Nation & World News
Edwards criticizes Kerry as Washington insider
During Sunday’s debate
Edwards moved to attack
Kerry, shedding his image
as the race’s‘nice guy’
By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
NEW YORK — Facing a possible 10
state loss that would doom his cam
paign, John Edwards shed some of his
nice guy persona Sunday and launched
his most pointed attack on rival John
Kerry in their long competition for the
Democratic presidential nomination.
Edwards portrayed Kerry as a typical
Washington politician, one promising
more new government spending than
he could pay for. He said that he offered
a fresh, outside-the-Beltway voice, a bet
ter approach to trade and jobs and
brushed aside a question about his own
wealth by noting that Kerry is far richer.
Kerry, sensing the opportunity to ef
fectively clinch the nomination if he
can defeat Edwards in all 10 states vot
ing Tuesday, returned the rhetorical
fire. He all but ridiculed Edwards
daim to be an outsider, noting that he
has been in the Senate for five years.
The hourlong dash between the
two senators — Edwards from North
Carolina and Kerry from Massachu
setts — came three days before voters
in 10 states will choose 1,151 dele
gates to the Democratic National
Convention in July, half the 2,162
needed for the nomination.
Edwards insisted that he would re
main in the race even if he loses all 10
states. "I'm going to be the nominee,"
he said.
Edwards, however, trails Kerry in every
state where public polls were available
He trailed by large margins in California
and New York, the two biggest states vot
ing on litesday. Even more troubling for
his campaign, polls showed he re
mained behind in Georgia and Mary
land, two states where he thought he
had the best chance of overtaking Kerry.
In Georgia, a poll by independent
pollster John Zogby for the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution and television
station WSB showed Edwards losing
ground. Kerry led by a margin of 45
percent to 26 percent among likely
primary voters, gaining 4 percentage
points from Friday to Saturday.
Another poll by the nonpartisan
American Research Group showed
Kerry leading Georgia by 48 percent
to 38 percent.
The same group's survey in Mary
land showed Kerry leading by a mar
gin of 46 percent to 34 percent.
Reflecting the bare-knuckled politics
typical of New York, the debate; co-spon
sored by CBS and The New York Times,
was marked by frequent interruptions by
candidates and questioners alike
Kerry and Edwards clashed repeatedly
over the value ofWashington experience
"Do you believe we're going to
change this country out ofWashing
ton, D.C.?" Edwards asked Kerry.
"Yes," said Kerry, a 19-year veter
an of the Senate. "Because that's
where the Congress of the United
States is and that's where 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue is."
Kerry added, "Last time I looked
... he's been in the Senate for the last
five years. That seems to me to be
Washington, D.C."
Edwards criticized Kerry for prom
ising too much new government
spending to be able to fulfill his
promise to cut the deficit in half.
"It's the same old thing," Edwards
said. "He would drive us deeper and
deeper into deficit.... This is the same
old Washington talk that people have
been listening to for decades. They
want something different."
Kerry said his proposed spending to
stimulate the economy shouldn't be
counted toward the deficit because it's
normally not counted under congres
sional rules. And he said the account did
n't include his proposed $ 139 billion cut
from a recently enacted Medicare bill.
"He should do his homework," Ker
ry snapped. "I do not spend more."
Asked to reconcile his personal
wealth with his populist message, Ed
wards laughed, remarking that Kerry
has "got a lot more than I've got."
Both men dismissed a question
about whether they're liberals, stem
ming from a new study ranking Kerry
as the most liberal member of the
Senate and Edwards as the fourth most
liberal. "It's a laughable characteriza
tion, " said Kerry. "I don't think anybody
in America cares about what some in
side Washington publication says."
They reacted differently to a ques
tion about President Bush's assertion
that God is on the U.S. side in the war
on terrorism.
"I believe in God, but I don't be
lieve the way President Bush does,"
Kerry said. "We pray God is on our
side and we pray hard."
Edwards quoted Abraham Lincoln's
answer when asked to pray that God was
on the U.S. side in the Civil War. "I won't
join you in that prayer," Edwards quot
ed Lincoln as saying. "But I'll join you in
a prayer that we're on God's side"
(The American research polls in
Georgia and Maryland were conduct
ed Feb. 27 and Feb. 28 and each had
a margin of error of plus or minus 4
percentage points. The Zogby poll in
Georgia had a margin of error of plus
4.1 percentage points.)
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
information Services.
Iraqi leaders grapple with administrative goals
Sunday's negotiations saw
continued disagreement
regarding Kurdish issues,
women and Islam's role
By Hannah Allam
and Ken Dilanian
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — After missing
the deadline to draft a framework for
Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein gov
ernment, the U.S.-appointed Iraqi
Governing Council continued to ne
gotiate Sunday about religion, the role
of women and Kurdish autonomy.
