Horn lays blame on 'lawyer'

Horn lays blame on 'lawyer'

House incumbent Hodes targets Bush in last debate

By MEG HECKMAN
Monitor staff

Republican Jennifer Horn used an aggressive strategy in her final debate against U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes last night, accusing him of unethical behavior, describing him as the "poster boy" for congressional ills and calling for frequent "fact checks" on his statements.

"It must be his years as a lawyer that allow him to give those answers with a straight face," Horn said.

The hour-long debate, hosted by WMUR, was one of the candidates' last chances before Tuesday to win the large number of voters many polls show have yet to pick a favorite in New Hampshire's 2nd District. Their tactics were familiar to anyone who's been watching the race.

Horn called for small, efficient government, and she championed replacing the federal tax code with a 17 percent flat income tax. She railed against a Congress that she says is broken and out of touch with average Americans, and she pointed to Hodes as an example of the problem.

"You promised us a backbone," Horn said. "But you voted 97 percent of the time with your party. Why is it okay to set one standard in a campaign and live by a different, lower standard?"

Hodes, meanwhile, blamed President Bush and other Republicans for failing to monitor the financial service industry, saying, "Regulators were asleep at the switch."

He also downplayed Horn's criticisms. Horn, he said, blames him for "everything."

"If I have the power she says I have, why wouldn't I simply use it to levitate the stock market?" he said. Later, Hodes added that Horn is "reading from the George Bush playbook. It's blame, it's name-calling, and it's not going to move this country forward."

Hodes, a Concord lawyer with two college-age children, is wrapping up his first term in Congress, where other new lawmakers elected him president of their freshman class. He serves on two committees: Financial Services and Oversight and Government Reform.

Horn, a mother of five, is a former newspaper columnist and radio host living in Nashua. She has awards for her on-air work, wrote a book inspired by her cousin's long battle with breast cancer and is involved in nonprofit organizations.

Between jabs, Hodes and Horn mentioned several of the subjects on which they disagree. Hodes voted against a federal bailout of Wall Street because the plan didn't include enough homeowner assistance for his liking. Horn said she also opposed the bailout - but because she believes that, in most cases, government should stay out of the free market.

In response to a question about abortion, Horn said that, while she favors a ban on late-term abortions, she has "full respect for the law and wouldn't suggest otherwise." Hodes put his position more simply.

"I am pro-choice," he said.

On foreign policy, Hodes pushed for "muscular diplomacy," particularly in Afghanistan and other troubled regions. Horn said she would weigh information from military commanders.

"We need to work with the commanders on the ground," she said. "They seem to be developing an Afghan-style surge."