Rhetoric On Values Turns Personal

When asked about Mehlman's demand that the campaign issue the video, Cahill first said, "Why would we do that?" Pressed later during a conference call with reporters, she said, "We don't see any reason to release a tape," noting that reporters had watched the event in person or on closed-circuit television and had reported the most controversial comments.

Kerry strategist Tad Devine accused the Republicans of hypocrisy, saying the GOP regularly holds closed fundraisers. "This is clearly part of a much bigger strategy to distract voters," he said.

Whereas Bush often talks about values in ways that appeal to religious conservatives, Kerry and Edwards are seeking to shift the debate to secular ideas such as service. "I understand that President Bush is going to be out today, as he does every day, talking about values," Edwards said. "Values is not a word on a piece of paper. Values is not part of a political slogan. Values are what's inside you."

Kerry said this means fighting for jobs, a cleaner environment and better government services. "I think those folks like power, they like money, and certainly like where they are. But they don't have a health care plan for America," Kerry said at a second fundraiser with Asian Americans in New York.

Yet abortion, gay rights and guns are coloring the debate, too. One day after Bush rolled out a new ad blasting Kerry for voting against a law making it separate crimes to kill or harm a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman, Edwards promised a vigorous defense of abortion rights. Kerry "will stand up, fight for and protect every day that he is in the White House a woman's right to choose," Edwards said.

Bush rarely talks specifically about abortion, although he opposes it and refers often to a "culture of life."

Bush took on another divisive social issue, when he was asked about his support for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage. The Senate opened debate on the question Friday and is scheduled to vote Wednesday, when the measure is likely to fail. Bush, speaking in Kutztown, an exurb of Philadelphia, made his most gay-supportive statement yet on the issue, although he said he still opposes same-sex marriage. "What they do in the privacy of their house, consenting adults should be able to do," he said. "This is America. It's a free society. But it doesn't mean we have to redefine traditional marriage."

Bush's campaign is pushing the values theme in its advertising, including full-page newspaper ads appearing in newspapers in cities Kerry is visiting. The ads parody the "Got milk?" promotion by asking, "Got Conservative Values?"

Allen reported from York. Staff writer Dan Balz in Beaver contributed to this report.