CLASH OF THE TITANS

Move Over, John and Howard (Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Steve Chaggaris, Clothilde Ewing, Nicola Corless, Smita Kalokhe and Joanna Schubert, July 21, 2003, CBS News)

There seems to be a new spat developing in the Democratic presidential field that could threaten John Kerry and Howard Dean's spot as top contenders for the Most Acrimonious Award.

The latest brouhaha is between Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sen. Joe Lieberman. It stems in part, from Lieberman’s speech on Friday outlining his pro-free trade plan to bolster the sagging U.S. manufacturing sector. In the speech, Lieberman criticized, without too much subtlety, Democrats like Gephardt for wanting to "build walls around our economy" by opposing free trade policies, specifically NAFTA.

Before Lieberman even made his speech, however, Gephardt had put out a pre-emptive press release criticizing Lieberman for backing NAFTA and favorable trade status with China, which, he said, "have caused at least one million American manufacturing jobs to disappear in recent years," the Concord (N.H.) Monitor reports. Gephardt press secretary Erik Smith also threw this bomb Friday: "The difference between Dick Gephardt and Joe Lieberman is that Dick Gephardt knows a good trade deal from a bad one."

Lieberman’s campaign, of course, responded in kind, charging that "Gephardt was wrong then and is wrong now not to have faith in America’s workers." In a statement late Friday, Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera said, "We welcome Rep. Gephardt’s difference of opinion, but wish he would take the more constructive step of actually sponsoring the American manufacturing bill before the House of Representatives."

Wow, it's like having a front row seat for the Lincoln-Douglas debates... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2003 4:52 PM