McAuliffe Accuses Bush of `New McCarthyism'

Saturday 17 May 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) -- National Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe accused President Bush on Saturday of unleashing a "new McCarthyism'' by vilifying people who oppose his policies.

Speaking in Ohio, McAuliffe also defended that state's Republican senator, George Voinovich, who wavered in his support for the president's tax-cut package because he feared it would drive up the federal budget deficit. The Senate version would cut taxes by nearly $350 billion over 10 years, with additional cuts paid for by new revenue driving its cost to almost $420 billion.

After Voinovich criticized the plan, a pro-tax cut group ran television ads criticizing his position, and Bush visited Ohio to promote the tax cuts, a trip that many interpreted as an attempt to pressure the senator. Bush administration spokesmen said nothing about the ads, which characterized "so-called allies'' in Congress as "Franco-Republicans'' who were no more helpful than France in the Iraq war.

In the end, Voinovich's vote helped the legislation pass the Senate on a 51-50 vote, with the deciding vote cast by Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a speech prepared for delivery at the Ohio Democratic Party's state dinner, McAuliffe said he disagrees with Voinovich's vote and many other positions that the Ohioan takes. But he said whatever the differences politically, the senator is a loyal American.

"For George's sin of wanting a slightly more fiscally sound tax package, his patriotism was attacked, and the president never spoke out in his defense, never told his henchmen to stop the attack,'' said McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee.

"George Bush has unleashed a new McCarthyism that, under the cloak of a time of crisis and peril, has vilified and questioned the patriotism of those who have policy and political differences with him and his administration.''

Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke said Bush had nothing to do with the ads that ran against Voinovich, which were sponsored by a group called Club for Growth. He said McAuliffe is continuing a strategy of partisan attacks against Republicans that didn't lead Democrats to victory last year and won't in 2004.

"We're not questioning their patriotism,'' Dyke said. "The question is, `Are Democrats putting forward ideas and showing leadership?' And based on some of the foolish things they say, I think the American people would say no.''

McAuliffe's speech focused on criticism of Bush's handling of the economy. Many Democrats contend a weakening economy could turn voters against the popular president next year and allow an opposing candidate to oust him from the White House.

McAuliffe accused Bush of squandering the federal surplus of the 1990s and said Bush's tax cuts benefit the rich while costing working people their jobs.

"The story goes that as the lifeboats were being loaded, the wealthy of the passengers of the Titanic pushed aside the women and children,'' he said. "The values of this administration would be quite at home aboard that ill-fated ship.''

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