Kerry lashes out at Gore and Dean

CLAREMONT, N.H. -- Presidential candidate John F. Kerry opened two new lines of attack yesterday over former vice president Al Gore's endorsement of Kerry's chief rival, Howard Dean, invoking the specter of the contested Florida vote of 2000 in warning Gore to stay out of the current race, and belittling Gore's understanding of Dean's views on Iraq.

Speaking to 75 senior citizens here, the Massachusetts Democrat accused Gore of trying to influence the outcome of the Jan. 27 primary in Dean's favor, and drew a line between Tuesday's endorsement and the efforts in 2000 to invalidate disputed ballots in the Florida vote between Gore and George W. Bush.

"Let me just say to you, if there's any person in the United States of America who ought to have respect for waiting until the votes are counted, and completely counted, it's Al Gore," Kerry said.

Earlier yesterday, Kerry also contended that Gore -- in hailing Dean's opposition to the war in Iraq -- was incorrect to suggest that Dean's views on military action in Iraq were any different than Kerry's.

In fact, the Massachusetts Democrat contended, Dean has been trying to "fudge" his early support for a hard line against Saddam Hussein, calling Dean's apparent inconsistencies on Iraq "the great missing story of this campaign."

Kerry, whose low poll numbers have led him to take harsh swipes recently, also scoffed yesterday at President Bush's recent Thanksgiving Day trip to Iraq.

After serving chili to the senior citizens here, Kerry, who has taken to calling his campaign "the real deal," mocked Bush over the trip, in which Kerry said the president flew "all the way to Baghdad and handed around a fake turkey. What was it, too heavy to carry the real turkey?"

Edgy political rhetoric is becoming a new staple of Kerry's campaign as he attempts to reverse his sagging poll numbers, especially in New Hampshire, where recent surveys placed him between 25 and 32 percentage points behind Dean.

Kerry's new attacks on Dean and Gore turn the low point of Gore's political career into a weapon, but they also run the risk of alienating some Democrats who admire the former vice president, including some supporters of Kerry.

Yet the senator's comment referring to the 2000 vote drew applause from his audience yesterday.

According to campaign advisers, Kerry is hoping the Gore endorsement will grate on some Granite State Democrats who traditionally dislike being told how to vote.

While Kerry's argument that Gore should respect the democratic process was fairly direct, his second line of attack yesterday -- over Dean's position on Iraq -- required the sort of Washington insider explanation that can sometimes blunt the impact with confusion.

Speaking at a Manchester day-care center, Kerry noted that, in October 2002, Dean spoke positively about a proposed Senate resolution on Iraq that would have encouraged Bush to challenge Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs through diplomatic channels. The proposed resolution could have also allowed Bush to declare war on Iraq if diplomacy failed.

The Senate ultimately passed a different resolution that also authorized military action, but had fewer diplomacy-related conditions.

Kerry supported the first resolution that Dean appeared to embrace, though ultimately went along with a latter resolution when Senate support coalesced behind it.

Kerry argued that his view about the resolutions was shared by senators Joseph I. Lieberman and John Edwards and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who also voted for the second one.

After laying out the story of the resolutions several times, Kerry insisted that there was no difference between his own judgment on Iraq and Dean's. Dean has repeatedly attacked the second, successful resolution, his four rivals' support for it, and Bush's decision to go to war.

"The great missing story of this campaign is in fact the truth about Howard Dean's judgment about the war," Kerry said. "Howard Dean exercised the exact same judgment that the rest of us exercised.

"If Al Gore is endorsing the Howard Dean that made the judgment at the same time as the rest of us, then he endorsed the wrong Howard Dean."

Dean spokesman Jay Carson said yesterday that the resolution supported by the former Vermont governor was "different" than the one Kerry ultimately voted for, but he declined to be drawn in further to Kerry's argument.

Returning to the campaign trail today -- his 60th birthday -- Kerry is scheduled to deliver a speech on "corporate accountability" and address recent incidents of market-timing and late-trading investment tactics.

According to details of the speech provided to the Globe, Kerry will propose stiffer penalties for companies that defraud investors, as well as make late-trading an offense under federal racketeering laws.

Later, he will have a birthday fund-raiser with comedian Jimmy Tingle.

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.