In Georgia, Kerry keeps up attacks on Bush
ATLANTA -- Senator John F. Kerry yesterday fended off an unusually direct attack from President Bush's campaign chairman -- who criticized the "remarkably negative tone" of Kerry's White House bid -- while energizing about 1,000 Georgia voters with 90 minutes of almost uninterrupted denunciations of Bush over jobs, taxes, and the Iraq war.
During a two-hour service at predominantly black Ebenezer Baptist Church, and later at the forum with voters inside a rock and jazz concert hall, the Massachusetts senator enveloped himself in the history and language of the civil rights movement. He clasped hands with leaders such as Representative John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, and using phrases like "separate and unequal" to describe American schools today.
"The anxieties of the nation are growing, as the outsourcing of jobs takes place and as we refuse to acknowledge that you have to invest in this nation, in people, in our communities, in order to make this country grow," Kerry told a standing-room-only crowd of 800 in the
Kerry, campaigning before the Super Tuesday contests in Georgia and nine other states March 2, spoke at greatest length about creating jobs and enforcing trade pacts to benefit American workers -- a dual strategy of attacking Bush while also competing with his chief Democratic rival, Senator John Edwards, for votes among those who are deeply concerned about the economy.
As usual, the candidate's harshest words were reserved for Bush -- and yesterday the president's camp hit back in a letter that delighted Kerry's aides, who said they felt the senator was putting the Republicans on the defensive and forcing them into a debate on Kerry's terms.
Marc Racicot, Bush's campaign chairman who wrote the letter, disputed Kerry's protest -- made in a letter to Bush on Saturday -- that Republican criticism of Kerry's voting record on defense spending was tantamount to questioning Kerry's patriotism.
Racicot wrote that Bush's campaign "does not condone any effort to impugn your patriotism," but singled out federal legislation that Kerry supported to cut defense and intelligence spending in the mid-'90s, and nine missile and weapons programs that the senator sought to eliminate or reduce.
"Our campaign is not questioning your patriotism or military service, but your votes and statements on the issues now facing our country," Racicot wrote.
He also challenged Kerry "to elevate the remarkably negative tone of your campaign and your party over the past year."
"Your chief surrogate, Senator Edward Kennedy, has said that the war to remove Saddam Hussein was `made up in Texas,' " Racicot wrote. "The chairman of your party has accused the President of being `AWOL.' During the first days of combat in Iraq, you yourself called for `regime change in the United States.' Of the $6.95 million that your campaign has spent on television ads, 74 percent of those ad dollars have funded a direct attack on the President."
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said: "Mr. Racicot's response is a reminder of why President Bush has lost credibility with the American people. He didn't tell us the truth about the war. He didn't tell us the truth about the economy. So how can we believe his campaign? . . . This letter from Mr. Racicot is just another reason why the American people deserve to hear an honest debate between John Kerry and George Bush on the issues. Let's hope President Bush will stop hiding behind his attack dogs, his $100 million campaign war chest, and his campaign chairman."
In interviews with a half-dozen voters outside the Roxy theater yesterday, each said the economy was the biggest issue in this election, with the Iraq war in second place. "If someone doesn't put a screeching halt to the loss of jobs, we're really going to be in for it as a country," said Melinda Miller, a nurse who had come from church with her husband, Marty, and their 6-year-old, Gabriela, to wait in line at the Roxy in hopes of seeing Kerry.
The Millers also were distributing a four-page pamphlet outlining their ideas for "USA Stores," a group of new department stores that would buy and sell only American-made goods.
Meanwhile, in Niles, Ohio, Edwards visited a picket line of striking steelworkers, standing outside the RMI Titanium plant gates and speaking to 150 people through a megaphone. More than 300 Niles-based steelworkers have been striking since Oct. 26 over benefit and salary reductions. Edwards told them of textile plant closings in the small North Carolina town of his childhood. "This is personal for me," he said. "I have lived through this. I have seen up close what it does. I'm somebody that will wake up every morning in the White House fighting for you, fighting for your jobs."
Globe staff writer Raja Mishra contributed to this report from Niles, Ohio. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
