Debate Keys on Gore, Dean

Al Gore found himself in the cross hairs along with Howard Dean at a debate here Tuesday as a succession of Democratic presidential contenders assailed the former vice president over his endorsement of Dean earlier in the day.

From the Rev. Al Sharpton, who denounced the endorsement as “bossism,” to Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who portrayed it as a betrayal of the agenda Gore advanced while serving President Clinton’s administration, the other Democratic candidates fervently sought to minimize the benefits to Dean of the unexpected alliance.

Lieberman, picked by Gore as his running mate in the 2000 presidential race, offered one of the more biting critiques of Gore’s decision to support the former Vermont governor.

“This campaign for the Democratic nomination is fundamentally a referendum within our party about whether we’re going to build on the Clinton transformation in our party in 1992 that reassured people we were strong on defense, we were fiscally responsible, we cared about values, we were interested in cutting taxes for the middle class and working with business to create jobs,” Lieberman said. “Howard Dean -- and now Al Gore, I guess -- are on the wrong side of each of those issues.”

Other candidates argued that with the first votes in the nomination race more than a month away, it was premature to view Dean as unstoppable.

“We’re not going to have a coronation,” said Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. “The Republicans have coronations. We have campaigns, we have elections. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen in this particular case.”

The exchange over Gore’s endorsement was one of the highlights of an often-listless debate that featured a barrage of candidate complaints about the questions from moderators Ted Koppel of ABC-TV and Scott Spradling of New Hampshire’s WMUR-TV.

Several candidates bristled after the two repeatedly asked questions about polls, fundraising and the Gore endorsement, while asking little about the issues dividing the candidates from each other and President Bush.

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio won applause from the audience at the University of New Hampshire when he rebuked Koppel over his focus on the race’s tactics.

“I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country,” he said. “We start talking about endorsements, now we’re talking about polls, and then we’re talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don’t have to talk about what’s important to the American people.”

In terms of issues, the debate broke new ground primarily when Dean offered new details on his thinking about the next steps the United States should take in Iraq. Dean said that the U.S., while reducing its troop commitment, would need to keep forces in Iraq “over a period of a few years.”

That prompted both Sharpton and Kucinich to attack Dean from the left.

“You know, you can’t say, as Dr. Dean has, that you’re against the war but you’re for the occupation,” Kucinich said, again prompting applause. “Because by keeping our troops in Iraq for years, you’re essentially keeping the war going.”

The most sustained sparks were generated at the debate’s outset, when Koppel asked the candidates about Gore’s endorsement of Dean in Harlem on Tuesday morning and at an appearance by the pair later in the day in Iowa.

Repeating arguments they made Monday when news of the impending endorsement emerged, several of the candidates insisted that voters would have the last word.

Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts declared: “I think I speak for every candidate up here: This race is not over until votes have been cast and counted.”

Sharpton, in condemning the move, noted that Gore had endorsed Dean in New York City, and cited both the legendary 19th century political machine of Tammany Hall, and the disputes over voting irregularities in Florida in the 2000 election.

“Al Gore went to New York today,” Sharpton said. “He should have noticed Tammany Hall is not there anymore. Bossism is not in this party. We waited four years after some of us were disenfranchised ... so we can express ourselves. And we’re not going to have any big name come in now and tell us the field should be limited and we can’t be heard.”

Kerry referred to Lieberman’s decision not to enter the presidential race until Gore announced he would not run last December. “I was sort of surprised today by the endorsement because I thought that Joe Lieberman had shown such extraordinary loyalty in delaying his own campaign,” Kerry said.

At the debate, Lieberman did not reprise his comments from an interview Tuesday on NBC-TV’s “Today Show” that made clear his disappointment and anger over Gore’s decision. Instead, Lieberman, who has portrayed himself in the race as the defender of Clinton’s centrist approach, argued that the endorsement would energize his campaign by clarifying the contrast over the party’s direction.

“I think in some unpredicted, unexpected way, my chances have actually increased today,” Lieberman said. “I can tell you that our phones have been ringing off the hook at the campaign headquarters. I’ve been stopped in the airports, people angry about what happened.”

The criticism reached a point that Dean felt compelled to defend Gore.

“If you guys are upset that Al Gore is endorsing me, attack me, don’t attack Al Gore,” Dean said.

Referring to the controversial Supreme Court decision on the Florida vote count that resulted in Bush’s victory in 2000, Dean said, “Al Gore worked too hard in 2000 to lose that election, when he really didn’t lose the election.... And I don’t think he deserves to be attacked by anybody up here.”

Dean added: “He’s not a boss. He’s a fundamentally decent human being. We share a lot of values.”

The debate’s most substantive exchanges revolved around Dean’s explanation of what steps he believes the U.S. should take in Iraq.

The Bush administration has proposed holding caucus-style elections to select a new government there, with the U.S. civil administration selecting some Iraqi delegates that will begin the process of designing a new government. Dean said power should be transferred only after a full-fledged election, as Iraqi critics of the plan have argued.

“You cannot expect the Iraqis to think that they have their own government if we’re appointing their people,” Dean said. “We need an election.”

Dean also said that Iraq should not adopt a constitution until a government is elected, “in order to have the people who write the constitution ... not [be] seen by the Iraqi people as stooges of the Americans.”

Under Bush’s plan, the interim government selected through the caucus procedure would write a constitution. Only after the constitution is completed would elections be held.

If Iraq developed a representative government, and America intensified its efforts to secure help from other nations, Dean added, the U.S. might be able to attract “100,000 foreign troops into Iraq, preferably from Arabic-speaking and Muslim nations,” and then “withdraw our [National] Guard and Reserves -- who have no business being over there for a 12-month tour of duty -- [and] at least one of the two divisions [of American troops].”

But Dean added, “We will not be able to withdraw an American presence. The tragedy of what we did in Iraq, which I have opposed right from the beginning, is that now we’re stuck there.”

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Times staff writers Matea Gold and Eric Slater contributed to this report.