Iowa, Hot Dog! - "This administration is driving us into a ditch."
"The country's safer when one party doesn't have control of the Supreme Court, the White House and the Congress."
On Sunday afternoon, retired General Wesley Clark headlined a rally in Des Moines for Democrat Congressman Leonard Boswell. Clark, a rival of Kerry's in 2004, said as he travels the country campaigning for Democrats, he senses that Iraq still seems to be the top issue for voters. "But I think there's a strong undertow on the Republican Party from Mark Foley and from really the disintegration of...what they claimed was their moral superiority," Clark said during an interview with Radio Iowa. Foley is the Florida congressman who resigned after lurid "instant messages" he sent to former House pages were made public.
Clark said he believes there'll be a "surge" of Democrats going to the polls this November. "The country's safer when one party doesn't have control of the Supreme Court, the White House and the Congress. It just promotes the abuse of power especially when the party is the Republican Party which tends to stamp out dissent within its own ranks," Clark said.
"This administration is driving us into a ditch."
Former presidential candidate and retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Sunday that any positive solution to the deteriorating situation in Iraq would have to come with a new presidency - and a Democratic Congress.
"This administration is driving us into a ditch. You can't stay the course, and you've got to find a new direction," said Clark, who was in Des Moines to campaign for U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Ia.
Clark's apparent furor over the war wasn't shared only with reporters. In a conversation with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., and Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., he pounded a fist into one hand when making the point, telling them he would do "everything I can" to change the course of the war.
Clark was mum on whether he would launch a 2008 presidential bid. He said he was "here for 2006." When it came to other potential candidates already setting up campaign bases in the state, Clark, who skipped campaigning in Iowa during the 2004 caucuses, said he didn't blame them.
"I should've been here earlier last time," he joked.
