Kerry wins Clark's backing, Republican attacks

4.30pm



MILWAUKEE - Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry won the backing of former rival Wesley Clark on Thursday, adding to his runaway momentum before next week's Wisconsin primary, but came under attack from Republicans looking ahead to November.

Clark, a former NATO commander who dropped out of the White House race after poor third-place finishes behind Kerry and John Edwards in Virginia and Tennessee, will campaign with Kerry in Wisconsin on Friday, party sources said.

The endorsement is the latest in a wave of good news for Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who has won 12 of the first 14 contests and picked up a stampede of support in the race to find a challenger for President Bush in November.

Republicans, already preparing for the general election race, launched a pre-emptive strike on Kerry, with Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie accusing him of planning "the dirtiest campaign in modern American politics."

He said Kerry supporters planned to spread rumours about Bush in internet chat rooms, and he questioned donations by a Kerry supporter, former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli, to a group that ran attack ads against Howard Dean and donations from Kerry's wife to a group that endorsed him.

Citing a news report quoting an unidentified Democrat as saying "everything" was on the table for the November campaign, Gillespie told a Republican dinner in Reno, Nevada, that Kerry did not want to debate issues with Bush.

"Everything means making slanderous charges against the president of the United States, funnelling money to shadow organizations, engaging in voter suppression tactics, and spreading lies on the internet," Gillespie, who has complained about Democratic efforts to bring up Bush's National Guard records, said in prepared remarks.

RIVALS

Kerry's Democratic rivals, Dean and Edwards, hunted for ways to stop the front-runner in Wisconsin before Tuesday's crucial primary, with Edwards, the North Carolina senator, stressing his plan to restore lost US jobs and Dean questioning Kerry's record as a Washington insider.

Edwards underlined his long-term view of the race with the first of two quick trips to California for a rally, fund raising and a Friday appearance on "The Tonight Show." California's primary is on March 2, and Edwards has vowed to keep going until then despite the surge by Kerry.

"I'm the candidate, if you look at the exit polling from these various primaries, who is attracting independents and the kind of voters we have to have to win the general election," he said on NBC, repeating his pledge to stay in "for the long haul."

Dean, the one-time front-runner desperately looking to resurrect his campaign with a come-from-behind showing in Wisconsin, was joined on the campaign trail by his wife at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Judy Dean, a practicing doctor in Vermont, has made infrequent campaign appearances with her husband, often showing up at crucial moments to offer her support.

A day after attacking Kerry as a product of Washington's corrupt special interests, the former Vermont governor kept up the pressure with a variety of swipes at the presumptive nominee and his nearly 20 years in the Senate.

"The way to beat George Bush, whose White House is a wholly owned subsidiary of special interests, is with a candidate from outside Washington, who is independent and brings new people into the process," said Dean, who originally called Wisconsin a "make-or-break" state for his plummeting campaign but has backed away from that stance.

'REAL CHANGE'

"We won't represent real change this fall with a Washington fixture who plays the insider game," he said.

Kerry took his second consecutive day off the campaign trail on Thursday, but has still racked up endorsements from a string of politicians and labour unions eager to jump on his bandwagon before he clinches the nomination.

He heads to Wisconsin on Friday, where his showdown with Edwards and Dean could be their last chance to change the dynamics of the race and prove their long-term viability.

Clark had scored in the low double digits in recent Wisconsin polls, but his support for Kerry could help sway his core supporters who coaxed him into the race last fall through an internet draft movement.

Edwards still hopes to pick up some of Clark's support after battling him for votes in a series of primaries in the South and West. He commiserated with about 100 people in a Racine community center gymnasium over Wisconsin's loss of jobs under Bush.

"Sixty thousand people have lost their health care. Seventy-four thousand people have lost their jobs," said Edwards, whose win last week in his native South Carolina was his only victory in the race. "We can do something about this."

- REUTERS