New York ? Ed Gillespie, the Republican Party’s new chairman and the Democrats’ chief critic, said Friday that President Bush’s rivals were rooting against an economic recovery and offering only “protest and pessimism” in absence of solutions to America’s problems.

“If you get the impression the other party has come to the conclusion that what’s worst for the American people is what’s best for them, it’s only because that’s their explicit strategy,” Gillespie said after a voice vote certified his selection as chairman.

Hand-picked by Bush, the former GOP aide and Washington lobbyist hoped his maiden address as chairman turns the tables against Democratic presidential candidates who have raised questions about the president’s use of questionable U.S. intelligence to help justify war in Iraq. Polls suggest Democrats may be having some success in blaming Bush for the ailing economy.

Democratic National Committee member Ann Lewis, who flew from Washington to respond to Gillespie’s speech, said: “We’ve been trying to provide better jobs. And if Democrats’ suggestions for national security had been adopted, we’d have more coalition partners working side by side with American troops.”

“There’s a certain irony in watching the party of Tom DeLay, Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie claim the problem is Democrats are too negative.” House Majority Leader DeLay is the caustic conservative congressman from Texas; Rove is Bush’s political strategist.

Gillespie, who as a young activist manned phone banks in the basement of GOP headquarters, has clearly been cast as Bush’s attack dog, the quick-with-a-quote operative who can heatedly denounce Democrats while the president tries to appear above the fray.

“The Democratic Party’s presidential nomination contest sometimes seems to be a contest to see who can be the most pessimistic, who can protest the most angrily, and who can take their party further back in time,” he said.

“They offer Americans a steady stream of protest and pessimism,” Gillespie said. “They’re still protesting the 2000 election.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, shakes hands with Ed Gillespie, new chairman of the Republican National Committee at the RNC convention in New York.