Rivals Hit Dean on All Fronts at Debate

With Iowa’s Jan. 19 caucuses approaching, Democrats chasing former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean relentlessly attacked his policies, temperament and credibility in a pointed debate Sunday.

The focus was squarely on the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race throughout the two-hour session, as Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accused him of flip-flopping on issues, Rep. Dick Gephardt charged that Dean supported Republican plans to cut Medicare in the mid-1990s and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut assaulted Dean’s decision to block the release of some of his records as governor.

Dean’s opponents pressed their cases with an urgency that reflected their need to break his momentum before Iowa begins voting.

“We’re not going to defeat the extremism of the Bush administration with extreme anger of our own,” Lieberman said in one of many swipes at Dean.

Kerry insisted that shifting Dean comments on issues such as his recent assertion that he would not prejudge the guilt of Osama bin Laden for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “raises a serious question” about Dean’s “ability to be able to stand up to [President] Bush and make Americans feel safe and secure.”

As Lieberman pressed Dean on the issue of the sealed gubernatorial records, the exchange grew so heated that the moderator asked the two if they wanted “to take it outside.” Lieberman quipped: “I’m ready.”

Dean did not respond and kept his cool throughout the debate, forcefully defending his positions but avoiding the flashes of anger he displayed when challenged in some previous forums.

During a portion of the debate that allowed candidates to question one another, Dean subtly counterpunched by asking his rivals to pledge to support whoever wins the nomination. The other six candidates on the stage all raised their hands (retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and the Rev. Al Sharpton did not attend).

Four of the other candidates aimed their questions, usually in barbed language, at Dean.

“They ... used their questions to attack us, and we used our question to pull the party together,” said Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign manager. “They continue to make us the focus of the campaign -- any time we’re the focus, we do better.”

The debate also demonstrated the leftward pull of the Democratic race. Most of the candidates tumbled over one another to express skepticism about free trade and the school accountability provisions in the Bush-backed education reform act that all of the Democratic contenders who serve in Congress voted for.

Lieberman, who has abandoned campaigning in Iowa to concentrate on New Hampshire’s Jan. 27 primary, separated himself from that pack by highlighting his centrist views on issues such as trade and tax policy.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina also struck a different note by emphasizing specific proposals more than his rivals and, as a one-term lawmaker, presenting his relative lack of political experience as an asset.

“There’s a fundamental question for Iowa caucus-goers, because if you believe people who’ve been in politics for 20 years or who’ve been in Washington for decades are going to change this country, you’ve got plenty of choices,” Edwards said. “I present a different alternative.”

Lieberman was the most aggressive in targeting Dean. In his first answer, Lieberman ridiculed Dean’s recent assertion that the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had not made America safer.

Dean responded by repeating and reinforcing his claim. After insisting he was “delighted” to see Hussein “behind bars,” Dean added: “The fact is, since Saddam Hussein has been caught, we’ve lost 23 additional troops [in Iraq]; we now have, for the first time, American fighter jets escorting commercial airliners through American airspace” because of heightened concerns about terrorism.

Lieberman fired back: “We had good-faith differences on the war against Saddam. But I don’t know how anybody could say that we’re not safer with a homicidal maniac, a brutal dictator, an enemy of the United States, a supporter of terrorism, a murderer of hundreds of thousands of his own people, in prison instead of in power.”

Lieberman also disputed Dean’s assertion that Bush’s tax cuts have not improved the financial condition of middle-class families.

Dean and Gephardt have proposed repealing all of the cuts while Edwards, Lieberman, Clark and Kerry have called for rescinding only the provisions affecting the wealthy.

“There was no middle-class tax cut,” Dean said, arguing that for most Americans, Bush’s policies have led to continuing increases in college tuitions, property taxes and health-care premiums that outpaced benefits from the tax-reduction bills. “Most middle-class people in this country are worse off because of President Bush’s so- called tax cut,” he said.

Lieberman retorted: “I don’t know which is worse: that he wants to repeal the tax cuts, or that he won’t admit that they ever existed.”

The most acrimonious exchange between the two came when Lieberman asked why Dean has not allowed public release of all of his gubernatorial records.

After Dean said he had asked a judge to decide which records to release, partly to protect the privacy of some individuals, Lieberman said: “Why should you have to force a judge to force you to do what you know is right? Your records ought to be public.”

Kerry generated nearly as pointed an exchange when he aimed his question at Dean.

Citing a series of issues on which Dean has shifted positions or clarified initial comments, Kerry accused him of a “pattern” of inconsistency that would undermine his ability to contest Bush in a general election.

That inspired Dean’s most bristling response: “There’s been a lot of talk about this from the Washington politicians. And a gaffe in Washington is when you tell the truth and the Washington establishment thinks you shouldn’t have.”

Gephardt targeted Dean on two fronts. As he has repeated since September, Gephardt said Dean, as Vermont governor, had supported the effort by the GOP Congress in 1995 to severely reduce the growth of spending on Medicare.

Dean insisted he did not support the proposal -- though the Gephardt camp distributed newspaper stories from the period in which Dean had expressed support for GOP plans.

Dean also pledged as president to defend Medicare. “To think that I, as a physician and a governor, am going to try to get rid of Medicare is silly,” he said.

Gephardt also criticized Dean (and much of the rest of the field) for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the agreement President Clinton reached to provide China with permanent favorable access to U.S. markets.

Dean said he had supported the China agreement on “national security” grounds, adding, “I believe in constructive engagement.” But mostly Dean stressed the skepticism of free trade that he has highlighted on the campaign trail.

Most of the contenders joined Dean in stressing their skepticism about free trade. Longshot Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich repeated his promise to repeal NAFTA if elected.

Lieberman insisted that in moving away from free-trade agreements, the other candidates would jeopardize jobs in Iowa.

Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this report.