JOHN EDWARDSPredictably, it's how Kerry and Edwards differed during the Democratic primaries last winter.
JOHN KERRY
ATTACKS/AT ODDS
Okay, GOP. Let's drag your new poster boy, spokesman and rumored Cheney replacement John McCain into this discussion.
September 28, 1999:
McCain's speech today implied that Bush was a glib, inexperienced lightweight.
October 25, 1999:
McCain, who has gained ground on Bush in the key state of New Hampshire, was referring to a New York Times article on Monday that portrayed him as hot-tempered and engaged in a feud with Arizona's governor, Jane Hull, who has endorsed Bush.
Hull told the newspaper that her relations with McCain were "not particularly warm," and that McCain has a short fuse.
He blamed the Bush campaign for helping plant the story.
February 8, 2000:
The Bush campaign, which for months seemingly did everything right, suddenly seems to be doing everything wrong. First, Bush let J. Thomas Burch, Jr., slam John McCain as an enemy of veterans while introducing Bush at a rally in South Carolina. About the unpromising nature of this line of attack, not to mention its offensiveness, not much need be said. McCain, of course, hit back hard.
February 21, 2000:
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain accused George W. Bush Monday of running a campaign by ''character assassination'' in the TV ads Bush is running leading up to Tuesday's Michigan primary.
Bush, saying he was ''taking nothing for granted'' in Michigan after his big weekend victory in South Carolina, focused on his economic proposals in a Detroit speech today. But he also took time to answer back to McCain's ridicule of his claim to be a reformer.
McCain had said Sunday, ''Governor Bush is the governor of a state that has the most liberal campaign contribution laws. ... If Governor Bush is a reformer I'm an astronaut.''
March 3, 2000:
Mr Bush replied: "I regret I did not speak out against that school's anti-Catholic bias. I missed an opportunity. I make no excuses."
But he went on: "What I regret is the politics of smearing somebody's reputation ... Calling me an anti-Catholic bigot is not right."
Mr McCain said he had only given voters "straight talk".
March 5, 2000:Okay. Stand back from the monitor, or you're going to get some serious brain damage from this final knockout punch from none other than the biggest GOP mouthpiece on the entire internet. Newsmax. From just THREE MONTHS AGO.
Seeking support in Northeast primary states, John McCain urged voters Saturday to reject attempts by "two Texas cronies of George W. Bush to hijack an election" with $ 2.5 million in new anti-McCain television ads.
"Tell 'em to keep their dirty money in the state of Texas, my friends," Mr. McCain told a crowd at Copley Square in Boston. "Don't spread it all over New England and America."
April 2, 2004:Still want to talk about disagreements, you pink oily slimebags? If this is all you've got, you really suck at this.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is launching perhaps his harshest attack yet on his own party and his gushiest praise of Democrats.
"I believe my party has gone astray," McCain said yesterday, singling out GOP stands on environmental issues and racial set-asides.
"I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy," he said. "But I also feel the Republican Party can be brought back to the principles I articulated before."
And he took another shot at President Bush. "You can't fly in on an aircraft carrier and declare victory and have the deaths continue. You can't do that."
Where did McCain make his remarks? As the Boston Herald reported today, at a "legislative seminar" hosted by U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who just happens to be one of the biggest Bush bashers in Congress.
"Many people in this room question, legitimately, whether we should have gone in or not," McCain said, adding that Iraq "will be part of this presidential campaign."
For the record, he insisted once again that he had no interest in being the running mate of another Bush-hating Massachusetts Democrat chum, John Kerry.
