The complex alliances in the final days before Iowa’s caucuses have made it look more like Europe at the dawn of World War I than a political campaign.
Word leaked out that Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio had agreed to urge their supporters to back the other guy if their first choice was doing poorly at individual caucuses Monday evening.
But that wasn’t the only odd coupling going on. Over the weekend at 801, a steakhouse in downtown Des Moines, eating at the same CNN table were Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s campaign manager, and John Lapp, Richard Gephardt’s Iowa campaign director.
Asked later why he was dining with the enemy, Trippi gave a nod to the general election that will follow the Democrats’ intramural fight. “They’re not the enemy,” he said. “We’re all on the same side.”
Indeed, the night before Iowans launched the 2004 presidential race, Chuck Rocha, labor director for Gephardt’s campaign in Iowa, and Larry Scanlon, a top political operative for the public employees union, which has endorsed Dean, agreed to mug for a camera.
–Flynn McRoberts
DEAN’S DEPARTURE
Howard Dean’s Monday morning attempt to pay his respects to the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. left some in an audience upset and suggesting that he was trying to steal the show.
Dean quickly left a ceremony honoring King, saying he didn’t want it disrupted by the crush of reporters, photographers and staff members–estimated at 200–following him.
The Associated Press reported that some in the audience complained that the former Vermont governor was trying to overshadow the Des Moines event hosted by the Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans.
“The governor spoke to representatives of sponsoring organizations and explained that he felt it was best to leave rather than allow the media to disrupt their event,” campaign manager Joe Trippi said in a statement.
The audience applauded when a Dean aide announced that the candidate was leaving.
–John McCormick
WHISPERING CAMPAIGN
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said he had a simple strategy for his last days in Iowa: He would just keep talking about his candidacy until the caucuses.
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He wore a gray muffler around his neck and drank what he dubbed “toddy without the toddy” from a stainless-steel thermos to preserve his ailing throat.
But Kerry’s voice was nothing but a raspy whisper at a rally here Sunday. And his press secretary called reporters Monday morning to tell them that the candidate had lost his voice, forcing the campaign to cancel the day’s three scheduled appearances.
–Dan Mihalopoulos
CLARK OUT OF UNIFORM
The last time retired Gen. Wesley Clark visited the college town of Keene, N.H., nestled on the Vermont border, he was wearing a green argyle sweater that was a little too big for him.
The sweater’s appearance, following months of sharply styled navy suits, elicited notice in newspaper stories across the country. On Sunday, Clark decided to set the record straight, explaining that the widely derided sweater belonged to his brother-in-law, Gene Caufield.
“I was just cold and reached out and tore the sweater off his back,” Clark told voters gathered for a pancake breakfast. Nevertheless, Clark announced that he had placed the sweater for sale on eBay, and the most recent tally was $1,700. The money, he said, would go to Liberty House, a shelter for homeless veterans in Manchester.
“I don’t know why people worry so much about what you wear,” Clark said as he pulled a New England Patriots football team sweatshirt over his head in a brazen bid for applause.
–Jill Zuckman