Dean Ratchets Up the Rhetoric Against Kerry

Howard Dean’s political comeback bid took on an increasingly biting tone here Wednesday, as he accused Democratic presidential front-runner John F. Kerry of supporting political fundraising so “corrupt” that it makes him little better than President Bush.

Dean’s latest volley came after his own repeated pledges not to run a spoiler campaign that would damage the Democrats’ ability to beat the Republican incumbent in the fall.

Kerry did not respond to Dean. The senator from Massachusetts was taking the first of two days away from the campaign trail Wednesday to rest at his home in Washington. But a Kerry spokesman called on Dean to end “these inaccurate and indefensible character attacks.”

An endorsement from a major union coalition, meanwhile, helped Kerry solidify his status atop the Democratic pack. The Alliance for Economic Justice, representing 19 labor unions with 5 million members nationwide, said Kerry was the strongest opponent to take on Bush now that their first choice among Democrats, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, was out of the race.

“It was the choice of our union leaders to stand behind John Kerry and his more than 19 years of public service to working men and women,” said Joe Hunt, chairman of the alliance and general president of the Iron Workers Union. “He has the character, the passion and the strength to fight for a better future for America’s working families.”

The focus of the dwindling Democratic field -- down to five with the departure of Gen. Wesley K. Clark on Wednesday -- remained here in Wisconsin, where the candidates have less than a week before Tuesday’s primary election.

When Kerry arrives here Friday, he is expected to continue behaving like the presumptive Democratic nominee, aiming his fire over the heads of the other Democrats and at President Bush.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been relatively mild toward Kerry, focusing his derision on what he said were the president’s failed free trade policies. But Dean, the former governor of Vermont, has adopted a tough tone.

On Tuesday night he used his oft-repeated line that Bush should be “sent home to Crawford, Texas,” adding that maybe Kerry should be sent home too.

Then on Wednesday, when he misspoke and uttered the words “President Kerry,” Dean recoiled at the concept, then said, “President Kerry? Ah please, spare us!”

Later, on the CBS Evening News, he said Edwards would be a stronger candidate to take on Bush.

Dean’s most specific attack Wednesday came at Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he was asked about reports that former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli, who has raised money for Kerry’s campaign, gave $50,000 to a political action group that ran hard-edged television commercials against Dean in Iowa last month.

Torricelli had to drop his 2002 Senate reelection bid because of questions about his fundraising practices. And Dean suggested that Torricelli’s involvement with the political action group implicated Kerry as well.

“Sen. Kerry apparently also supports the kind of ... politically corrupt fundraising mechanisms that George Bush has also employed,” Dean said.

“I think Sen. Kerry is clearly not the best person to carry the banner of the Democrats in this race,” Dean added, “because he’s behaved so much like Republicans, both in his voting record and now in his political practices for fundraising.”

While he acknowledged that there was no evidence that Kerry was connected to Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values, which ran anti-Dean commercials, he called the link between his rival and the group “unassailable.”

Kerry spokesman David Wade rejected the charges and said that there was no connection between Kerry and the PAC.

The group ran ads in Iowa featuring Osama bin Laden and questioning Dean’s ability to take on terrorists. Wade said that Kerry called on the group to pull the commercials at the time they ran.

“Does Howard Dean really believe what he’s saying?” Wade asked in a statement. “These inaccurate and indefensible character attacks need to end.”

Dean’s assault on Kerry comes as the former governor tries to regain traction in a race that was once viewed as his to lose. Still, Dean has insisted that he will not try to tear down the possible Democratic nominee in his determination to stay in the race.

Edwards, appearing in three Wisconsin cities, focused mostly on President Bush, not Kerry. He declared his opposition to a new trade deal with Australia and urged Wisconsin voters to uphold their reputation for independence.

In Janesville, near the Illinois border, the North Carolina senator described to an audience of 150 in a union hall what he said was the damage caused by Bush’s trade and industrial policies. He took note of a local newspaper page that indicated 500 factory jobs were about to be lost to Mexico and wondered how a father who worked at the plant would explain that to his daughter.

“Tonight he’s going home to tell her that his factory’s closing, and the place he worked year after year, day after day, is going to leave,” Edwards said. “This man and his family, their lives will never be the same again.”

To cheers, he added: “The starting place for this is to have not just free trade, but how about a little fair trade?”

Edwards mocked a Bush administration report that applauded a trend in which U.S. jobs were being “outsourced” overseas. “You know what the solution to this is? We need to outsource this administration.”

Edwards took note of his opposition to the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada -- a trade agreement Kerry supported upon its passage.

In a conversation with reporters aboard his chartered jet as he was about to leave here, Edwards brushed aside suggestions that he was being pressured to quit the race. He said he had heard “not one word” from anyone saying he should bow out.

He also appeared startled to hear a report that Dean had called Edwards more electable than Kerry.

“He said -- say it one more time?” Edwards asked the reporter who relayed the apparent Dean quote to him.

After hearing it a second time, Edwards grinned and said: “Well, that’s interesting, I agree with that. I think he’s a very wise man.”

Kerry’s challengers must not only contend with his momentum but that any “stop Kerry” vote will likely be split at least two ways between Dean and Edwards, political analysts said.

“The mantra of inevitability for Kerry is so strong that it pushes voters to both go for the most electable person and second to go to a winner,” said Craig Ruff, president of Public Sector Consultants, a nonpartisan political research firm in Lansing, Mich.

One woman who went to hear Edwards speak in Janesville seemed to reflect that feeling.

Sharilyn Jensen, 36, an occupational therapist from the nearby town of Edgerton, had bought two Edwards for President buttons for $5. But she confessed that she hoped to see the Massachusetts senator at a rally in Madison on Friday.

“I’m secretly hoping John Edwards is made the vice president,” Jensen said. “He’s sincere. He’s not a slick politician. He’s a real person who really cares. But I think Kerry may be more electable. I’m excited about the possibility of a Kerry-Edwards ticket. It would be optimal.”

Edwards plans to come to Los Angeles briefly today for a fundraiser and an event in Culver City to kick off his campaign for California’s March 2 primary. His wife, Elizabeth, was to campaign in Wisconsin throughout the day.

Dean planned to remain here in Wisconsin, where he would likely be joined by his wife, Judy.

Gold reported from Milwaukee, Anderson from Janesville, Wis. Times staff writers James Rainey and Maria L. La Ganga contributed to this report.