Dean gets boost at crucial time
CONCORD, N.H. -- Howard Dean reveled yesterday in the endorsement of a top Iowa Democrat, a needed boost for a presidential campaign that finds itself reacting to news and no longer setting the political agenda as the voting in Iowa and New Hampshire creeps closer.
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, a liberal voice who waged his own campaign for the presidency in 1992, announced in Des Moines that he had decided to back Dean after a period of deep deliberation and reported infighting among political supporters divided over Dean and his rivals.
In a jab at two Dean rivals in Iowa, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Harkin also singled out Senator John Edwards of North Carolina as an admirable candidate. "I hope in the closing days of the campaign here and in the primaries and caucuses to follow, all of us Democrats will take a lesson from Senator John Edwards and keep a positive message," Harkin told a cheering crowd.
Edwards is trailing in fourth place, behind Dean, Gephardt, and Kerry in the polls, but he could get a boost in New Hampshire, where he is much farther behind, by exceeding expectations in Iowa.
Speaking later with reporters in New Hampshire, Dean said of Harkin: "I admire him, and I always have because he's a real fighter and he's a real scrapper. . . . I think that Senator Harkin's endorsement is very helpful. Obviously, Iowans are going to make up their own minds in terms of who they vote for."
Gephardt said, "Iowans are too fiercely independent" to be influenced by endorsements. "I really don't think that anyone can tell Iowans who they're going to pick to be the nominee," the congressman said before an event in Tama, Iowa.
Dean broke with precedent and did not attend the announcement. He said the timing of the endorsement was solely up to Harkin, but it occurred at the end of a day in which Dean found himself explaining a series of controversial remarks. It also occurred at the conclusion of a week in which his own economic advisers questioned a central tenet of his campaign: his vow to repeal all of the tax cuts enacted under President Bush.
Dean began the day confronted with the fallout from an NBC News report that featured videotapes of him, while serving as Vermont's governor, making controversial statements during appearances on a Canadian news show between 1992 and 2002. In the tapes, Dean describes the Iowa caucuses "as dominated by the special interests" and contends "I can't stand there and listen to everyone else's opinion for eight hours about how to fix the world."
He also branded former vice president Al Gore, a recent supporter, as not quick on his feet, and Dean said there was "good and bad" in the prospect of the Palestinian militant group Hamas taking control of the Palestinian leadership.
Hours after the broadcast Thursday night, the Dean campaign released a statement declaring his support for the caucuses and for keeping them first in the elective process in 2008 should he become president.
Speaking with reporters yesterday morning, before Harkin's endorsement was announced, Dean said: "I was talking four years ago. If I had known then what I know now about Iowa caucuses. You know, Iowa has been very good to me, and I couldn't run for president if I weren't, if I didn't have Iowa."
Asked whether he was retracting his statements, he replied, "Iowa is a great place for people like me who started out with no money and now have a good message."
Later in the day, the Dean campaign released a statement clarifying the Hamas comment, which has the potential to cost the party the votes of Jews in the general election.
"It has become crystal clear that Hamas is an unrepentant terrorist organization and the Palestinian Authority must live up to its obligations to the United States and Israel and dismantle Hamas and other terrorist groups," Dean said in the statement. "In my presidency, the United States will remain firmly committed to its special, longstanding relationship with Israel."
In addition, a voter asked Dean during a stop in Rochester to square his criticism of campaign attack fliers with recent fliers -- purportedly distributed by his campaign -- that criticized rivals such as former Army General Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas.
"There's a difference between an attack ad and just putting out the facts," Dean responded. "What I don't approve is differences which have adjectives attached to them. I always try to rein those in.
"I don't like calling other candidates `sleazy' or any of that kind of stuff. I think that kind of stuff goes over the line."
On Thursday, Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, sent a letter to Gephardt's campaign addressing its allegation that Dean may be trying to get out-of-state residents to participate in the caucuses.
"Sleazy tactics like yours are exactly the reason that people have stopped participating in the political process," Trippi wrote.
Anne E. Kornblut of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Des Moines. Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. 