Military service remains hot topic

CLEVELAND - John Kerry on Tuesday rolled through a crucial state hit hard by the manufacturing recession to talk about a national job "crisis" and his program for economic change.

But, in what is becoming a familiar pattern in the early days of the presidential campaign, Kerry was distracted by the political battle over war and military service exploding around him. President Bush's allies have been questioning Kerry's credibility on national security, his military record and his antiwar activities.

In an interview with an Ohio newspaper, Kerry continued the fight over Vietnam-era military service, chiding Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for avoiding active service.

One day after Kerry attacked Bush's National Guard service for the first time, the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign circulated a dossier designed to undercut the president's contention that he fulfilled his service duties more than 30 years ago. Bush served in the Texas National Air Guard from 1968 to 1973, though it is unclear what he did during his final year.

"I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard, and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do, criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served," Kerry told the Dayton Daily News.

Nicolle Devenish, the Bush-Cheney campaign's communications director, issued a statement reviving a comment Kerry made in a Senate floor statement in 1992. "Instead of explaining his record, John Kerry has turned to political attacks on the president," she said. "John Kerry is doing exactly what he said he would never do, "divide America over who served and how.' "

Bush, who has left political attacks to Cheney and other surrogates, did not mention his challenger by name Tuesday and, again, focused on narrow policy proposals.

Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot was in Bath, Maine, as part of a "Winning the War on Terror Tour" to call attention to defense cuts Kerry has supported, including ones affecting destroyers made at the iron works there. The appearances back up a Bush ad called "Weapons" that is running heavily in swing states where the systems are made.

PHILADELPHIA - Sen. Arlen Specter, one of the Republican Party's leading moderates, took an early lead in Pennsylvania's GOP primary Tuesday in the face of a surprisingly stiff challenge from a conservative congressman who branded him a RINO - Republican In Name Only.

With 30 percent of precincts reporting, Specter led with 80,823 votes, or 52 percent, to Rep. Pat Toomey's 73,161 votes, or 48 percent. The race between Specter, 74, who is seeking his fifth term, and Toomey, 42, was expected to go down to the wire.

ROME - Roman Catholic politicians who advocate policies contrary to church teaching on abortion and other issues might risk sanctions that fall short of denial of Holy Communion, the head of a U.S. bishops task force examining the problem said Tuesday.

"I have not gotten to the stage where I'm comfortable in denying the Eucharist," Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., said.

Asked what sanctions the task force might recommend for politicians who stray from Catholic teachings, McCarrick said Catholic universities could deny honorary degrees, dioceses might withhold honors and Catholic institutions might not invite them to speak.

A top Vatican cardinal said Friday priests may deny Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, but stopped short of saying whether it was right for them to receive Communion.

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