Democrats quick to pounce on N. Korean test

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - The shock waves of the North Korean nuclear weapons test rumbled through the 2006 campaign Monday, with Democrats quickly seizing the chance to argue that President Bush and the Republicans had neglected the North Korean threat.

Bush had warned in his 2002 State of the Union speech of the menace from what he called the “axis of evil,” the regimes in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. “I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer,” he declared. “The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.”

That speech created an expectation that the president might take military action against the North Korean regime, but Democrats charged Monday that Bush had let Korean despot Kim Jong Il continue his weapons building.

In New Jersey, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez — in a tight race with Republican Tom Kean Jr. — issued a statement saying that the Korean nuclear test “illustrates just how much the Bush administration’s incompetence has endangered our nation.”

Charge that Bush ignored Korea
“We invaded Iraq, the country that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, and ignored Iran and North Korea, the two that did,” Menendez said. 

A potential 2008 Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin issued a statement denouncing Bush for using the vehicle of six-nation talks involving China and Japan to try to persuade North Korea to forego its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Sunday’s nuclear test, Feingold said, showed “the weakness of the Six Party approach as well as the danger of this Administration's hands-off approach to North Korea.”

He added, “the stakes are too high to rely on others to address the North Korean crisis.”

Where Democrats usually criticize Bush for what they call a “go it alone” strategy in Iraq, on Monday some Democrats took the opposite tack, criticizing him for being too multilateral and not unilaterally negotiating with North Korea.

“Bush aided and abetted the outsourcing of American jobs, and now he’s outsourced our diplomacy as well,” Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean cracked.

Do Democrats need to offer specifics?
One question that remained unanswered in the first hours after the North Korean blast: In order for this issue to resonate with voters, do Democratic candidates need to recommend specific steps — such as a naval blockade of North Korea or increased spending on the Bush administration’s Ballistic Missile Defense System?

Or can they benefit this November merely by charging that Bush has neglected the Korean menace?

Most Democrats were not highly specific Monday about what they would do about Korea if they were in charge: Feingold called for the president to take “strong action with the international community to address this threat to our national security” — but he did not define what “strong action” he might have in mind.

Menendez said that Bush ought to “appoint immediately an independent envoy such as (former Secretary of State) James Baker or (former Defense Secretary) William Perry to oversee an international coalition to deal with this emerging crisis.”

Kean, Menendez’s GOP opponent, said in a statement that “we need to engage China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.  We also need to continue to push for bilateral talks and look at strong sanctions before any sort of military action is taken.”

And Kean questioned Menendez’s national security credentials.

“Voters looking for a window into how Bob Menendez would deal with this type of threat should look at his record on national security,” said Kean. “If Menendez had his way there would be no Department of Homeland Security, national defense funds would be slashed, and the intelligence community wouldn’t have the tools they need to hunt terrorists.”

Republicans can point to some Menendez votes that show a dovish side: while a member of the House in 1996 he voted to freeze military spending, and the following year he voted to cut funds for B-2 bombers.