Clinton blasts Bush on war

Ignoring GOP criticism that she's too angry for prime time, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday walloped Karl Rove and President George W. Bush for "playing the fear card" on terrorism and for failing to kill "the tallest man in Afghanistan," Osama bin Laden.

Clinton exhorted Democrats to challenge the administration on Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, while seeming to bemoan the failure of former Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Al Gore to overcome claims that they were soft on defense.

"We've lost two elections and we lost them on the issue of security," Clinton told the United Auto Workers convention in Washington. Republicans "are doing it to us again," she said.

The speech was intended to road-test stump themes for her upcoming Senate re-election bid, but most of the issues Clinton invoked were national, including unusually blunt criticisms of Bush's homeland security and terrorism policy.

"Two weeks ago, [White House political director] Karl Rove ... was telling the National Republican Committee 'Here's your game plan, folks, here's how you're gonna win -- we're gonna win by getting everybody scared again,'" Clinton said. "This crowd 'All we've got is fear and we are going to keep playing the fear card.'"

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