COLUMBIA, S.C. — It didn't matter that John McCain gave his first substantial speech on drug policy Tuesday, outlining an international approach that's part crackdown and part tough love, or that Delaware voters headed to the polls to decide who they want as the Republican presidential nominee.
Both events were overshadowed by the ongoing tiff between McCain and George W. Bush, an air and ground war that is getting more ferocious with every passing day.
While McCain derided the Clinton administration for being "AWOL in the war on drugs" in a speech at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, the Texas governor was bringing his "retooled" campaign here from Delaware, while sharpening his attacks on his chief rival.
Bush accused the senator from Arizona of holding Democratic positions, called McCain's television commercials "demeaning" and told reporters at a Greenville campaign stop that McCain "says one thing and does another, and during the campaign in South Carolina, I'm going to remind people of that."
In a fiery speech to students at a conservative Baptist college, Bush referred to McCain in acid tones as "Chairman McCain," pressing his charge that after serving as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, the Arizonan is an insider, not an insurgent.
He charged that McCain sides with Democratic Vice President Al Gore on tax policy because both have criticized Bush's proposal for deep, across-the-board tax cuts.
"Al Gore . . . calls tax cuts, like the chairman, too risky," Bush said. McCain has also called for tax cuts, but his proposal is about half the size of Bush's five-year, $483-billion tax cut plan.
"If you want somebody from outside Washington, D.C.--a reformer with results--come join this campaign," Bush told cheering student supporters at North Greenville College.
The Bush campaign also unveiled a tough new television commercial charging that "McCain solicits money from lobbyists with interests before his committee and pressures agencies on behalf of contributors."
The Texan has charged that McCain gets more money from lobbyists and Washington insiders than anyone else running--if only on a percentage basis. But an analysis of special interest giving to all the presidential candidates shows that McCain's biggest donation wouldn't even make it into the Top 15 list of industry gifts to Bush.
