Election 2004

Democrats take aim at Bush ad touting terror fight

WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is demanding that Republicans stop showing their first television ad of the 2004 presidential race, which he called "repulsive and outrageous."

The 30-second ad, featuring clips of Bush during his State of the Union address last January, portrays the president as a fighter of terrorism as Democrats retreat from the fight.

"It's wrong. It's erroneous, and I think that they ought to pull the ad," Daschle told NBC's Meet the Press program on Sunday.

"We all want to defeat terrorism," the South Dakota senator said. But "to chastise and to question the patriotism of those who are in opposition to some of the president's plans I think is wrong."

The Republican National Committee has no plans to honor Daschle's wishes.

"We have no doubt that Sen. Daschle and others in his party who oppose the president's policy of pre-emptive self-defense believe that their national security approach is in the best interests of the country," RNC spokeswoman Christine Iverson said. "But we also have no doubt that they are wrong about that, and we will continue to highlight this critical policy difference as well as others."

Other Democrats on the Sunday talk shows joined Daschle in his criticism.

On CBS' Face the Nation, presidential candidate Wesley Clark said the ad violates "the pledge the president made to not exploit 9/11 for political purposes."

Speaking on CNN's Late Edition, presidential candidate and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said the ad was misleading, nothing more than an attempt "to get the public's mind off the joblessness in America, the bad prescription Medicare drug bill . . . the energy bill, which sells out to lobbyists."

Republicans countered that there was nothing wrong with the ad, which was airing Sunday in Iowa, the day before the Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines.

"It's portraying the president's leadership that he's displayed since Sept. 11, which I support," Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said on ABC. "I think it's a very legitimate statement to be made in the coming presidential election."

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