Debaters spar on Iraq war

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CLEVELAND -- Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards traded blows last night over Iraq and the Democratic ticket's Senate voting records in the first and only debate between the vice-presidential candidates.

Mr. Edwards quickly accused Mr. Cheney of "not being straight with the American people" and repeatedly hammered at the Bush administration for denying that "Iraq is a mess, and it's getting worse."

But unlike President Bush last week, Mr. Cheney vigorously went after the Senate voting records of Mr. Edwards and, especially, of Sen. John Kerry, accusing them of being weak on defense and of shifting their positions on the war in Iraq based on prevailing political winds.

"Your rhetoric, Senator, would be a lot more credible if there was a record to back it up. There isn't," he said of the senator's claims that a Kerry-Edwards administration would be tough on terrorists.

He said the senators' words on the campaign trail count for little when compared to their long-standing opposition to military-spending bills and the use of force, mentioning Mr. Kerry's history of "cutting most of our major defense programs" and his opposition to the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

"You cannot use 'talk tough' during the course of a 90-minute debate in a presidential campaign to obscure a 30-year record in the United States Senate and prior to that, by John Kerry, who has consistently come down on the wrong side of all the major defense issues that he's faced as a public official," Mr. Cheney said.

As the two men met center stage at Case Western Reserve University last night and shook hands, Mr. Edwards smiled and said, "Good to see you." But the courtliness ended there.

"Mr. Vice President, you are still not being straight with the American people," were the first words out of Mr. Edwards' mouth, issued after Mr. Cheney gave moderator Gwen Ifill of the Public Broadcasting System his assessment of the situation in Iraq.

Mr. Edwards said the United States was carrying too much of the financial and human cost in Iraq, adding that although Saddam Hussein "needed to be confronted, ... it needed to be done the right way."

He also accused the Bush administration of exaggerating how much allies are helping.