Clark attends D.M. rally to campaign for Boswell

October 6, 2006
By ABBY SIMONS | REGISTER STAFF WRITER | DesMoines Register

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.

Clark, Harkin, Oberstar and several others joined about 200 Democrats for a rally at the McAninch construction firm's maintenance facility to generate support for Boswell, a five-term congressman who is facing Republican state Sen. Jeff Lamberti in a battle for Boswell's 3rd District seat.

The ugliness of political advertisements by Lamberti's campaign was a focal point among many speakers, who interpreted the ads as a sign of weakness.

"They're coming with everything they've got because they know it's falling apart," Harkin said.

Harkin was among a few who mentioned former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned amid allegations that he sent inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage boys who were House pages. Clark echoed Harkin, saying it was another notch in the belt of a GOP-controlled Congress.

"We've had nothing but corruption after corruption, scandal after scandal," he said. "When you give all the power to one side, they begin to abuse that power."

In a brief speech to supporters, Clark, who was a student at a military college in Leavenworth, Kan., where Boswell once taught, praised Boswell's two tours of duty in Vietnam, his military service and his dedication to veterans while in Congress.

In his own address, Boswell said that winning the voters' trust is about more than spending money.

"I just have to believe you don't come to Iowa and buy a congressional seat," Boswell said.

There was no denying that until the Nov. 7 election, things will get more intense.

"They've got money, but we've got more than that. We've got people," Harkin said.