Kerry Links U.S. Strength to Responsibility

PHOENIX —  A day after President Bush apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, Sen. John F. Kerry accused him of shirking responsibility for the scandal while pursuing policies that have weakened America’s security and undermined its moral standing abroad.

In a wide-ranging address to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Kerry on Friday also charged that Bush’s economic policies had hurt the middle class and left “the worst of all fiscal worlds: a bigger government that does less and spends more.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke just hours after the U.S. Labor Department reported unexpectedly strong job growth in April -- welcome news for Bush’s reelection campaign. Kerry’s speech also came on the same day that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld faced a grilling on Capitol Hill over the prisoner abuse scandal.

Against that backdrop, Kerry stressed national security over the economy. Although his campaign released a brief statement on the new jobs report, Kerry did not mention it in his 40-minute address. Instead, he focused on the twin themes of responsibility and strength.

“America doesn’t merely need a new secretary of defense,” said Kerry, who previously called for Rumsfeld’s resignation. “We need a president who is strong enough to take responsibility and, when necessary, correct course.”

Kerry said he would “demand accountability from those who serve” and “take responsibility for their actions.”

He also pledged to repair the damage caused to America’s image around the world by the prisoner abuses.

“Today, Secretary Rumsfeld apologized on Capitol Hill, but the chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office,” the Massachusetts senator said. “Harry Truman didn’t say, ‘The buck stops at the Pentagon.’ ”

Kerry’s tough talk on national security -- he said he would “never cede the issue of strength to the other party” -- was part of a broader emphasis by him on centrist positions championed by the DLC. The group gained prominence when one of its former leaders, Bill Clinton, became president and pushed its calls for fiscal discipline, welfare reform and a tough stance on crime. Those polices helped Democrats largely neutralize Republican attacks.

During the race for this year’s Democratic presidential nomination, DLC leaders were openly hostile to the candidacy of Howard Dean, who ran well ahead of Kerry in early polls. Although the former Vermont governor’s antiwar rhetoric inspired many liberal Democrats, council leaders warned that if Dean were the party’s nominee, Bush would easily defeat him.

After Kerry’s speech to several hundred DLC members in a Phoenix hotel ballroom, the group’s leaders welcomed his approach to foreign and domestic policy.

“I’m delighted to see him not give an inch to the Republicans on national security, and to spell out in detail what he’s going to do to expand opportunity for the middle class,” said DLC President Bruce Reed.

Despite GOP criticisms of Kerry as the Senate’s most liberal member, Reed described him as a devoted moderate.

“On all the tough issues for Democrats in the ‘90s -- crime, welfare reform, the budget, trade -- he voted with the future of the party, not the past,” Reed said.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt, however, said Kerry had “a lifetime record of voting for higher taxes, higher government spending,” and cuts to defense and intelligence gathering.

“John Kerry will be unable to run away from a 20-year voting record and reinvent himself,” Schmidt said.

He also accused Kerry of “trying to politicize the war in Iraq” and other national security issues with “gratuitous attacks.”

As he often does, Kerry in his speech invoked Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a maverick Republican who vied with Bush for the party’s 2000 presidential nomination.

“When John McCain had him on the run [in the 2000 campaign], George Bush made up a slogan: ‘Reformer with results,’ ” Kerry said. “Four years later, Americans are still looking to see the reformer. But I’ll tell you this, they’ve had enough of the results.”

Kerry also charged that Republicans had spent the three decades since the Vietnam War “trying to frighten voters” by questioning the commitment by Democrats to national security.

“They attacked us so often that some in our party would rather try to change the subject to the economy rather than show our strength on national security,” Kerry said. “The other side was wrong about us then, and I think they’re wrong about us now. As long as I am privileged to lead this party, we’re going to put the strength of America first.”

He linked Bush’s policies with the increasing hostility toward America in other countries.

“The president’s economic policies have weakened America’s economic leadership and leverage in the world. We’re losing jobs abroad,” Kerry said. “And by steering a unilateral course, this administration has bred global mistrust of our motives and has unleashed a torrent of anti-Americanism abroad.”

Although America’s military strength is at an all-time high, Kerry said, “our moral authority around the world is at an all-time low. That’s wrong and that’s dangerous. As president, I will not rest until America is both the strongest nation and the most respected nation.”

The convention crowd included several of Kerry’s potential running mates, including Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

Richardson said Kerry “sort of moved to the center in his speech, and I think that is the way to go to win the election -- finding that sensible, common-sense center.”

From Phoenix, Kerry flew to Louisiana, where he attended a “Jambalaya Jamboree” at the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge. Today, he is to deliver a commencement address at Southern University at New Orleans.