Kerry assails flaws in 2000 vote
TAMPA -- Judging by the intensity of the applause, Nancy Geneivive spoke for most Florida Democrats in the room when she posed the first question to John F. Kerry at a campaign forum yesterday morning.
"What can we do," she asked, her voice hot with emotion, "to prevent them from stealing the election again?"
"Them" was a reference to President Bush and his Republican allies, and "again," of course, reflected the enduring bitterness of many Democratic voters who believe that Florida ballots were miscounted or flawed in the 2000 presidential election, leading to a five-week recount that climaxed in a US Supreme Court decision sealing Bush's pivotal Florida victory over Al Gore by 537 votes.
The Massachusetts senator yesterday seized upon that anger at rallies in Hollywood, West Palm Beach, and Tampa on the eve of today's Florida primary, and he came closer than he has before in questioning the legitimacy of Bush's elected hold on the White House. Lighting into the president at the Hollywood town hall forum even before Geneivive spoke, Kerry told a crowd of 400: "You'd think that somebody, remembering what happened here in this great state, who was finally put in office by the Supreme Court of the United States, would actually recognize the division of the nation and try to reach out. But, oh no -- they shut the doors on Democrats, my way or the highway on this policy or that policy; misled America time and again." A few hours later, before 700 people on the plaza outside West Palm Beach's public library, Kerry recalled the "divided election" of 2000 again. "We have a president who, rather than bringing people together and recognizing that division, and truly being that uniter he promised, has become the great divider in this country," Kerry said. He mocked former Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris, a Republican who helped oversee the recount. Kerry once said that she held a more "powerful office" than the presidency.
Across the state, Kerry drew emotional responses from Democrats who said they were counting on him to clobber Bush in the fall by a margin that defied a recount, and save them from embarrassment of the hanging-chad variety.
Kerry assured Geneivive and her party brethren that he was putting together "a legal team" that would monitor voting districts that reported problems in 2000, and said his campaign would "pre-challenge" any irregularities it suspects in the balloting process. He said all ballots in America should be traceable, and added, "We want to guarantee that every vote is counted."
Yesterday morning, in the first Kerry fund-raiser opened to the media, at a seashore hotel in Hollywood, Kerry told about 50 Florida donors over coffee and muffins that their anger at Bush was shared not only by Americans but by political leaders abroad.
"I've met foreign leaders, who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, `You gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy,' things like that," Kerry said.
He did not identify the leaders in question, nor would campaign spokesman David Wade, and the senator's comment was a striking statement given that Kerry, a longtime foreign policy specialist in the Senate, has held to the belief that partisan politics should "stop at the water's edge."
The Republican National Committee yesterday assailed Kerry's tendency to cite unnamed foreign leaders criticizing Bush, dubbing Kerry an Austin Powers-esque "international man of mystery" and suggesting that North Korea leader Kim Jong Il -- whose state-run radio has been touting Kerry recently -- was one of the leaders cited by Kerry.
As Kerry exhorted the donors and fund-raisers to help him reach the campaign's $80 million target by summer, he also described a party uniting behind him. Kerry plans to meet in Washington tomorrow with former rival Howard Dean, with whom he says he has spoken four or five times recently. Kerry also speaks regularly to Senators John Edwards of North Carolina and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. Kerry said Lieberman wants to "join in" the campaign. (Lieberman has not made a formal endorsement.)
Kerry also revealed the scope of Republican attacks that he sees possible in the eight months before Election Day.
"They're going to do everything possible to tear down my character personally [and] Teresa, that's the way they operate," Kerry said, referring to his wife, who stood nearby, nodding, as he spoke.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, issued a statement e-mailed by Bush's reelection campaign that dismissed Kerry. "His lack of conviction on any position robs him of the courage and character to act upon it," Jeb Bush said.In his swing through Florida, Kerry also touched on several red-meat issues for Democrats, promising audiences full of senior citizens and immigrants that he would not privatize Social Security and that he would seek new steps to "liberate" Cuba, which he did not specify. He also pledged to bring a new aggressiveness to fighting terrorism. "I pledge to fight a smart war on terror -- you need to know who they are, where they are, what they're planning to do, and be able to go get 'em before they get us," Kerry said.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
