Kerry bashers unleash barbs with no limits

NEW YORK — The word to Republican speakers at the national convention is that bashing Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry is fine.

Unlike Democrats, who put out word that they were editing speeches to tamp down on harsh criticism of President Bush at their convention in Boston in July, the Republicans are not shying away from full-throttle engagement.

Headlining Monday night’s action, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani referred to Mr. Kerry a dozen times, at one point saying the Massachusetts senator might even subjugate U.S. interests to the will of other nations.

“Just a few months ago, John Kerry kind of leaked out that claim that certain foreign leaders who opposed our removal of Saddam Hussein prefer him. Well, to me, that raises the risk that he might well accommodate his position to their viewpoint,” said Mr. Giuliani, prompting the crowd to break into a round of boos.

The Bush campaign said there have been no instructions to tamp down remarks.

“We aren’t shy about pointing out the differences,” said Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

The bashing was not lost on Democrats.

Matt Bennett, spokesman for the Democratic Response Team in New York, said Mr. Giuliani attacked Mr. Kerry 15 times in his speech, adding that the remarks were filled with “incredibly raw negativity.”

“All they could do was attack last night. You know why? Because they don’t have a plan to create jobs, to fix health care or win the war on terror,” said Sen. John Edwards, the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee.

Mr. Bush promised a positive message from the convention, but Democrats said his party has failed to deliver it.

At their convention in Boston, Mr. Kerry’s staff said, they examined speakers’ remarks to ensure that they were mostly positive. The campaign’s guidelines for speakers included keeping remarks short, staying to the night’s theme and being positive.

The Associated Press said the Democratic speechwriting team also contacted speakers to deliver the message more forcefully, telling them that criticism of Mr. Bush would be allowed “only as a subtle or indirect dig” when matching the two tickets’ records or vision.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said his party wanted to keep the focus positive to help introduce Mr. Kerry, particularly to attract independent voters it thought would be turned off by negativity.

For Republicans, though, no content guidelines were issued this week.

Spokesmen for several members of Congress who have given speeches or made remarks at the Republican National Convention this week said they only were given direction on the length of the speeches.

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