Kerry says Bush hurts US domestically, globally

PHOENIX -- Attempting to shed the label of ''Massachusetts liberal," John F. Kerry pledged yesterday to run on national security -- not from it -- and branded President Bush as a weak leader who has hurt the country at home and abroad.

In a 38-minute address to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, the presumptive Democratic nominee asserted that he has plans to restore the nation's economy, health care system, and international relationships, while Bush does not. He cited the administration's balky response to allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraqi prisons by US soldiers as proof of its shortcomings.

''Today, Secretary Rumsfeld apologized on Capitol Hill, but the chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office," Kerry said just after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld apologized for the military during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. ''Harry Truman didn't say, 'The buck stops at the Pentagon.' And after 241 Marines were killed by terrorists in Beirut, Ronald Reagan had the strength to say, 'If there is to be blame, it properly rests here in this office, and with this president, and I accept responsibility for the bad as well as good.'

''America doesn't merely need a new secretary of defense; we need a new president of the United States," Kerry said. The invocation of Reagan, a Republican icon, and the challenge to Bush's leadership marked unusually strong language by Kerry and earned him a standing ovation from the audience of 800.

Among those in the front row were at least two potential running mates: Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa. A third possible running mate, Evan Bayh, an Indiana senator and chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, skipped the meeting to attend the Armed Services hearing in Washington.

With a major political contest looming over independents and other swing voters, Kerry tried to be clear that he was neither a tax-and-spend liberal nor a dove on national security. He made note of his split from some primary rivals, including former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who favored repealing recent tax cuts for the middle class, and he rejected his party's frequent reliance on its economic proposals to win votes in a presidential election.

''For 30 years, since Vietnam, the other party has tried to frighten voters into thinking that only Republicans care about national security. They've attacked us so often that some in our party would rather go out and change the subject to the economy, rather than show our strength on national security," the Massachusetts Democrat said.

''As long as I am privileged to lead this party, we are going to put the strength of America first, and throughout this campaign I've offered a positive vision of exactly how I'm going to do a better job of keeping America safe and restoring America's ability to lead in the world."

On the subject of the economy, he added: ''I refuse to lead a party that loves jobs but hates the people who create them."

Kerry's discussions of plans he has -- and his accusation that Bush lacks them -- stem from the campaign's belief that some Americans doubt the president has a plan for resolving Iraq, restoring the economy, and providing health insurance for the 4 million Americans who have lost it during the past 3 years. This week, Kerry spent three days highlighting education initiatives aimed at reducing the number of high school dropouts and expanding the corps of qualified teachers in public schools.

On Thursday night, addressing a meeting of the Arizona chapter of the AFL-CIO, Kerry focused on Iraq and the prisoner abuse in another twist on the theme. ''We see once again an administration slow to move, unaware of its own activities, miscalculating what is happening on the ground as it miscalculated going in," the senator said.

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the president's reelection committee, replied: ''It's another disturbing example of John Kerry playing politics with the war on terror by leveling gratuitous personal attacks on the president and other administration officials. It's highly ironic that he would be quoting Harry Truman, who was famous for straight talk. John Kerry is a politician who voted for the war, then declared himself an antiwar candidate, then voted against money for the troops he voted to send to war, which is a vacillation that stands in stark contrast to the steady leadership of presidents like Truman and Bush."

Kerry's blunt talk has been echoed in recent days by that of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

During an interview aired Thursday on NBC's ''Nightly News," she chafed at recent criticism of her husband's military record and, separately, criticism by Vice President Dick Cheney that Kerry had questionable credentials to be commander in chief because he had opposed some defense programs and cast different votes on the Iraqi and Persian Gulf wars.

''I have no problem with that for someone that has gone to war, but to have a couple of people who escaped four, five, six times, and deferred and deferred and deferred, calling him anything or doubting his heroism is unpatriotic. I refer to the vice president," she said.

Last night, during an interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC News program ''20/20," Heinz Kerry also discussed how she faced a decision about whether to have an abortion in the 1970s after she became pregnant with a fourth child at a time when she was taking hydrocortisone injections. She had discussed the subject in a 1996 Globe interview. In both interviews, she noted that she avoided undergoing the procedure when she miscarried the day before it was scheduled.

Both times she said her doctor recommended the abortion and said it highlighted the reason the procedure should be legal, if rare. The decision has taken on currency because some conservative Catholics have criticized the couple's selective adherence to Catholic doctrine and the senator's decision to take Communion when he disagrees with the church's staunch opposition to abortion. ''I presume that most women will look at a choice like that as a terrible choice. But they should be given the chance to make it, as I was," Heinz Kerry said on ''20/20."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.