Democrat Critical of President's Foreign Policy Expertise
By Dan Baltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 1, 2004; Page A01
Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said yesterday that President Bush lacks an understanding of the complexities of national security policy and has displayed a cowboy mentality toward the rest of the world that threatens to leave the country less secure against terrorist and other threats.
Gephardt, who supported the resolution authorizing Bush to go to war against Iraq, passionately defended that vote, which has drawn criticism from Democratic activists in his bid for the party's nomination, by describing how much the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed his views about preventing terrorism.
But while acknowledging he has embraced some of the broad goals of Bush's policy since then, Gephardt said that, based on his meetings with Bush, he does not trust the president to conduct foreign policy. "He's not dumb," he said, "but he is not informed and he's not experienced and he hasn't surrounded himself with the right people to give him the information and the experience that he doesn't have. And he worries me."
Gephardt made the comments during an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters in which he also questioned former Vermont governor Howard Dean's foreign policy experience and credibility and predicted that a Gephardt victory in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses will fundamentally change the dynamic of the Democratic presidential race.
Guess, what? He worries me, too. So let's spend more time dissing him and less time worrying about Dean.