Gov. Jim Doyle picked up on the theme of improving security at home. “We have to be more much more strategic … and much more focused on the protection of our national homeland than going out without allies and getting completely involved in Iraq,” he said. “There is a real need, as the senator said, to be much smarter and more strategic in what we do.”
Kerry: Bush hasn’t protected U.S. enough
By Kelley Bruss
kbruss@greenbaypressgazette.com
One week before the presidential election, Democratic Sen. John Kerry waged a two-front war on his opponent’s security policies, arguing President George Bush has failed to adequately protect America both at home and overseas.
Following a late-Monday appearance in Ashwaubenon, Kerry spoke Tuesday morning at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Phoenix Sports Center.
In a 45-minute speech that campaign workers said would be his last major policy address before the election, Kerry said that as president he’d invest more money in protecting America’s borders and supporting local security efforts. He also said he’d build a coalition of international support to turn around the situation in Iraq.
“Just because George Bush can’t do it doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” Kerry said. “It can be done and it will be done.”
Kerry’s attention to national security was important to John and Phyllis Robbins of Green Bay, who were among the hundreds who showed up to cheer Kerry.
“I thought he’s right on,” Phyllis Robbins said after the speech.
Kerry said Bush is ignoring warnings about U.S. vulnerability at home and about the “bad and getting worse” situation in Iraq.
“The president has demonstrated to the American people — and to countries around the world — that he is divorced from reality in Iraq,” Kerry said.
The senator said he’d restore federal assistance that Bush has cut from local emergency personnel.
“I will invest at least $60 billion more over the next 10 years to protect America,” Kerry said.
That money would be used, in part, to secure ports and borders by screening all shipments for nuclear materials; by adding border agents and improving technology for their use; and by developing a single terrorist watch list that would be broadly available.
“We have a lot of catching up to do and we need to begin right now,” Kerry said. “We have to fix the problems and close the gaps that George Bush has left in our homeland security.”
Kerry didn’t get into detail about how the additional funding would be generated, but he did briefly attack Bush’s tax cuts.
The financial point resonated with Luann Rudolph, a graduate student at UW-Green Bay.
“It’s the one thing that’s made a lot of sense all along, ending the tax cuts for the rich,” she said.
Rudolph, who has worked as a safety educator and emergency preparedness coordinator at a New York hospital, said she’s seen firsthand the lack of technology and other basic needs.
In an interview after Kerry’s speech, Gov. Jim Doyle picked up on the theme of improving security at home.
“We have to be more much more strategic … and much more focused on the protection of our national homeland than going out without allies and getting completely involved in Iraq,” he said. “There is a real need, as the senator said, to be much smarter and more strategic in what we do.”
Doyle said Wisconsin ranks 50th in the country in the amount of homeland security money it receives. At the same time, cuts to police programs have put a strain on agencies across the state.
The governor was with Kerry at both Green Bay speeches this week as well as other stops around the state, which is considered one of the key battlegrounds in the election.
“People are incredibly engaged,” Doyle said. “By all accounts it appears we’re going to see record-high turnouts.”
After Doyle introduced Kerry, the senator noted that he’s running to be the 44th president and Doyle is Wisconsin’s 44th governor.
“There’s a nice symmetry there,” Kerry said. “I think it works.”
Barbara Blakeney, president of the American Nurses Association, spoke shortly before the senator arrived.
She said he’d make sure the country’s healthcare system is adequate to meet both daily needs and crisis situations. Blakeney, from Boston, said she knows what Kerry stands for and is proud to call him her senator.
“And with your help, a week from today, I’ll be even prouder to call him our president,” she said.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, one of a contingent of mayors traveling with Kerry, emphasized the candidate’s point that Bush has directed more attention to rebuilding Iraq than to bolstering America.
O’Malley said if someone can get near a city’s train system to cover it with graffiti, someone can also get near the system to attack it. If someone can carry drugs across the border, someone can also carry biological weapons across.
“Why, Mr. President, are we opening firehouses in Baghdad when you’re forcing American mayors to close them in American cities?” he said.
— Nathan Phelps/Press-Gazette