At stake is what kind of temporary
regime will take over when the U.S.-led
coalition relinquishes sovereignty on
June 30 and what procedures will be
set up for electing a permanent govern
ment later. Two American plans for the
transition have fallen by the wayside,
and officials are now trying to hammer
out an agreement on a third option.
The failure to produce a constitution
on schedule was the latest in a series of
missed deadlines as the coalition pre
pares to cede authority to Iraqis by
June 30. Nevertheless, coalition and
U.S. officials continue to insist that the
handover will take place on schedule.
Instead of American-backed
caucuses to pick a transitional govern
ment, the new plan will hand power
to a revamped version of the unpop
ular and unelected Governing Coun
cil, Iraqi politicians and analysts said.
The council is leaning toward estab
lishing a one-person presidency with
two vice presidents, all three elected
by the other members, officials said.
Under that plan, Iraq would con
tinue to be governed for the near
term by an American-picked body
whose stature has diminished in the
eyes of Iraqis during the seven
months that it has existed. More
than 100,000 U.S. troops would re
main in the country, and the transi
tional government would steer the
country toward elections.
The original American plan called
for elections in December 2005, but
Iraq's most influential political voice,
Shiite Muslim Ayatollah Ali al Hussei
ni al Sistani, has demanded a vote no
later than the end of this year. The
United Nations has said that elections
could occur within eight months if
major legal and logistical issues are
tackled immediately.
A final draft of the transition blue
print won't be signed until after an Is
lamic holiday on Tuesday, council
members said. They added that dis
cussions have mellowed considerably
since a third of the council walked
out of talks Friday, complaining that
they were blindsided by a vote on
women's rights.
Negotiations extended beyond a
midnight Saturday deadline agreed
on by the U.S.-led coalition and the
council. By late afternoon Sunday,
council members were still debating
the most divisive topics: quotas for
women in government, the level of
Kurdish autonomy and to what de
gree Islamic law, known as Sharia,
would shape the new constitution.
Sami al Askari, the senior aide to
current Governing Council Chairman
Mohammad Bahr Ulum, said the
name most commonly mentioned as
a possible president is Ebrahim Jafari,
a leader in the Islamic Dawa Party, a
moderate Shiite organization.
Jafari, a physician who fled Sad
dam's repression in 1980, is the only
member of the governing council
who consistently gets a favorable rat
ing higher than 50 percent in opinion
polls, said Munquith Daghir, who
runs an independent polling institute
that's conducting monthly in-home
surveys of Iraqis.
The negotiations are playing out
against a backdrop of great paradoxes
in the country.
A January opinion poll in six major
cities showed that 45 percent of respon
dents believe that "conditions for peace
and stability" are improving. Salaries
are higher there are more goods in the
markets and people are less afraid to
walk the streets in most cities.
In the same poll, by Daghir's firm,
the Independent Institute for Admin
istration and Civil Society Studies,
70.7 percent of respondents either
somewhat or strongly agreed that
"democracy offers Iraq the hope of
peace, stability and a better life, while
the people attacking coalition forces
offer only chaos."
However, the U.S.-led occupation
and the political vacuum created by
almost a year without a sovereign gov
ernment, coupled with the continu
ing unemployment and gaps in basic
public services, has caused wide
spread frustration.
"Given more than three decades
of despotic rule, a ruined economy,
a devastated country and the col
lapse of state institutions, conditions
in Iraq are daunting," said a recent
United Nations fact-finding report.
"The underlying tensions could fuel
the existing potential for civil strife
and violence."
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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testing site. Testing is available year-round, Monday-Friday, 2 sessions a
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the Testing Office.
The Testing Office is located on the 2nd floor (Rm. 238) of the University
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CAMPUS
Monday
Art exhibition featuring the work of Jen
nifer Fogerty-Gibson, today-March 29,
Adell McMillan Gallery, EMU, 7
a.m.-11:30 p.m., opening reception 5
p.m., March 5.
Humanities Symposium reception to dis
cuss the themes of militancy and martial
ism with the texts of Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, Browsing Room, Knight Library,
today from 9-11:30 a.m.
Art exhibition featuring photography by Mal
heur Workshop participants, today-March
4, LaVerne Krause Gallery, Lawrence Hall,
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Opening reception today
from 6-8 p.m.
Food for Thought film entitled "‘Race: The
Power of an Illusion,' Episode III - The House
We Live In," Board Room, EMU, today from
noon-l:30 p.m. Pre-registration required.
Humanities Symposium lecture by Temple
University Islamic studies Professor Mah
moud Ayoub entitled “Jihad and Fighting:
Peace and War in the Qur’an,” Room 182,
Lillis Hall, today at 8 p.m.
UO Chamber Ensembles Concert featuring a
string quartet, a piano trio and a cello
sonata, as well as pieces by Walter Piston
and Franz Schubert, Beall Concert Hall, to
day at 8 p.m.
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