Nagourney: " Kerry and Edwards Square Off..."

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/19/politics/campaign/19CAMP.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Asked about the criticism, Mr. Kerry's press secretary, Stephanie Cutter, responded, "This is an interesting line of attack from the positive campaign of John Edwards considering that his campaign is wholly funded by trial lawyers, which are widely recognized as special interests and lobbyists." Mr. Edwards himself is a former trial lawyer.

<>"Edwards promised to run a positive campaign," one Kerry campaign statement read, noting that Mr. Edwards had voted for the China trade agreement. "But now Edwards attacks John Kerry and runs from his own record."

<>"I think your record is an indication of what you'll do in the future and also shows the strength of your convictions on a particular issue," Mr. Edwards said. But Mr. Edwards acknowledged in an interview earlier this week that there was little evidence of his having opposed Nafta before 1997 or 1998, when he first ran for the Senate. He has close ties to the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of moderate Democrats that has pushed for liberalized trade agreements, but he said he had made his views known throughout that campaign.

"What I've said is when I campaigned in '98 — since I wasn't in the Congress when passed — I campaigned and I was against Nafta," he said in the interview. But he said it was not a major part of his Senate campaign.