Kerry Foreign Support Furor

The White House, seeking to raise credibility questions about their presumptive Democratic challenger, suggested that Sen. John Kerry had made up claims that some foreign leaders privately back his candidacy.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called on Kerry to identify the leaders by name. "Either he is straightforward and states who they are, or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president," McClellan said Monday.

McClellan put a sharper point on a response offered a day earlier by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who also had called on Kerry to name his foreign supporters, but had stopped short of accusing Kerry of manufacturing the claim.

Questioned about the White House criticism, Kerry told reporters, "They're trying to change the subject from jobs, health care, the environment and social security. They don't have a campaign so they're trying to divert it."

The Kerry campaign also responded with a top-10 list of Bush assertions that it said "proved false." They ranged from Mr. Bush's claim in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had obtained nuclear material from Niger, to the administration's prediction that last year's tax cuts would create 1 million jobs.

Kerry said at a fund-raiser last week in Florida that he's heard from some world leaders who quietly back his candidacy and who hope he defeats President Bush in November.

Three times, McClellan repeated the charge that Kerry was "making it up." And he sought to turn Kerry's assertion to the White House's advantage by using it to raise questions about Kerry's credibility.

McClellan took issue with Kerry's suggestions that the Bush administration held up for political purposes announcement of an agreement with Libya to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction; and that the administration had rebuffed offers from Russia and France to avert the Iraq war.

"This is not the first time he has refused to back up his assertions," McClellan said.

McClellan's remarks came a day after Spanish voters ousted the conservative party that had strongly backed Mr. Bush on the Iraq war.

Asked whether the Spanish election results gave credence to Kerry's claim that some foreign leaders want to see Mr. Bush booted from the White House, McClellan chuckled.

"I think that if Senator Kerry is going to say he has support from foreign leaders then he needs to be straightforward with the American people and say who it is that he has spoken with and who it is that supports him," McClellan said.

Pressed on the campaign trail and by reporters to name the leaders, Kerry declined, although he said they were U.S. allies.

"I'm not going to betray a private conversation with anybody," he said Sunday. "I have heard from people, foreign leaders elsewhere in the world who don't appreciate the Bush administration and would love to see a change in the leadership of the United States."

He said the leaders were "people who ought to be on our side in Iraq and aren't because this administration has pushed them away."

The theme was raised by Cedric Brown, a participant in a town-hall meeting in Pennsylvania. He wondered whether Kerry was meeting with foreign leaders "to help you overthrow the Bush presidency."

Pressed repeatedly by Brown, Kerry finally declared: "That's none of your business."

The same issue arose when Kerry met with reporters later Sunday. He said the real issue was the conduct of U.S. foreign policy that has left the nation more isolated in the world.

"The point is that all across the world, America is meeting with a new level of hostility," he said. "There are relationships that have been broken. I think what's important for us as a country is to rebuild those relationships."

Kerry said he is within his rights in keeping confidential conversations he has had with foreign leaders. "I don't think Colin Powell or the president would start listing the names of people who said something critical," he said.

In his campaign, Kerry routinely bashes President Bush for conducting "a reckless and arrogant foreign policy" damaging to national security.

"I think people understand that the United States has lost some of the good will that we had extended to us immediately after Sept. 11. To ignore it is to ignore the reality of the world we live in," he says.

Kerry has not traveled abroad since he joined the presidential race, but he said he has heard a lot from foreign leaders. "I have heard from people around the world that they look forward to the day they would have an administration they could work with," he said.

But he said: "No leader would obviously share a conversation if I started listing them. The point is that all across the world, America is meeting with a new level of hostility."

During the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration frequently cited support from up to 40 nations, but declined to name them, saying the countries wished to keep their support quiet.