DEMOCRATS Rivals turn up criticism of Dean

The front-runner's camp took offense at an attack ad running in key states.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The presidential campaign of Howard Dean called Tuesday for his Democratic rivals to condemn an ad against him that's running in key primary states. None of his rivals cooperated, instead turning up their own criticism of Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
The rising intensity of the candidates' criticism of one another reflects their growing awareness that voters will begin choosing one of them Jan. 19 in Iowa's Democratic caucuses.
Dean's campaign was reacting to a private "Stop Dean" coalition that recently began running ads in the key Democratic primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. The ad shows a photograph of Osama bin Laden while a male voice severely intones: "Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience."
It was prepared by Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values, a group whose Web site reveals very little about the Ohio-based organization and how it's funded.
Its spokesman, Robert Gibbs, recently resigned as Sen. John Kerry's press secretary, inflaming theories that supporters of the Massachusetts Democrat -- also a presidential candidate -- are behind the group. Gibbs didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
The group's president is Edward Feighan, a former Ohio congressman who has donated $2,000 to the presidential campaign of Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.
Firing back
On Tuesday, Dean's campaign fired back.
Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, sent an "Open Letter" to other campaign managers and copied it to reporters across the country. He ripped the bin Laden ad as "the kind of fear-mongering attack we've come to expect from Republicans" and said it pandered to the worst in voters. "I'm writing to call on each one of you to condemn this despicable ad and demand it be pulled from the airwaves."
None of Dean's eight Democratic rivals condemned the ad; if anything, their attacks on Dean only grew more strident.
Kerry's campaign sought to distance itself from the ad.
"The Kerry campaign has absolutely nothing to do with this group or its ad," said deputy press secretary David DiMartino, who said he hadn't seen Trippi's letter. "Gibbs left the campaign in the fall. He resigned. We have no relationship with him."
On Saddam Hussein
In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Kerry condemned Dean's statement Monday that the capture of Saddam Hussein didn't make America safer: "Those who doubted whether the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president."
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who supported the war in Iraq, blasted Dean anew Tuesday for his statement about Saddam.
"He thinks we're not safer by removing a homicidal maniac," Lieberman said in Manchester, N.H. "The fact is that Governor Dean has made a series of dubious judgments and irresponsible statements in this campaign that together signal that he would take us back to the days when we Democrats were not trusted to defend our security."
Gephardt echoed Kerry and Lieberman, saying Dean's statement Monday was "wrongheaded": "How can anybody say we're safer with Saddam Hussein in the world?"
Dean, campaigning Tuesday in Arizona, repeated that Saddam's capture doesn't make America safer and that the war in Iraq distracted U.S. forces from the more urgent threat of Al-Qaida.