GOP, Democrats get down and dirty
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Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie speaks to reporters before a Lincoln Day dinner in Reno, Nevada.
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(CNN) -- Despite calls to move away from negative attacks in the 2004 presidential campaign season, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and campaign officials for Democratic hopeful John Kerry traded barbs, each accusing the other of dirty politics.
Gillespie accused Democrats on Thursday night of "using some of the most vitriolic rhetoric in the history of presidential politics," then called his Democratic counterpart the "John Wilkes Booth of presidential character assassination."
His speech in Reno, Nevada, focused on Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination.
"We highlight policies, and note Senator Kerry's long Senate record. They accuse the president of desertion -- a military crime punishable by death -- as the Clark campaign did, or accuse the president of being AWOL, which is a felony, punishable by imprisonment, as DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has done," Gillespie said. "Terry McAuliffe has become the John Wilkes Booth of presidential character assassination."
Questions about Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard recently intensified after McAuliffe said Bush was absent without leave from his Guard service from May 1972 to May 1973 when he was transferred from Texas to Alabama so he could work on a Senate political campaign.
The White House has fought back, releasing payroll records it says prove Bush fulfilled his requirements and was honorably discharged. Most recently, the White House released a document showing that Bush received a dental exam at the Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, Alabama on January 6, 1973.
"It's only February and they have made clear they intend to run the dirtiest campaign in modern presidential politics. This is because they don't want a debate on the issues, and they don't want to run on Senator Kerry's record," Gillespie said.
In response to Gillespie's speech, James Bilbray and Terry Care, co-chairs of Kerry's Nevada campaign, issued a statement calling Gillespie the president's "favorite attack dog" who was spreading "false, nasty personal charges."
They urged Bush to "call off his right-wing slime machine."
"This is the dirtiest, most ruthlessly political White House since Richard Nixon, and they're desperate to hide the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression," the statement said.
