Graham's departure may aid Clark

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Oct. 14, 2003

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2004
Graham's departure may aid Clark
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark appears at a local landmark -- the Rascal House restaurant -- and soaks up some South Florida momentum.
BY PETER WALLSTEN
[e-mail]

With Florida's senior senator fresh out of the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark swooped into the state Monday to lure support for his own start-up candidacy.

Clark, a career military man who has rocketed to the top of national polls despite only recently revealing he's a Democrat, used a visit to the Rascal House restaurant in Sunny Isles Beach to further solidify his credentials in the eyes of party activists and financial donors.

GROWING CRITICISM

The visit comes amid growing criticism from his rivals, who are attacking his past support for Presidents Nixon and Reagan and questioning his mixed signals on the war in Iraq.

''I'm not only a Democrat by conviction,'' Clark, hoarse and woozy from the flu, told 100 diners. He invoked his grandfather from Minsk, Russia, and his father, the Chicago Democratic Party boss, telling them that he is a Democrat, ``genetically, too.'' (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/7006238.htm