Kennedy Spurs Democratic Opposition to GOP
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON–With his party already planning for a comeback in 2004, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) Tuesday urged Democrats to defy the Republican majority’s agenda in the new Congress.
While delivering jabs at the Bush administration’s economic stimulus plan and affirmative action policy, Kennedy called for a stronger and more unified Democratic vision.
“The lesson of 2002 is clear,” he said in a luncheon speech at the National Press Club. “We will not succeed if we fail to stand up and speak out.”
Though suggesting that the party work toward a compromise with Republicans on the economy, Kennedy said there is no political safety in going along with the GOP agenda. In particular, he called for opposition to the administration’s conservative judicial nominees, criticizing President Bush’s choices of nominees who, Kennedy charged, are “plainly hostile to civil rights.”
Also, taking the first step toward endorsing a candidate for president, Kennedy took time to praise the state’s junior senator, Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, saying he is “doing a great job.”
“I expect to support him, and I expect he’ll win,” Kennedy said.
Among his many criticisms of the Republican administration, Kennedy repeatedly hammered at Bush’s handling of the conflict with Iraq. He argued that the debate over an Iraqi war has distracted the administration from the “more immediate threats to our security” posed by terrorism and the North Korean weapons program. Kennedy warned that an assault against Iraq would antagonize the al Qaeda terrorist network and crack the international coalition the administration worked to build in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
Instead, Kennedy pressed the administration to let United Nations inspectors continue their weapons search, disputing the White House’s assertion last week that the discovery of empty warheads is “troubling and serious.”
“I continue to be convinced that this is the wrong war at the wrong time,” Kennedy said.
By contrast, Kennedy referred to increased tensions with North Korea as an “urgent crisis,” saying the Communist nation is “the country most likely to market nuclear material and nuclear weapons to terrorists.”
Kennedy said Bush was “AWOL” on the North Korean threat for most of his first two years as president, then reacted inappropriately by initially refusing to hold talks until the North Koreans made immediate concessions.
Of pressing concern, Kennedy said, is the possibility of losing focus on the war on terrorism. He asserted that the United States is unprepared for a chemical or biological attack, saying the country’s railways, subways and seaports are not secure. “Plainly,” he said, “we are unacceptably vulnerable at home.”
The senator waged further attacks on the administration for what he described as the underfunded No Child Left Behind Act, as well as the president’s proposed tax cuts. On the latter, Kennedy proposed a bipartisan compromise, in which tax cuts would be balanced with Democratic spending priorities.
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
