College President 'disappointed' by Cheney

College president 'disappointed' by Cheney

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/27/cheney.westminster.ap/index.html

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Posted: 1:22 PM EDT (1722 GMT)

FULTON, Missouri (AP) -- Westminster College's president said he was so "surprised and disappointed" by Vice President Dick Cheney's attacks on John Kerry during a speech that he is inviting the Democrat to visit for a reply.

Fletcher Lamkin told The Associated Press that Cheney's staff approached him last week about using Westminster as the backdrop "for a major foreign policy address. Nothing was said about a stump speech."

In a campus-wide e-mail after the speech, Lamkin said: "I must admit that I was surprised and disappointed that Mr. Cheney chose to step off the high ground and resort to Kerry-bashing for a large portion of his speech."

Nicolle Devenish, a Cheney spokeswoman, said it was unfortunate that the speech came as a surprise to Lamkin because it was always intended as a "campaign message event."

"It was a major foreign policy address and it's my understanding that the college was made aware Senator Kerry's different views on foreign policy would be mentioned throughout," she said.

Standing in the campus gymnasium where Winston Churchill warned in 1946 of an "Iron Curtain" descending across postwar Europe, Cheney sharply criticized Kerry's Senate votes on defense and intelligence legislation.

"The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security," Cheney said.

Lamkin, who described himself as a split-ticket voter, said he tends to be a bit on the conservative side because of his military background. He is a former administrator at West Point.

"I'm pretty independent," Lamkin said. "I can't tell you I am for one or the other, I'm not. As a college president, I try to remain someone who has all viewpoints represented on the campus fairly and equally."

Lamkin said he was not expecting a speech minus any mention of presidential politics during an election year, but that the second half "was all about politics and a political stump speech and in that respect it was disappointing."

In the e-mail, Lamkin said that "in the interest of balance and fairness and integrity, we will strongly encourage Senator Kerry to take advantage of this venue to make his views known as well."

Kerry spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign had received Lamkin's e-mail and would consider a visit to Westminster, which is located in the center of a presidential battleground state.