U.S. Rep. Ben Cardin, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and Kevin Zeese differed sharply in the change they are seeking in the first three-way debate of the U.S. Senate race in Maryland.
Democrat Cardin, with 20 years in Congress, said he would be the most effective in turning around, what he called, the failed policies of the Bush administration, and he sought to tie Republican Steele to those policies.
“You can?t support change in Washington if you support George Bush?s budget,” he said Tuesday.
Steele mostly dissociated from Bush administration policies on the No Child Left Behind Act, college tuition and minority businesses.
Zeese, nominee of the Green, Libertarian and Populist parties, said the Democrats and Republicans represent the status quo and try to “manipulate us with fear.” He compared his own parties to the anti-slavery parties before the Civil War.
“Let?s send a real independent to the Senate,” he said.
Steele said the Washington establishment “run their mouths but theydo not listen,” and Cardin “has not learned to look around the room and shut up and listen.”
Co-moderator Charles Robinson drew out Steele on the Iraq war.
“This is the time to focus and re-discipline” the war efforts and let the Iraqis control their army, police and country, Steele said. “This is not the time to step back, to draw down.”
“Are things going badly in Iraq?” Robinson said.
“It?s not going well because we?re engaged in a strategy that is using conventional tactics. … We have a lot of challenges that need to be put on the table,” Steele said.
Zeese, who heads an anti-war organization, favors immediate withdrawal. Cardin voted against the invasion, but has voted to fund the war; he favors a gradual withdrawal.
