Clark aides blast Dean leaflet

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- As some Democrats pine for a Dean-Clark or Clark-Dean ticket, the rhetorical war between retired Army General Wesley K. Clark and former Vermont governor Howard Dean intensified yesterday, with Clark aides crying foul about a flier from the Dean campaign.

Clark campaign officials set up a hasty conference call with reporters yesterday to denounce a sheet of paper that a Dean supporter handed out at a Clark event in Peterborough.

Labeled "paid for by Dean for America" -- and spotted at a Clark event in Bedford on Tuesday -- it questioned whether Clark was a "real Democrat," suggested he was "pro-war," and quoted Clark praising Bush administration officials, discussing his past support for Republican presidents, and voicing reserved support for the resolution authorizing war in Iraq.

Those issues have dogged the Clark campaign from its beginnings. But Clark aides said the Dean attack was a sign that, despite a fierce fight in Iowa, the presidential race might be evolving into a two-way battle between Clark and Dean.

A New Hampshire tracking poll released this week by American Research Group indicated Clark in second place behind Dean, pulling ahead of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

A USA Today poll indicated Clark and Dean in a statistical tie nationwide.

And Clark aides said their internal polling indicates Clark and Dean ahead in several states with Feb. 3 primaries.

"I think the Howard Dean camp is starting to get a little nervous. They're hearing our footsteps," said Mo Elleithee, Clark's New Hampshire communications director.

Elleithee also cited some of Dean's recent complaints that attacks among Democrats were "bad for the party."

He said the Clark campaign would never put out a negative flier.

"Here in New Hampshire, we have not been engaging in any sort of negative campaigning," he said. "Our campaign is going to continue to run the same kind of positive campaign that we have now."

Dean spokesman Jay Carson later scoffed at the "crocodile tears," saying the Clark campaign has dealt negative information about Dean behind the scenes.

Carson drew a difference between "when you're pointing out facts about the candidate and when negativity is your whole M.O."

Carson also denied that the Dean camp felt threatened by Clark.

"Few things have been more perplexing to me than the Clark campaign's obsession with their race for the vice presidency," he said.

Clark tried to take the high road yesterday, telling reporters that the Dean flier was "what you'd expect from professional politicians."

Still, as campaign tiffs go, yesterday's raised age-old campaign questions: Is it negative to whisper facts about somebody else? And when you criticize your opponent for negative campaigning, is that negative campaigning, too?

The flier war was bad news for Peterborough resident Jennifer Wood, 63, who left yesterday's packed "Conversation with Clark" trying to decide between the two candidates, saying wistfully, "they'd be a great combination."