Dems Haven't Learned - Exchanging Crossfire

On the threshold of the nation's first primary, the Democratic presidential candidates raced across the frigid New Hampshire landscape Monday, offering closing arguments to large and attentive crowds and undermining their rivals with barbed exchanges on issues from abortion rights to the Iraq war.

New Hampshire voting officials have forecast that Tuesday's voting may well bring record turnout for a Democratic primary, surpassing the 162,000 total in 1992. Most of the candidates were playing to packed houses, with the crowds liberally sprinkled with voters who say they have yet to make up their minds. Veteran observers here say this reflects the zeal with which Democratic voters are searching for the candidate best poised to defeat President Bush. It also reflects the natural interest generated by an old-fashioned political drama, playing out in a state small enough that the candidates can be seen in the flesh by anyone with interest, and not simply as television images.

A generally upbeat day had a persistently testy undertone. After the day's exchanges over abortion rights and Iraq, Kerry's campaign released a statement saying, "Howard Dean is ending this New Hampshire campaign the same way he started it, by angrily tearing down his opponents rather than offering any positive vision of his own. . . . The American people deserve leadership that offers a steady hand, not a clenched fist."

Dean, meanwhile, vented his grievances about campaign tactics. At an appearance in Nashua, and later riding the bus with reporters, he cried "dirty tricks," but did not specify what was being done or which campaign he thought was responsible. Later in the afternoon, campaign aides distributed documents alleging that voters had received harassing phone calls, phony e-mails and faxes that purported to be from the Dean campaign, but contained bigoted or offensive language. "The American people don't approve of that kind of stuff and will respond accordingly," Dean said.