Bush accused of ‘dodging’ missing explosives issue

SENATOR John Kerry yesterday accused President Bush of “dodging and bobbing and weaving” on explanations for nearly 400 tons of missing explosives in Iraq.

Bush, in return, said his presidential challenger was making wild charges without knowing the facts.

Less than a week before the election, both campaigns intensified their efforts - in speeches, in TV ads, in telephone appeals and in courtrooms across the nation.

With their agendas laid out all summer and fall, Bush and Kerry were trying to create an aura of excitement in get-out-the-vote rallies, hoping to snag the dwindling pool of voters who haven’t taken sides.

Kerry hit hard at this week’s revelation that explosives had disappeared from an outpost in Iraq.

“The missing explosives could very likely be in the hands of terrorists and insurgents, who are actually attacking our forces now 80 times a day on average,” Kerry said at a rally in Sioux City. “But now today we’ve learned even more. What we’re seeing is a White House that is dodging and bobbing and weaving in their usual efforts to avoid responsibility, just as they’ve done every step of the way in our involvement in Iraq.”

Kerry said Vice President Dick Cheney “is becoming the chief minister of disinformation” while the president remained silent on the matter. Bush did bring up the matter a few minutes later, in a speech in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

“Now the senator is making wild charges about missing explosives when his top foreign policy adviser admits, quote, ‘we do not know the facts’.” Bush said.

“Think about that - the senator’s denigrating the action of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts.”

Bush was referring to remarks made by Kerry adviser Richard Holbrooke on Tuesday in an interview with Fox News. Holbrooke said “the UN inspectors had told the American military this was a major depot.” He added: “I don’t know what happened. I do know one thing - in most administrations the buck stops in the Oval Office.”

Kerry also appealed to middle class voters in the election homestretch on Wednesday, saying Bush had sold them out to help the wealthy and now wanted “four more years so that he can keep up the bad work.”

Bush, meanwhile, put together a campaign endgame that included persistent appeals for Democratic votes and a rarely used weapon in this bruising campaign - a positive commercial.

Bush planned to close the contest with a 60-second commercial meant to show him as steady, trustworthy and compassionate in dangerous times. The ad shows an emotional president telling the Republican National Convention about meeting the children and parents of slain US soldiers, as well as wounded servicemen and women.