Cleland Criticizes Bush, Backs Kerry in 2008

From St. Louis Today:

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., energized and frightened Missouri Democrats Saturday as he laid out the stakes for the party and the country.

Cleland, who lost his seat in a nasty contest in 2002, had harsh words for the Bush administration.

“This crowd is leading this country into disaster,” Cleland said in his Saturday evening speech to about 550 people packed into the dining room of the Hannibal Inn.

“Working class Americans are being trickled on. They’re not seeing any trickle down.’’

He also accused the administration of being corrupt and inept.

“If Harry Truman were alive right now, he’d put Halliburton and everyone associated with it in jail,’’ he said.

But Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, said he was most concerned about Iraq and the American troops there. He said that the administration has mishandled the war and turned it into another Vietnam — “there’s no strategy to win it; no strategy to end it.’’

“There’s only one man in the Bush administration with combat experience — Dick Cheney after he went duck hunting,’’ Cleland said.

Cleland added that he also was concerned about the integrity of the new voting systems, and questioned the accuracy of the Diebold systems in use in Georgia and Ohio. In Ohio in 2004, he asserted “there was a lot of funny business’’ with the voting systems, such putting too few machines in Democratic precincts.

“It’s insane for us to install democracy in Iraq when we don’t even have it in our own country.’’

In a brief interview afterwards, Cleland said he expected Sen. John Kerry to make another bid for the White House in 2008, and Cleland will back Kerry if he does.