Dems Take Early Aim At Bush Speech

Democrats came out swinging at President Bush's policies and plans but used his State of the Union speech on Wednesday more to hurl criticism than offer specific alternatives.

Before the president delivered his speech, Democrats tried setting benchmarks for measuring how he would address major issues.

"We all know that the United States cannot stay in Iraq indefinitely and continue to be viewed as an occupying force," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, according to excerpts of the televised response she was to deliver after Mr. Bush's remarks.

"Neither should we slip out the back door, falsely declaring victory but leaving chaos," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "We have never heard a clear plan from this administration for ending our presence in Iraq."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who also planned to respond for Democrats, said Mr. Bush's Social Security plans sound more like "Social Security roulette" than reform.

"Democrats are all for giving Americans more of a say and more choices when it comes to their retirement savings. But that doesn't mean taking Social Security's guarantee and gambling with it. And that's coming from a senator who represents Las Vegas," said Reid, D-Nev., according to excerpts released before his response to Mr. Bush's address.

Earlier, Reid told reporters that without a specific White House blueprint for overhauling Social Security, he saw no need for Democrats to offer "a counterplan to nothing."

Reid and Pelosi said they detected widespread opposition to Mr. Bush's idea of letting beneficiaries divert some Social Security revenues to new personal investment accounts.

"When the president goes out there to beat the drum for his privatization to undermine Social Security, I think he will be greeted throughout the country by people who are affected by it every day of their lives," Pelosi said.

To underscore that, House aides said about 15 House Democrats were giving the ticket they each receive for a gallery seat during Mr. Bush's speech — often used for a spouse — to constituents, including older Americans.

Pelosi told reporters that the spectators would "reflect those who have the most to lose with what we've seen of the president's plan on Social Security."

In the excerpts of their responses, Reid and Pelosi accused the president of failing to develop a plan for protecting the country from terrorism and said Democrats wanted more health, education and job training benefits for veterans.

Mr. Bush was planning a two-day campaign-style swing beginning Thursday to sell his Social Security plan in states with Democratic senators from whom he hopes he can win support for the proposal.

Democrats, though, seemed eager to demonstrate that despite their election setbacks in November, they remain combative.

Reaching out to Hispanics, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., were delivering a Spanish language response Wednesday evening.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who runs the Senate Democrats' campaign organization, e-mailed a fund-raising appeal to supporters saying the key to Mr. Bush's speech would be what he would not mention.

"We will not hear how President Bush's shortsighted policies have failed to adequately protect America from those who wish us harm," according to Schumer's letter. "We will not hear how his go-it-alone attitude in Iraq means that America alone must bear the price of war."

Anticipating that Mr. Bush would mention a need to limit domestic spending, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said cuts focusing on that roughly 15 percent of the federal budget "won't even make a dent" in record deficits.

Pelosi and Reid said Democrats would work with Mr. Bush when they have common ground. But Reid rejected GOP criticism that Democrats have obstructed Senate work.

"This is not a dictatorship," Reid said. He said the Constitution gives the Senate minority the power to use delaying tactics to derail "mischief and bad things."