Edwards hits out at Bush's links to lobby groups

ST PAUL - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards yesterday skewered President George W. Bush for taking money from companies with lucrative contracts in Iraq and vowed to bleed the power of Washington lobbyists.

The North Carolina senator, who is running a distant second in polls to frontrunner John Kerry, is portraying himself as a Washington outsider as he campaigns in a strategic selection of some of the 10 states that will hold potentially decisive votes on March 2 for the Democratic nominee to challenge Bush.

After a series of recent campaign stops focused on job losses in hard-hit manufacturing areas, Edwards told an overflow crowd of about 1000 in Minnesota that special interests must be reined in if working and middle-class families were to be heard.

"Let me tell you what we ought to do with these Washington lobbyists: we ought to cut 'em off at the knees," Edwards, who refuses campaign contributions from lobbyists, said.

He vowed to stop politicians from taking lobbyists' money, keep Government officials from becoming lobbyists and prevent lobbyists from walking into top Government jobs. He said he would bar contractors' contributions before or after a bid.

At an earlier rally in Long Island, New York, he blasted "war profiteering" by companies such as Halliburton, the oil services firm formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, which won several large contracts last year to rebuild Iraq amid allegations of cronyism.

"If you make a list on a piece of paper of the companies who have gotten contracts in Iraq and then list beside them who they made political contributions to, take a wild guess who's the biggest recipient: George W. Bush," Edwards said.


A mill worker's son who became a wealthy trial lawyer, Edwards stresses trade reform and job protection in his stump speeches and promises to overcome divisions of race and economic opportunity.

He has won just one of 17 electoral contests so far - in his birth state of South Carolina - compared with Kerry's 15 wins.

Edwards' campaign says it has raised $US10.4 million ($15 million) since the start of the year.

- REUTERS