Sununu, Shaheen Trade Barbs at BIA Forum

The moderator asked the candidates to refrain from attacks, and they complied --for a full 3 minutes. When Jeanne Shaheen treaded lightly on a question about the 700 billion dollar bailout plan that she opposed and Sununu backed, Sununu responded by accusing her of dithering.

“You’ve got to provide leadership on issues like this. What Governor Shaheen initially said was she would probably make a decision on the bill, then she told The Conway Sun she was inclined to support, then that same day she would probably vote against it, that’s not leadership.”

Shaheen quickly returned the favor -- claiming that Sununu put his ambition before the public interest.

“John, I don’t need a lecture about leadership. If I had been in the senate, what I would have done, instead of coming up here to campaign on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, I would have stayed in Washington and I would have worked on that bill, so that we could assure taxpayers that they’re getting the same guarantee that Wall St. is given, and right now they don’t have that guarantee.”

When the discussion turned to taxes and spending, John Sununu promised to hold the line on new levys. Jeanne Shaheen asked the crowd to consider the how the budgets Sununu supported in Washington plunged the country into deficit. She then took aim at the flood of GOP TV ads questioning her tax record as Governor.

“John Sununu and his friends have made a lot of charges against me about taxes. But those of you here, who’ve worked with me, know I was opposed to an income tax when I was Governor. I stood up to my own party and threatened to veto the tax in a way that prevented the tax to be enacted.”

Sununu took a similar tack on the topic of social security. It came after he noted that the discussion of private accounts should not --as Shaheen argued -- be ruled out, regardless of recent market turmoil.

“It shouldn’t be.….And I think one of the worst things that I’ve seen in politics – and this goes back to 2002 – is that Jeanne Shaheen or Chuck Schumer, who’s running 10 million dollars, talk about negative ads, suggesting that a proposal that looks forward addressing social security solvency for younger workers, somehow would threaten the retirement of someone who’s retired today, that is outrageous.”

But the outrage over distortions didn’t stop Sununu from serving up one of his own.

“For 30 years Jeanne Shaheen made a career trying to stop nuclear power, not only here, but everywhere in the country. She’s had a recent conversion, because of the energy crisis, we need to produce more energy at home.”

Shaheen agreed that the nation needs to produce more energy, but said it must do so in ways that are safe and as non-polluting as possible……She then chided Sununu for being complicit in what she characterized as a non- energy policies during tenure in Congress.

“To listen to John Sununu talk about energy, you’d think we made real progress during his 12 years in Washington. The reality is we have not seen the action we need, either to lower the cost or to provide long term investments in clean energy technologies, and that’s what I want to do.”

The candidates’ next joint appearance is slated for Portsmouth on Wednesday.