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Clark tours Georgia
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:44 AM
John Kerry, who’s only spent roughly half as much time as John Edwards campaigning in Georgia, countered Wednesday by sending in the Army in the form of retired Gen. Wesley Clark.
Clark, who dropped out of the race a few weeks ago and endorsed Kerry, toured through Macon, Albany and Columbus, emphasizing that Kerry is a Vietnam veteran and a lawmaker with foreign policy experience.
“As much as I like John Edwards, John Edwards doesn’t have that experience,” Clark said.
Clark also said Kerry’s victories in the Tennessee and Virginia primaries prove he can compete for votes in the South.
“You can’t help where you’re born. It’s what you make of your life and what you give to others that matters,” Clark said.
Kerry further added to his military coterie by garnering the endorsement Wednesday of former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, a Navy veteran and astronaut.
—- AJC staff reports
Big guns
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:43 AM
The war of words between John Kerry and President Bush continued Wednesday as Ed Gillespie, Republican national chairman, once again attacked Kerry as having voted against important defense bills in the Senate.
The response from the Kerry camp was double-barreled, coming from former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland and Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington.
“It’s the height of irony for people like Ed Gillespie, who never served in the American military, and does not understand war, to criticize the record of Senator Kerry, who has been wounded in battle and tested in combat,” Cleland said in a conference call with reporters.
Speaking on the same conference call, Dicks, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, the Select Committee on Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, said Kerry had voted for 16 of the 19 defense appropriations bills which had come before him, and for $1.1 trillion in defense spending since Bush took office.
“That’s a lot of defense,” Dicks said.
— Staff reports
