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Dnc chairman accuses bush new mccarthyism { May 17 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/17/national1401EDT0538.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/17/national1401EDT0538.DTL
DNC chairman accuses Bush of `new McCarthyism' by questioning rivals' patriotism
Saturday, May 17, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(05-17) 19:32 PDT COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) --
National Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe accused President Bush on Saturday of unleashing a "new McCarthyism" by vilifying people who oppose his policies.
McAuliffe, keynote speaker at the annual Ohio Democratic Party dinner, also defended that state's Republican senator, George Voinovich, who wavered in his support for the president's tax-cut package because he feared it would drive up the federal budget deficit. The Senate version would cut taxes by nearly $350 billion over 10 years, with additional cuts paid for by new revenue driving its cost to almost $420 billion.
After Voinovich criticized the plan, a pro-tax cut group ran television ads criticizing his position, and Bush visited Ohio to promote the tax cuts, a trip that many interpreted as an attempt to pressure the senator. Bush administration spokesmen said nothing about the ads, which characterized "so-called allies" in Congress as "Franco-Republicans" who were no more helpful than France in the Iraq war.
In the end, Voinovich's vote helped the legislation pass the Senate on a 51-50 vote, with the deciding vote cast by Vice President Dick Cheney.
McAuliffe said he disagrees with Voinovich's vote and many other positions the Ohioan takes, but that, whatever the differences politically, the senator is a loyal American.
"For George's sin of wanting a slightly more fiscally sound tax package, his patriotism was attacked, and the president never spoke out in his defense, never told his henchmen to stop the attack," said McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee.
"George Bush has unleashed a new McCarthyism that, under the cloak of a time of crisis and peril, has vilified and questioned the patriotism of those who have policy and political differences with him and his administration."
Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke said Bush had nothing to do with the ads that ran against Voinovich, which were sponsored by a group called Club for Growth.
McAuliffe was critical of Bush's economic policies in general, saying they have cost 2.8 million jobs since the president took office.
"Just last Sunday on national television, Secretary of Treasury (John) Snow said we have a soggy economy.
Soggy. Soggy," McAuliffe said, drawing laughs from the party faithful with the incredulous tone of his delivery.
"It's not soggy, it is a raging typhoon in America."
McAuliffe accused Bush of squandering the federal surplus of the 1990s and said Bush's tax cuts benefit the rich while costing working people their jobs.
"The story goes that as the lifeboats were being loaded, the wealthy of the passengers of the Titanic pushed aside the women and children," he said. "The values of this administration would be quite at home aboard that ill-fated ship."
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, one of nine candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters before his speech to the Ohio dinner: "I don't think we can beat George Bush by being Bush-like. We need a fiscal conservative and a social progressive and that's who I am."
In his speech, Dean said the cost of the war in Iraq has increased with Americans still in the Middle Eastern country and that homeland security suffering a funding shortfall as a result.
"I think this country is not safer since the war with Iraq has ended," Dean said.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor and the only other presidential candidate at the dinner, pushed his message of national health insurance, labor rights and trade protections.
He reminded the crowd that he had beaten Republican incumbents in his races for mayor, state senator and Congress.
"In 2004, I'm prepared to replace another Republican incumbent who happens to be in the White House," Kucinich said.
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On the Net: Democratic National Committee: www.democrats.org
Republican National Committee: www.gop.com
©2003 Associated Press
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