Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean accused his rival John Kerry on Wednesday of backing the kind of "politically corrupt fund-raising" that the former Vermont governor said had paid for attack ads against him.
Dean, who has ceded front-runner status to Kerry after failing to win any of the 14 contests so far, cited reports that former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli contributed to a group that ran ads in December using images of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to question Dean's ability to fight terrorism.
Torricelli, who left the Senate under a cloud of ethics problems, is now raising funds for Kerry in the race for the Democratic nomination to face US President George W. Bush in November.
"Senator Kerry apparently ... supports the kind of corrupt fund raising, politically corrupt fund-raising mechanism that George Bush has also employed," Dean charged at a news conference the day after suffering double-barrel defeats to the Massachusetts senator in Virginia and Tennessee.
Dean hopes to begin what would be a dramatic comeback in Wisconsin's primary next week but a local poll has shown him running far behind.
Dean described the link between Kerry and Torricelli as "unassailable" but later said "I have no idea" if Kerry had prior knowledge of the bin Laden spot.
Dean, a staunch opponent of the Iraq war, made reference to Kerry's vote for a congressional resolution authorizing the invasion.
"First he sided with the president on the war ... now we find he is more like President Bush than we ever imagined," Dean said.
"This is exactly what we don't need in Washington. I got into this race because I wanted to stand up and give the Democratic Party some backbone and character."
He added: "If we have to become like Republicans in order to beat them, then I think the Democratic Party needs to change fundamentally, and I don't think John Kerry is capable of changing the political culture in Washington."
Kerry spokesman David Wade rejected the accusations. "Another day, another Dean act of desperation," he said.
At one point, Dean inadvertently referred to Kerry as president. He quickly corrected himself, saying, "President Kerry, please. Senator Kerry."
In an interview with CBS News, Dean said he believed Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, another White House rival, "would be a stronger candidate" against Bush than Kerry.
"When Senator Kerry's record is examined by the public ... he's going to turn out to be just like George Bush," Dean said.
Dean took time out from the campaign on Wednesday to return home to Vermont to attend his son's high-school hockey game. He planned to return to Wisconsin yesterday.
Dean began airing television ads in Wisconsin on Monday with a US$1.3 million warchest he raised in an e-mail appeal to supporters last week.
In the online plea, Dean said if he lost Wisconsin his campaign would be over. But on Monday, he said he had changed his mind, saying supporters had persuaded him to fight on regardless.
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