the candidates came at a forum here organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to press the Democrats to talk about issues of concern to the union. It was an early step in their courtship of a union whose endorsement is sought by all the Democratic candidates.
The candidates used the forum in front of 1,000 union members here to emphasize their commitment to health care coverage and increasing financing to state and local governments staggering under federal budget cuts and a tough economy.
But the spirited attack on Mr. Bush's terrorist credentials served as a reminder of how prominent that issue would be in the election, no matter how much Democrats talk about domestic issues. It united the Democrats on the stage, and drew cheers from the audience and shouts of "hear, hear!" from the union's leader, Gerald W. McEntee.
Municipal workers have watched as state governments, struggling with the mounting cost of terrorist protection and with falling revenues, have cut their budgets. The Democrats repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for failing to allocate promised money to help defray the security costs required by federal laws enacted since Sept. 11, 2001.
At one point, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina noted that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, a Republican, had been forced to push through deep layoffs in his municipal work force, an observation that drew shouts of angry recognition from the crowd.
"The Republicans are planning to have their convention in New York City to showcase the leadership of George Bush," Mr. Edwards said. "I think it's a great place to showcase the leadership of George Bush." Mr. Bush, in a radio address today that was taped before the forum, said the Saudi bombings "provide a stark reminder that the war on terror continues," but he added, "Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland."
The meeting was nothing like the debate in South Carolina two weeks ago, when the candidates argued with one another about the war in Iraq and other issues. This time, only seven of the nine announced Democrats attended. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut was observing the Jewish Sabbath, while Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts was delivering a commencement address in New Hampshire.
The other two candidates who were here were Carol Moseley Braun, the former senator from Illinois, and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio.
The subject turned to terrorism in response to a question by Joseph Conzo, an emergency medical technician with New York City's fire department, who was dispatched to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Upon his introduction, first the crowd and then the candidates rose to their feet in tribute to the officer.
"I was one of the lucky ones; I survived," Mr. Conzo said.
Some Democrats have argued that Mr. Bush is vulnerable on the issue of domestic terrorism. They have attacked the White House for withholding financing for emergency services, and for failing to set up a system to block the smuggling of nuclear or biological weapons through the nation's porous port system.
And even as Mr. Bush was portraying the victory in Baghdad as a defeat of terrorism, some of the Democrats here were raising questions about it.
"Mr. Bush, the question you have not answered is, where is bin Laden?" proclaimed the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York. "You keep going after everything but who went after us. Mr. Bush will not be, in a Sharpton administration, the head of missing persons. He can't find bin Laden. We don't know if Hussein is living or dead. And we can't find the weapons of mass destruction."
Dumb as donkeys.
So union members were pleased at letting Al Qaeda off the hook?
Most Senate Democrats voted against giving Bush the authority to deal with Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Now they are complaining that Bush does not do enough?
The 'rat party is schizo, demanding safety and security but unwilling to take the politcal risks to achieve them.
Ahhhhhhhh.............the new yawk times. Figures.
The RATS are trying to spin homeland security into financial security.
And the Times is more than willing to help...
It is quite obvious that the DEMS have no ideas. They continue the same old rants ad nauseum.
Never mind that it was their boy, X42, that refused Sudan's offer of bin Laden's head on a platter and who also turned a bunch of FALN terrorists loose to terrorize another day.
Perhaps these RATS should point out what XXX42 did in 8 years as an model example of how to counter terrorism, prevent its spread, and protect our nation. That explanation should only take one short breath: "Nothing".
Ergo.................
For the previous eight years, we blindly fire a few cruise missiles once in a while and pay off the North Koreans, etc.
I should know better then to even read, let alone respond to, posts quoted from the NYT, but sometimes it is irresistable.
What an utterly loathsome collection of hateful, hypocritical partisans.
This attack on Bush will backfire because it is an attack not only on Bush, but on the 90% or so who were for the war on terror, and the 70% for the war on Iraq, and they're not likely to admit they were wrong.
Most of us who were for these wars are amazed at what has been accomplished, and we realize that it's still the first quarter of the game, and we're way ahead.
These two most recent attacks have not been celebrated by the "Arab street" in the same manner as 9-11. The only ones ululating are the democrats.
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