Kerry fights label of economic pessimistChallenges fiscal record of ReaganSAN FRANCISCO -- Democrat John F. Kerry yesterday countered Republican attempts to label him a pessimist about the US economy, arguing that criticism of the Bush administration's record of job creation actually reflected optimism that the economy could do better.
The Massachusetts senator also challenged the fiscal record of the GOP's favorite optimist, Ronald Reagan -- Kerry's first broadside against the former president since his death June 5. Political group paid felons for voter registration drive. A13. Kerry, who is in California for a two-day campaign swing that the Bush reelection camp has dubbed ''the pessimism and misery tour," also launched a new line of attack against Washington Republicans, describing their attitude as ''my-way-or-the-highway, lock people out, don't let them take part in democracy." His criticism came in the aftermath of a partisan fight in the Senate Tuesday that left Kerry mostly frozen out of deliberations on one of his signature issues, veterans' benefits. ''These people are so petty, so sad, so political, all they could do was spend the whole day finding a way not to let John Kerry vote," the presumptive Democratic nominee told the annual convention of the Service Employees International Union. Aides to Kerry's Republican colleagues in the Senate called the Democrat's remarks inaccurate and excessive. ''We spent a good part of the day trying to forge an agreement so we could vote, and had Senator Kerry stayed in Washington, he would have had an opportunity to cast his votes -- but he apparently ran out of patience and left in a pique," said Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee. The Kerry and Bush camps have been tussling for weeks over which side is more guilty of negativity and name-calling, but yesterday's shots over the pessimism label -- and Reagan's legacy -- reflected a growing confidence within the Kerry camp that increasing numbers of voters share his criticisms of Republican leadership on the economy. The Bush campaign, aware that polls are indicating that an increasing number of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, has responded by characterizing Kerry as a dour, fundamentally negative insider who is trying to win the White House by dragging down Bush instead of offering positive alternatives. In their new television commercial this month titled ''Pessimism," the Bush team mocked Kerry for ''talking about the Great Depression" in saying that Bush has the worst record of creating jobs since Herbert Hoover. Kerry aides said that the senator wanted to make the case that calling for economic progress was not divisive, and that Republicans were in fact dividing the electorate by painting Kerry as a doom-and-gloom candidate. Kerry's remark about Reagan was unusual and awkward, given the senator's praise for Reagan's optimism after his death. Continued... |
