By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 28, 2004; Page A05

NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 27 -- Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Saturday accused President Bush of resorting to "character assassination" to discredit critics of the White House's anti-terrorism strategy and new Medicare law.

Treading cautiously into the latest controversy over Bush's commitment to fighting al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Kerry also called on national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly before the bipartisan commission investigating the deadly terrorist strikes.

"If Condoleezza Rice can find time to do 60 minutes on television before the American people, she ought to find 60 minutes to speak to the commission under oath," Kerry told reporters. "We are talking about the security of our country." Rice has been interviewed privately by commission members, but has refused to talk to them in a public forum.

Rice is scheduled to appear on CBS News's "60 Minutes" on Sunday to address allegations by former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke that Bush paid too little attention to al Qaeda before the 2001 attacks and too much to striking Iraq in the aftermath. Clarke, who has contradicted Rice on several points, has aired his concerns in testimony before the Sept. 11 commission, media interviews and a new best-selling book.

Nicolle Devenish, a spokeswoman for the Bush campaign, said Kerry, with his remarks, "seeks to distract Americans from his own failed ideas for protecting America from future attacks."

Kerry, who pointed reporters to his "new discipline" as a candidate, has remained mostly silent about Clarke's allegations and the commission's work over the past week, much of which he spent vacationing in Idaho. The Massachusetts senator, who picked up a copy of Clarke's book last week, said he has not read or heard much of Clarke's testimony and cautioned that it would be inappropriate to comment in much detail at this time.

After what many Democrats considered a somewhat bumbling and defensive start to his general election campaign, Kerry has returned from vacation with a new strategy of focusing on economic issues, such as job loss here in North Kansas City, and on running a more upbeat and statesmanlike campaign.

A top Kerry aide, who requested anonymity to discuss internal strategy freely, said the Democratic nominee-in-waiting does not want to engage in daily fights with Bush over national security, especially when it is provoked by the president and his allies, and does not want to appear to be politicizing the terrorism investigation. Clarke's testimony, unless discredited, will damage Bush's credibility with or without Kerry highlighting it, the aide said.

The new strategy, however, will be on hold in coming days.

Kerry is planning time off this week to have elective surgery on his right shoulder in Boston. The outpatient procedure on Wednesday will limit Kerry's shoulder mobility and could keep him off the campaign trail for four or five days.

Kerry injured the shoulder a decade ago and aggravated the injury in January. David Wade, Kerry's spokesman, said the senator is having the surgery now "for convenience, just to get it done." Wade said the injury does not usually bother Kerry, but it did recently when he picked up a baby. It did not interfere with Kerry's winter sports in Idaho, Wade said.

This is the second time Kerry will be sidelined by a medical procedure: Last year, the candidate had his prostate removed after being diagnosed with cancer.

Before heading home, Kerry will swing through California to raise millions of dollars in Sacramento, San Francisco and Beverly Hills. On Saturday, he continued a two-day tour through Michigan and Missouri to tout his economic plan, including new tax breaks for corporations.

Kerry saved his sharpest words of the day for Bush, whom he twice accused of mounting a campaign of "character assassination" against Clarke, former treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill and Richard S. Foster, the administration official who disclosed that the president's new Medicare law will cost $135 billion more than was advertised before it passed. Foster, the administration's Medicare accountant, has said White House officials were aware of the higher cost estimate, but did not alert members of Congress on the eve of one of the closest and most contentious votes in history.

White House officials have questioned Clarke's honesty and motivation, claiming in several interviews that the former anti-terrorism chief is trying to profit from his book. They pursued a similar approach against O'Neill earlier this year when he was quoted in a journalist's book as criticizing Bush's policies.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) took to the Senate floor on Friday to call for the release of earlier Clarke testimony before Congress to determine if he lied.

"I don't think people want questions about character; I think they want questions about our security to be answered," Kerry said. "That's what this is about."