SENATOR "YES, BUT...":

Past votes may dog Kerry campaign: Democrat's support of Bush at issue (Jim VandeHei, Feb. 24, 2004, Washington Post)

In the stump speech he delivers virtually every day, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) stirs the Democratic faithful by railing against current trade practices and slamming President Bush's policies on education, civil liberties and Iraq.

But the Democratic front-runner does not mention how he, as senator, supported the president on all four issues, helping cement in law what he often describes as flawed government policies.

Kerry's past support for policies he now condemns is complicating his run for the White House, strategists from both parties say, and could prove problematic in a general election showdown with Bush. The president himself seized on this contrast in his opening attack on Kerry at a dinner last night of the Republican Governors Association.

Tony Coehlo, chairman of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, said it is "critical" that Kerry "clearly" explain his votes "before the public perceives him as a flip-flopper." If not, Bush "will tag him," Coehlo said.

The new campaign finance law requires that the candidate running an ad appear in it and take responsibility for authorizing it, which has had the desired effect of reducing negative ads. But what the Senator's pandering allows is a set of ads where President Bush appears in ads where he simply states positions the Senator has taken and/or votes he's taken and says something to the effect of: "My administration has worked in bipartisan fashion to grow the American economy/Leave No Child Behind/win the war on terror at home and abroad/etc.. In fact, Senator Kerry himself voted in favor of free trade authority/the war/the Patriot Act/NCLB. These programs/policies are working and this is no time to let partisan politics get in the way of continued progress." The Senator is left either appearing to endorse the President on the most important issues of the day or else repudiating himself and his own past votes.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 24, 2004 6:52 PM