Edwards gambles on attacking Clinton

Warns against trading 'corporate Republicans for corporate Democrats'

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA -- John Edwards is not finding many nice things to say about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton won't promise to end American combat missions in Iraq, Edwards says. She is helping the Bush administration pave the way for military action in Iran. And she is too cozy with the Washington lobbyists, from whom she accepts campaign contributions.

"Does anyone here believe that if we trade a crowd of corporate Republicans for corporate Democrats, there will be any change in Washington, D.C.?" Edwards asked more than 1,000 people packed into the Cole College auditorium in Cedar Rapids on Monday night.

"Noooo," is the cry of a crowd that had been warmed up by performers Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne with the song, "Thing Called Love."

Edwards has not been filled with a lot of love toward Clinton in recent weeks, becoming the most aggressive Democratic hopeful in going after the New York senator. Now, the other Democratic presidential hopefuls are beginning to fire back. Edwards has gone from the hunter to the hunted.

Clinton accuses Edwards of "throwing mud." Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's campaign says Edwards is full of inconsistencies, citing Edwards' current support for organized labor after backing North Carolina's anti-union, right-to-work law when he ran for the Senate in 1998. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson accuses Edwards of trying to start "a class war."

"I'm surprised at just how angry John has become," Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said recently. "That is not the same John Edwards I once knew."

The new aggressiveness is a gamble for Edwards as he heads toward the crucial Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses that could make or break his White House ambitions.

A new ABC News/ Washington Post poll released this week found that the race continues to be tight in Iowa. Obama was the choice of 30 percent of Iowa Democrats surveyed from Nov. 14 to 18, while Clinton was the choice of 26 percent, and Edwards was the favorite of 22 percent. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. A poll for CBS News and The New York Times, released last week, found that Clinton, Edwards and Obama are locked in a statistical dead heat.

Clinton has, for the most part, ignored Edwards' attacks. At a campaign appearance in Iowa this week, Clinton made no mention of Edwards.

Edwards and Clinton do not differ significantly on most issues. But Edwards has tried to cast himself as an outsider who will push for change, while depicting Clinton as part of the entrenched Washington establishment.

'All his negativity'

Edwards' recent aggressiveness -- a dramatic change from the sunny optimism that marked his 2004 run for the presidency -- has sparked mixed reaction among Iowa voters.

Edwards' attacks have turned off voters such as Evelyn Bland, 63, a farmer's wife from Shellsburg. She had been considering voting for Edwards but now says she will back Clinton.

"All his negativity with Clinton, that turned me off," said Bland, who attended a Clinton rally Monday in Vinton. "I want them to tell me about what they are going to do, not what someone has done in the past."

But Ron Levine, 56, a data system analyst from Cedar Rapids, says Edwards is OK as long as he doesn't engage in personal attacks. Levine says he is trying to choose between Edwards and Obama.

"I don't like negative campaigning," Levine said at an Edwards rally in Cedar Rapids. "But I don't feel like he has crossed the line"

Edwards appears to be tapping into some anti-Washington anger.

"I'm disappointed that he has not been more assertive with Hillary," said Jules Cohen, 71, a retired owner of a paper company from Bettendorf. "While Bush was robbing the bank, she [Clinton] was driving the getaway car."