Bush 'pit bull' has bite

[Shon]

NEW YORK - Almost everywhere he goes these days, Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican Party, hears himself introduced as "President Bush's pit bull."

At fund-raisers, on talk shows and in debates this campaign season, Gillespie has been willing to bare his teeth and emit a few menacing growls, accusing the likely Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, of flip-flopping and liberal myopia.

"The day before Sen. Kerry stated publicly that the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib constituted 'a moment for America to try to deal with this without partisan politics,' his campaign engaged in a mass e-mail campaign attacking the president politically and initiating a petition drive in support of Kerry's call for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign," Gillespie said on Monday.

"Once again, Sen. Kerry has proven incapable of maintaining a position."

He told Republicans in Lucas County, Ohio, in April, "John Kerry's pattern of caveats, qualifications, disclaimers, policy reversals and vacillations are not the qualities voters are looking for in times of change that demand steady leadership." .

But Gillespie, 42, claims his unofficial title is not quite right.

"My wife says it's not accurate," he said. "I'm more of an attack puppy."

Sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, Gillespie can spew one-liners that sting.

He labeled Kerry the "International Man of Mystery" and joked about the senator's "imaginary friends" after Kerry, in response to a question at a fund-raiser, suggested that unnamed leaders from overseas had said that they privately hoped he would beat Bush.

"If you don't like John Kerry's position on an issue, just go to his next event; it'll probably change," Gillespie said on a morning talk show in April.

His comments on the Democratic candidate have been dispatched across the Internet by party operatives and echoed by conservative talk-show hosts.

"I think he fits in very well with what George Bush and Karl Rove want, and that's the key," said Tony Coelho, who managed Al Gore's 2000 campaign.

"They want somebody who presents well, who looks good, who is articulate and who doesn't get off message. Ed comes across as somebody who is self-confident, who knows what he's doing and is not afraid, and that's good.

"But he also comes across as somebody you wouldn't mind having a drink with, and that's even better."

The Republican chairman is spending every other week on the road, hitting swing states as well as party hotbeds.

At a party banquet in DuPage County, Ill., he worked his way among the tables, leaning into every handshake and laughing frequently, in a sort of explosive cackle.

In New York soon after, he celebrated as 37 Latino voters switched parties at a Republican voter registration drive in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

Gillespie talks often about winning over independent voters, whom he refers to as "not-yet-Republicans."

They will be especially important this year, he says, as polling shows that positions have hardened on both sides, leaving a smaller pool of undecided voters than usual.

He says he does not even entertain the idea of losing. "It's not in my nature to think that way," he said.

When Gillespie is in Washington, he gives news interviews and joins strategy sessions with Republicans on Capitol Hill and on Bush's campaign team.

He meets frequently with Rove, the president's chief political adviser. Most of the campaign planning, he said, is done with the re-election committee.

"I talk on regular basis with Ken Mehlman, to make sure we're all on the same page and on message," he said, referring to the president's campaign manager.

"If the campaign or somebody from the administration is going to be talking about Iraq tomorrow, then we don't want to be talking about taxes. We want to be focused and reinforcing what they're trying to do."

Gillespie has at times found himself under fire from some Republican officials, who felt the Bush re-election effort was lackluster.

He dismisses such complaints, along with the vagaries of polls.

"It just shows that what we've been saying all along is truly the case: This is going to be a very close race and it's going to be up and down," he said.