(Host) Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling on Howard Dean to stop running a television ad in New Hampshire. The Ohio Congressman says the ad is untruthful. Deans says Kucinich is off the mark because the ad was meant to target just the top Democrats in the presidential field.
VPR’s Steve Zind reports:
(Sound from Dean’s television ad) “A hundred and thirty thousand troops in Iraq with no end in sight and a price tag that goes up daily. The best my opponents can do is ask questions today that they should have asked before they supported the war….”
(Zind) In the television commercial Dean says his opposition to the war in Iraq sets him apart from his Democratic opponents. But Kucinich says the ad is false because Kucinich has opposed the war from the outset. As a member of Congress, Kucinich voted against going to war.
Dean is considered the Democratic frontrunner. Recent polls indicate Kucinich support is in the single digits. But Kucinich says his criticism of the Dean ads is not aimed at generating publicity but at keeping the campaign honest.
(Kucinich) “This is a responsibility that I have as a candidate to point out to the public that a leading candidate has not told the truth on ads that are running all over the state of New Hampshire. This is a testing period, we’re kind of applying for the job of Chief Executive. What if someone lies on their job application?”
(Zind) Kucinich says he’ll ask Dean to take the ads off the air when the two meet at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
(Kucinich) “I intend to ask him personally tomorrow. I’m going to see him in Whitefield, in New Hampshire. He’s attacked all Democrats with this ad and he paints everyone with one brush.”
(Zind) Kucinich says Dean is also unfairly characterizing the position of two other Democratic Presidential candidates who opposed the war. An attorney for the Kucinich campaign has sent a letter to New Hampshire television stations asking them to pull the Dean ads and provide the Kucinich campaign with free airtime.
For Vermont Public Radio, I’m Steve Zind.