Virginia primary campaign: Wesley Clark responds to sniping

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Date published: 2/5/2004

Military background may be key

Wesley Clark faced sniping from a former military colleague as he opened his Virginia primary campaign.

In a teleconference with Virginia media yesterday, Clark said he would fight hard for veterans and middle-class families. He'll crisscross the state tomorrow and Saturday in a bus tour in search of support before Tuesday's Democratic primary.

Since Clark's name cropped up as a potential Democratic candidate, reports have circulated that he had alienated his military peers during his meteoric rise to becoming supreme allied commander, Europe, and leading the allies to victory against the Serbs in Kosovo. The reports have often been attributed to unnamed sources.

But this week, a former top military leader openly attacked Clark.

"You do not see any senior officers stand up behind Clark when he's at the podium," former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill "Tony" McPeak said during a phone interview while campaigning in Virginia for Howard Dean.

"[John] Kerry has been very effective with his message [because] his old Army buddies are there with him," McPeak said. "That's great testimony. With Clark, you don't see much of that. Where are his West Point classmates, his battalion-mates? Where are the Army four-star [generals]?"

Clark was eager to talk about that yesterday, vehemently denying McPeak's contention that his military peers are not getting behind his campaign.

"I've got hundreds of West Point classmates supporting me," he said. "Some of them gave up jobs to work in my campaign. There are dozens of senior officers providing testimony."

Former Secretary of the Navy John Dalton and retired four-star Gen. Johnny E. Wilson have endorsed Clark. And Michael McClintic, a private who saved Clark's life in Vietnam, is working in the campaign.

McPeak said: "Look, let me say this--I know Wes Clark. And I know Howard Dean. And I'm working for Dean."

"I like General McPeak, but General McPeak never worked with me," said Clark, an Arkansas native, "and he doesn't know me. We sat next to each other one time at a dinner."

Perhaps this is the sort of thing that led his son, 34-year-old Wesley Clark Jr., to tell The Associated Press the campaign has been "a really disturbing experience.

"You go out and see the way politics really works," the younger Clark told the wire service. "It is a dirty business filled with a lot of people pretending to be a lot of things they are not."

Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen eventually relieved Clark of his command, reportedly for being too headstrong.

Gen. Clark said there's no truth to rumors that President Clinton, who is also from Little Rock, helped him up the ladder in the Army.

Date published: 2/5/2004