Surrogates for Bush, Kerry stump in Lewiston, Auburn

AUBURN – Republicans and Democrats staked out battlefields on opposing shores of the Androscoggin River on Tuesday as campaign workers gathered to hear high-profile surrogates extol the virtues of President Bush and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry.

With less than a week to go before Election Day, Democrats and Republicans were urged by their respective speakers to advocate for their candidates in what both parties described as “the most critical election” ever.

Although Kerry has not visited Maine since well before the Democratic convention, members of his family and those of his vice presidential running mate have been frequent visitors to the state. The president, his wife and daughters have made campaign appearances throughout Maine, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to be in the state for Bush on Thursday.

The list of surrogates to campaign in Maine for Kerry recently has included actress Sharon Stone and comedian Al Franken. Former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley stopped Tuesday at Kerry’s headquarters on Lisbon Street in Lewiston while Georgia Sen. Zell Miller – the dissident Democrat who scorched the stage for Bush at the Republican National Convention – made an appearance at the Lost Valley Ski Resort in Auburn.

The Republicans attracted a larger crowd than Democrats although it ebbed slightly when Miller fell a little behind schedule. With Peter Cianchette, the chairman of the Bush campaign in Maine, as host, several local Republicans running for legislative seats gave brief presentations before the arrival of Miller, who predicted Bush would win re-election on Nov. 2.

During his national convention speech, Miller’s fiery rhetoric, set jaw and piercing stare prompted political commentators to speculate the former governor had been consumed by anger. Miller could not resist elaborating Tuesday afternoon.

“All the political pundits and talking heads said I looked mad and sounded angry – how very perceptive of them,” he said, as the audience cheered. “I don’t like it when the party I have worked in for 50 years has been hijacked by the extreme liberal left. They are a group of individuals who have taken over my party that does not believe in fiscal responsibility.”

As he did during the convention, Miller assailed Democrats for failing to respect the president as commander-in-chief during a time of war and accused Kerry of “playing politics” with national security.

“What could be worse than that?” he asked. “This election, I believe, will change forever the course of history. In this dangerous time, there is one man who I trust to keep my family safe; one man who will stick with his decisions; one man who I know will not waver and wobble and get weak in the knees. And that man’s name is George W. Bush.”

Miller said the president’s record is one of reforming education, lowering taxes, providing prescription drugs for senior citizens and establishing a Homeland Security department.

“He has also led an unrelenting fight against terrorists,” he said. “Senator Kerry’s record is 20 years of liberal, out-of-touch, out-of-the-mainstream votes and certainly no results to show for two decades in the U.S. Senate.”

If Republicans perceive Bush’s leadership in the global war on terror as their candidate’s greatest strength, then Democrats were just as convinced the president’s domestic agenda is his most pervasive weakness. In an office packed with volunteers and union workers, Bradley gazed at aging photos of the party’s great Democratic leaders such as U.S. Sens. Edmund S. Muskie and Bill Hathaway.

“When I look up at the walls and see the people who have served the state of Maine, like [Muskie and Hathaway] and George Mitchell, these are people I knew personally,” he said. “I know that they were in office for one major purpose and that was to make this country a better place and make sure that the middle class and those with less had a chance to make it in this country.”

Bradley said Bush’s “tax cut for the wealthy” was a core issue in the presidential election and that the president’s policy had done little more than shift the tax burden onto those who are less able to afford it.

“It means that people at the top [of the income scale] pay much less and that means in order to be able to do the things you do, the people in the middle have to pay a bigger percentage of the total tax,” he said. “And that’s exactly what’s happened in the last four years of this country.”

In addition to good jobs and good pay, Bradley said Kerry was the candidate best suited to ensure access to health care and higher education for all Americans. He dismissed the Iraq war as “the biggest foreign policy mistake of my lifetime.”

“Let’s take Dick Cheney’s number [for the war’s cost] of $120 billion – that could have gone to health care, middle class tax cuts or helping kids go to college,” Bradley said. “Instead, we’re pouring it into the sands in Iraq with no idea of how we’re going to get out. It’s a disastrous mistake. I guarantee you that we’re not going to have a fresh start for a chance to get out of Iraq or for the middle class of this country unless John Kerry is elected president.”