Baltimore ? Sen. Joe Lieberman accused Howard Dean in campaign debate Tuesday night of turning his back on Israel, and the Democratic presidential front-runner shot back that he and former President Bill Clinton held the same view on the issue.

“It doesn’t help … to demagogue this issue,” Dean quickly added in the sharpest clash of the young Democratic debate season.

Two days before the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Democrats criticized President Bush’s handling of the war on terror at the same time they began to jab one another over foreign policy.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio criticized Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri for voting to support President Bush’s call for war in Iraq, saying “I wish you would have told him no” at a face-to-face meeting.

Without mentioning any names, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida attacked Democrats for voting for the same legislation, saying they “gave the president a blank check.”

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, one of those to support the measure, defended his vote as necessary to show Saddam Hussein that the United States was serious about the need for international weapons inspectors to operate freely in Iraq.

The debate unfolded on a stage at Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, and was hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus. Brit Hume of Fox News Channel handled moderator’s duties.

In 90 minutes of debate, not all the issues were weighty. One questioner asked the nine would-be presidents to name their favorite song. “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” said Graham, referring to a Jimmy Buffett tune.

Chasing Howard Dean

The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Lieberman said comments Dean made last week about the Middle East “break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republicans and Democrats, members of Congress of both parties have supported our relationship with Israel.”

The Jewish senator added that Dean “has said he would not take sides” in the Middle East, “but then he has said Israel ought to get out of the West Bank and an enormous number of settlements” should be demolished.

“I’m disappointed in Joe,” Dean said. “My position on Israel is exactly the same as Bill Clinton’s,” he said.

“I think America needs to be an honest broker. We desperately need peace in the Middle East.”

In 1993, Clinton sought to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, bringing Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat together at the White House for talks and a memorable handshake.

Domestic issues

Several of the contenders criticized Bush over domestic issues.

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said the president couldn’t find more money for education and health care at the same time he was seeking billions more for the war on terror.

“This administration has pandered to fear and frightened the American people at every turn and the Patriot Act is just part of that,” said former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, referring to legislation the administration has used to hunt for suspected terrorists in this country.

International affairs

But international affairs dominated the debate.

Alone among the nine, Kucinich said he would vote against Bush’s call for $87 billion more for postwar Iraq.

Kerry charged the president with an “act of negligence of remarkable proportions” for failing to have a postwar plan in Iraq, and Lieberman said the Bush administration has “no exit strategy.”

Gephardt said Bush’s postwar strategy in Iraq is a “miserable failure.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton was as unstinting as anyone in his criticism. He said Osama bin Laden has escaped capture for two years after the attacks by al-Qaida. “This guy has out more videos than a rock star, but George Bush’s intelligence agencies can’t find him,” he said.