Bush campaign portrays Kerry as out of touch on terrorism

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- As the US death toll in Iraq passed 1,000 yesterday, the Bush campaign turned attention away from the battlefield and toward its Democratic rival, sharply escalating its attacks on John F. Kerry over his position on Iraq and his stand on national security, despite its promises to address domestic issues.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in one of his harshest comments about the Democratic nominee to date, suggested that electing Kerry would increase the chance of a new terrorist attack on US soil because he would react after the fact, instead of aggressively pursuing terrorists abroad. The sharp escalation of rhetoric was condemned by the Kerry campaign.

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice," Cheney said. "Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

President Bush, taking an increasingly mocking tone, directly accused his Democratic rival of "flip-flops" for the first time publicly, part of a new strategy designed to keep Kerry on the defensive on a daily basis. At the same time, Bush campaign advisers continued their slow negotiations over the debate calendar, determined not to give Kerry any tactical advantage in a race that could turn on a single event or two in the days ahead. The campaign announced its debate negotiation team -- headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III -- but did not disclose whether Bush will participate in the three planned debates or fewer.

Yesterday the campaign debate occurred long-distance, via the airwaves and the Internet.

"My opponent has now voted for the war and against supplying our troops," Bush said at an outdoor rally in this city halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. "Then in the last two days he woke up again with yet another new position, and this one isn't even his own -- it's the one of Howard Dean. He even used the same words Howard Dean did back when he supposedly disagreed with him."

Bush continued: "Look, no matter how many times my opponent flip-flops, we were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein from power."

But the volatility of the race was clear even during the president's speech: As Bush attacked Kerry for his views on Iraq, news that the US military death toll in the country had surpassed 1,000 brought White House spokesman Scott McClellan to an outdoor tent full of reporters to express the administration's regret. "We remember, honor and mourn the loss of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending freedom," McClellan said.

Bush himself did not address the casualty figure to the crowd of thousands gathered at the event.

Instead, during a daylong journey by bus across Missouri, Bush reached back to the Democratic primaries to pit Kerry against his former rival, Dean, the former Vermont governor who rose to prominence on his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Bush aides circulated a transcript of an ABC News appearance in which Dean called the war the "wrong war at the wrong time," a formulation Kerry has recently adopted as he has grown more critical of the administration's handling of the war.

Today, Kerry delivers a speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center about the president's "wrong choices in Iraq" -- returning to a venue Bush himself once used to make the case for war based on the belief that Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction that could be used against the United States.

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer described the new level of aggressiveness as "desperate," and accused Bush and Cheney of "launching whatever attack they can come up with against Kerry to try to keep the focus on the Kerry campaign." And as Cheney arrived in New Hampshire after making his Iowa remarks, Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, called on the Bush-Cheney ticket to apologize for suggesting the nation would be more susceptible to a terrorist attack under a Kerry administration.

Later, speaking in Manchester, Cheney said Kerry is stuck in a "pre-9/11 mindset where terrorists can be controlled through traditional law enforcement means and Cold War-era deterrence."

Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, responded with a statement accusing the vice president of "scare tactics" that "crossed the line."