Babbitt Takes Aim at Bush on Budget, Shreds Brochure

Democrat Bruce Babbitt, taking a page from a George Bush script, theatrically ripped up a Bush campaign brochure today and challenged the vice president to say just where he would cut the budget.

At a breakfast appearance in a trendy Des Moines restaurant, the former Arizona governor also chastised Bush for accusing CBS anchorman Dan Rather of “voodoo journalism” and said, “On past precedent, that means he’ll soon be forced to choose him as a running mate.”

In 1980, Bush branded then-presidential rival Ronald Reagan’s economic proposals “voodoo economics” and later ran on Reagan’s winning ticket.

Babbitt later playfully ripped up Bush’s campaign pamphlet and said, “Finis,” the same word Bush used when he ripped up a pamphlet of Republican rival Rep. Jack Kemp of New York at a recent Cedar Rapids, Iowa, campaign appearance.