Democratic rivals turn their fire on 'erratic' Dean

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=477392

The brawling Democratic presidential candidates are in the home straight of the primary season, with most taking aim not so much at President George Bush as at their own front runner, the former Vermont governor Howard Dean.

In an interview with The Washington Post yesterday, Richard Gephardt, a former party leader in the House of Representatives, repeated his charge that Mr Bush had been a "miserable failure" with his go-it-alone approach to foreign policy. "There's just no understanding of the complexity of this thing," he said.

But Mr Gephardt was even more scathing about Mr Dean, his main rival in the Iowa caucuses which launch the electoral season on 19 January, and where nothing less than victory will suffice. Mr Gephardt was confident he would prevail, saying Mr Dean's erratic style was starting to give potential supporters second thoughts. "I don't think you can run for this job... if you're clarifying statements you make every day, because you shot from the hip and didn't really think through the meaning of what you have said," Mr Gephardt said.

Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut senator and the most centrist candidate, was more scathing, predicting that if Mr Dean won the nomination, the over-sensitive candidate would "melt" when the Republicans turned up the heat against him.

[stickdog]

1. If you're clarifying statements you make every day, it's because you're

responding to relentless and often counterproductive (read: pro-Bush) attacks that mischaracterize, overblow and/or take your remarks out of context.