Kerry refusing to apologize for remark about GOP critics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he does not intend to apologize for describing his critics in the Republican Party as “the most crooked … lying group I’ve ever seen.”
At the Capitol for meetings Thursday with congressional Democrats, Republican lawmakers called on the Massachusetts senator to stop what they said was name-calling and negative campaigning.
Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said Republicans think of Kerry as “Ted Kennedy on a South Beach diet,” a reference to the other Democratic senator from the Bay State.
Kerry refused to apologize and said he wouldn’t sit still while the “Republican attack squad” routinely distorts his record. He noted the criticism came on the same day President Bush unveiled the first negative ads of his re-election campaign, in which the Republican incumbent says Kerry is “wrong on taxes” and “wrong on defense.”
“I have no intention whatsoever of apologizing for my remarks,” Kerry said at a Capitol news conference. “I think the Republicans need to start talking about the real issues before the country.”
At the center of the controversy was a comment Kerry made Wednesday in Chicago when a supporter urged him to take on Bush. “Let me tell you, we’ve just begun to fight,” Kerry responded, apparently unaware that his lapel microphone was still recording. “We’re going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I’ve ever seen. It’s scary.”
Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot said the remark was “unbecoming” of a presidential candidate.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Kerry was “getting off on the wrong foot in this campaign by name-calling. We’re not lying when we start saying that Senator Kerry is the old-time Democrat of tax and spend.”
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the comment gave the public “a little glimpse of the real John Kerry.”
Kerry said he was referring to Republican critics who distort his record.
“There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative,” he said. “I haven’t said anything that’s incorrect about them. They’ve said a lot of things that are incorrect.”
Kerry also met privately at the Capitol on Thursday with John Edwards, and the two went to a nearby hotel to meet with 100 of the top fund-raisers who backed the North Carolina senator’s presidential campaign. Edwards said handing over his operation to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee amounted to a symbolic passing of the torch.
After a similar session Wednesday with former rival Howard Dean, campaign officials said Kerry and the former Vermont governor had agreed to a joint appearance March 25. A Dean endorsement was certain, officials familiar with the talks said.
Kerry has no public schedule Friday.