Book reveals 2004 dissonance between Edwards, Kerry

Book reveals 2004 dissonance between Edwards, Kerry Stephens John Kerry said he couldn't get his vice presidential running mate, John Edwards, to go after President Bush during the 2004 campaign.Edwards said Kerry wouldn't let him take the wraps off.
Both accounts come from Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, who talks about the 2004 presidential campaign in his new book, "What a Party."
McAuliffe recounts having dinner with Edwards after the 2004 election. He notes that Kerry sent Edwards to a lot of small markets, leading to criticism that Edwards was not visible enough.
"Terry, they wouldn't let me," Edwards told McAuliffe. "I wanted to go after the Swift Boat guys. I wanted to go after Bush. They wouldn't let me."
But when McAuliffe sat down with Kerry, the Massachusetts senator expressed frustration that Edwards did not campaign harder.
"Kerry said that Edwards told him several times, 'Watch the news tomorrow! I'm really going to go after Bush.' Then Kerry would watch the news the next night, and Edwards was nowhere to be seen," McAuliffe wrote.
"I also heard that Kerry believed Edwards had promised him that if Kerry wanted to run again in 2008, Edwards would sit the race out," said McAuliffe, who is supporting New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.
"But if you asked the Edwards people about it, they said there was no way any such promise has been made."
A too-clean slate for Shuler
So much for a smooth transition.
The computers passed on from former U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor to his Democratic successor last week were wiped completely clean, and not only of computer files and constituent caseloads. The operating systems were also wiped out, a fix that will cost taxpayers more than $2,600.
District employees of U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler of Waynesville arrived at work last Wednesday to find that 11 desktop computers and four laptops were missing their Microsoft Windows operating systems, said Andrew Whalen, Shuler's spokesman.
"I'm not very good at computers, but I've never accidentally deleted an operating system," Whalen said.
Taylor, a Republican from Brevard, also has not turned over constituent case files. Whalen said Shuler's representatives called Taylor's office repeatedly after the Nov. 7 election, but never received return calls.
The case files technically belong to the member leaving office, but Shuler had hoped to have the files so he could continue the constituent work begun by Taylor.
"Regardless of what happened in the election, what should've happened is the people of the 11th District should've been able to have their cases worked on," Shuler said. "To take the case files, that is wrong, that's immoral, that's sour grapes."
McIntyre weighs in on war
U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton was among about 14 congressional lawmakers who met with President Bush on Friday to offer input on the war in Iraq.
Bush is expected to announce his long-term strategy for Iraq this week, calling for a troop-level surge in the region.
McIntyre, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, wouldn't discuss the content of the bipartisan meeting at the White House on Friday, but he said it was the "most candid and open discussion" with the president and his administration since the war began.
"I was glad to hear the president listening," McIntyre said. "I think he is sincerely trying to formulate what the new direction will be, and he's seriously welcoming input."
The meeting in the Cabinet room of the West Wing, scheduled to last 15 minutes, stretched to more than an hour, McIntyre said.
McIntyre has been critical in the past about increasing the number of troops in Iraq.
"We need to be decreasing the American footprint in Iraq," McIntyre said. "We need to not only be allowing but demanding that Iraq take control of their own security and their own future."
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