Kerry Cites Security Lapses

Sen. John F. Kerry accused President Bush on Friday of failing to take vital steps needed to avert terrorist attacks, dismissing the administration’s self-described success in boosting domestic security as “fiction.”

“You get in an airplane, your baggage is X-rayed, but guess what? The cargo hold isn’t X-rayed,” Kerry told several thousand students and other supporters at a rally in Tampa.

He added: “You don’t think someone can figure that one out?”

Terrorism was Kerry’s central focus on a Florida campaign swing aimed at building momentum from what was generally seen as a strong performance Thursday in his first debate with Bush.

At stops in two areas of Florida that could prove key to his chances of carrying the state -- Tampa and the Orlando suburbs -- Kerry seized on Bush’s debate remark that the Democrat’s proposals to step up domestic security were so costly that they would leave a “tax gap.”

“You have to hear this,” Kerry told a boisterous crowd at the University of South Florida sports arena in Tampa. Adopting a weak tone of voice to belittle Bush, Kerry quoted the president as saying, “Well, I don’t know how you’re going to pay for all that. You’re going to have a tax gap.”

“My friends, this is the president who created a tax gap by providing a tax cut to the wealthiest Americans instead of investing in homeland security in the United States,” Kerry said to a roar of applause.

“Let’s get real! You know what? This is part of the Bush administration fiction. They think they can fool you all the time.”

He went on to liken the names of Bush policies to Orwellian “doublespeak.”

“This administration has a Clear Skies initiative, but it makes the air dirtier than it used to be,” he said. “This administration has a Healthy Forests initiative, but it’s healthy because you cut down the trees.”

At the Tampa rally and one that followed in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee, he appeared energized by the Thursday debate.

Pacing a central stage with a cordless microphone and with his sleeves rolled up, Kerry punctuated remarks at each rally by jabbing a finger into the air and pumping his fists as the supporters surrounding him waved signs and cheered.

“I have a plan for success in Iraq,” he told the largely Latino crowd in a Kissimmee gymnasium.

“George Bush’s plan, four words: More of the same. My plan: To get the allies involved, to get the training [of Iraqi security forces] done, to get the reconstruction money out of the hands of Halliburton [Corp.] and get it into the Iraqis’ hands, and get our troops home!”

Kerry also surveyed the remnants of a nearby graphics design studio ravaged by Charley, one of the four hurricanes to hit Florida this season that have led to repeated visits by Bush to survey the federal relief effort.