Democrats mix congratulations with criticism

The capture of Saddam Hussein was praised by the Democratic presidential candidates yesterday, but most took the opportunity to reiterate what they see as President Bush’s failed Iraqi policy or take shots at front-runner Howard Dean, who opposed the war.

Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, called the news “terrific,” but suggested that he could have brought Saddam to justice faster than did Mr. Bush.

“If we had done this in a globalized way, if we had brought more people to the table, we might have caught Saddam Hussein sooner,” said Mr. Kerry, one of several Democratic White House contenders who were scheduled to appear on yesterday’s political talk shows to discuss Mr. Dean’s endorsement by former Vice President Al Gore.

Republicans generally avoided public gloating, but were privately pointed in saying that Saddam’s capture put Democrats and their antiwar stance in a difficult spot.

Mr. Kerry said on “Fox News Sunday” that he stood by his characterization of Mr. Bush’s Iraq policy earlier this month as “arrogant, inept and reckless.”

Asked by host Chris Wallace whether he wanted to take any of those words back, Mr. Kerry said “not one word of it.”

Now that Saddam is in custody, Mr. Kerry said, we have “a great opportunity to get it right in the long term,” which he defined as “reaching out to the United Nations.”

Mr. Dean called yesterday “a great day for the Iraqi people, the U.S. and the international community,” but the former Vermont governor repeated Mr. Kerry’s call for more foreign and U.N. involvement.

“This development provides an enormous opportunity to set a new course and take the American label off the war,” Mr. Dean said. “We must do everything possible to bring the U.N., NATO and other members of the international community back into this effort.”

However, when Saddam’s Ba’athist regime was toppled in April, Mr. Dean said: “I suppose the Iraqis are better off with Saddam Hussein gone” and “we should’ve contained him.”

In recent months, Mr. Dean has called the liberation of Iraq “the wrong war at the wrong time,” and former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Mr. Dean last week noting that “our nation in its 200-year history has never made a worse foreign-policy mistake” than the invasion of Iraq.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat and Mr. Gore’s running mate in 2000, said “praise the Lord” upon hearing of Saddam’s capture, and tartly noted Mr. Dean’s opposition to the war.

“Let’s be real specific on the question that we are celebrating today,” Mr. Lieberman said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Howard Dean, throughout this campaign, has said he wasn’t sure that Saddam really represented a threat to us. … If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not prison.”

Other Democratic candidates who have been attacked by Mr. Dean for their support for the Iraq war touted Saddam’s capture as an example of their wisdom.

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