Edwards's tough talk claims of '04 disputed

WASHINGTON -- As he campaigns for president based on his aggressive criticisms of President Bush, John Edwards, a former Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said repeatedly that he had wanted to fight back against attacks on his 2004 running mate, John F. Kerry, but was stopped by the Kerry camp.

Edwards, who first made the statement in interviews after the 2004 race, has repeated it recently in private meetings with party donors as he seeks to contrast his "backbone" with Democratic rivals whom he portrays as unwilling to confront Bush over the Iraq war.

But Kerry and more than a half-dozen former high-ranking Kerry-Edwards campaign officials dispute the idea that Edwards favored a tougher strategy in 2004, and maintain that Edwards often refused their requests to make sharper attacks against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The former campaign aides said Kerry made a personal appeal to Edwards in a face-to-face meeting in Ohio in early September 2004, and Edwards vowed to turn up the heat on their Republican opponents.

But the vice presidential nominee, who had presented himself as a campaigner with a positive message, continued to shy away from aggressive attacks, according to the former aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were describing internal campaign communications.

Indeed, Edwards responded to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth political advertisements only after Kerry delivered the first blow.

"Edwards refused to play the traditional role of a running mate -- being the person who's delivering the negative message on the opponents," said one former senior campaign official who was involved in the discussions between the Kerry and Edwards staffs. The official no longer works for Kerry and is not affiliated with any of the 2008 presidential candidates.

"He just wouldn't do it," the campaign official said of Edwards. "He wouldn't do it on Swift Boats, and he wouldn't do it on any other issue."

Edwards has offered a different account. Three months after Election Day, he said on ABC's "This Week" that Kerry operatives prohibited him from pushing back at the Swift Boat ads, which attacked Kerry over his service in Vietnam.

"I wanted to fight back the day it started," Edwards said. "The decision was made not to do it, and I did not agree with that decision."

In a new book, "What a Party!", Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman, said Edwards made a similar statement to him.

"Terry, they wouldn't let me" attack Bush, McAuliffe quotes Edwards as saying in December 2004. "I wanted to go after the Swift Boat guys. I wanted to go after Bush. They wouldn't let me."

One Democratic donor said he's twice heard Edwards tell private audiences, including this year, that he wanted to be more aggressive but the Kerry camp "would not let him."

Kerry disputed the account by Edwards in McAuliffe's book, saying he was frustrated that Edwards was not tougher. He told McAuliffe that Edwards told him several times, "Watch the news tomorrow. I'm really going to go after Bush," but that Edwards did not deliver.

Kerry declined to comment for this report, though aides said he stands by his account to McAuliffe.

A spokeswoman for the Edwards presidential campaign, Kate Bedingfield, declined to comment on the 2004 campaign.

But Peter Scher, campaign manager for Edwards during his vice presidential run, insisted that the former North Carolina senator never shied away from attacking Bush or the Swift Boat veterans. Though the Edwards and Kerry camps sometimes disagreed over how to launch particular attacks, Edwards was consistently aggressive, he said.

"There was never a hesitation to go after Bush and Cheney," Scher said. "To the extent there were differences, there were differences about how best to do it and what made sense, but it was never a question of trying to go soft."

Edwards had prided himself on his positive campaign style during the 2004 primaries. He credited that style for his late surge in the Iowa caucuses, which enabled him to finish second to Kerry.

"If you are looking for the candidate that will do the best job of attacking the other Democrats, I am not your guy," Edwards told crowds during his primary campaign.

When Kerry selected Edwards, he knew that Edwards was an effective spokesman on poverty issues -- painting a picture of the "two Americas" -- and delivered generally positive stump speeches, former aides said.

But they said they also expected Edwards to help build a case against Bush and to defend Kerry when needed.

Shortly after Kerry chose Edwards, senior campaign aides asked Edwards whether he was comfortable taking on a fighting role, and Edwards -- who gained fame as a trial attorney -- said yes, according to aides with direct knowledge of the meeting.

This was the role often played by vice presidential nominees. Cheney was already firing back against all Democratic allegations, and relentlessly depicted Kerry as too indecisive to be president.

But with the Kerry-Edwards ticket faring well in midsummer polls, Kerry was glad to have his running mate offering a positive message, according to former campaign aides.

Then, on Aug. 5, a group comprising some of Kerry's fellow veterans of "swift boat" patrols in Vietnam launched ads attacking his military record. It was during that period that Edwards has said he began agitating for a direct response to the ads, but the Kerry campaign overruled him, said Scher, his former campaign manager.

"Senator Edwards was absolutely prepared and eager to denounce the Swift Boat attacks, and took his direction from the campaign leadership about when to do that," he said.

Former Kerry aides acknowledge that they did not want the campaign to respond to the ads at first, but say Edwards did not push them to reconsider. Then, with polls suggesting that the ads were having a major impact, the Kerry campaign decided to fight back.

Their first choice, according to the former aides, was to have Edwards and Kerry leading a double-barreled attack, with Edwards focusing on the fact that both Bush and Cheney managed to avoid serving in Vietnam.

But Edwards responded that while it was important to respond forcefully, Kerry should lead the effort, according to former Kerry staff members.

On Aug. 19, at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston, Kerry delivered a blistering attack, calling the Swift Boat group "a front for the Bush campaign" and issuing a blunt challenge to the president.

"If he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on!" Kerry said.

Edwards didn't weigh in until Aug. 21, with a more measured response demanding that Bush call for the ads to be taken off the air, deeming it "a moment of truth for George W. Bush."

After the damage done by the Swift Boat ads, the Kerry campaign wanted Edwards to spearhead a more aggressive critique of Bush and Cheney over the final two months, former aides said.

On the last night of the Republican National Convention -- where Kerry was bashed relentlessly -- Kerry huddled with Edwards before a rally in Springfield, Ohio, in a meeting that aides said was set up so Kerry could personally implore Edwards to go on the attack.

Edwards promised to get more aggressive, according to former aides who were briefed on the Sept. 2 conversation.

But Kerry and his top advisers never saw that vow turned into action. In the campaign's final weeks, Kerry's top communications aides would talk with staff members traveling with Edwards every morning, sending them attack lines they wanted Edwards to use.

Edwards often pushed back, insisting on softer language and delaying the attacks for hours, one former Kerry-Edwards communications aide said. Toward the end of the campaign, former campaign aides said, they turned to surrogates -- including Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and a retired Army general, Wesley K. Clark -- to deliver the broadsides .

"There was a hesitancy, an unwillingness to put straight attack lines in his speeches," the former campaign official said. "He just didn't really go after in an explicit way the president or the vice president, certainly not in the way that Cheney did."

This year, Edwards has been far more willing to take on the Bush White House and his fellow Democrats over major issues, particularly the president's handling of Iraq.

In recent weeks, he has chided his Democratic opponents for not confronting the president over the war, and he called on Congress to deny Bush the funding to send more troops to Iraq.

"Silence is betrayal," Edwards said at a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington. "Opposing this escalation with all the vigor and tools that we have is a test of political courage. And you better believe that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove -- they don't think we're up to it. They don't think we have the backbone and courage to stand up to them."

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.