08:35 AM PDT on Thursday, August 19, 2004

Associated Press

When you thought it was safe to skip the freedom fries, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., made national news for saying that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry acts too French.

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith. (US Senate)

Smith, chairman of President Bush's campaign in Oregon, last week participated in a conference call with reporters aimed at putting the Republican spin on Kerry's visit to Portland.

"It's not John Kerry's fault that he looks French," Smith said. "But it is his fault that he wants to pursue policies that have us act like the French."

Though Smith used the word "French" as a put-down, he said Wednesday that he finds much to like about France and the rest of the Europe.

"I love their people, I love their products, I love their history, and I love all of the heritage they have bequeathed to the American nation," Smith said in an interview with The Oregonian. "But that doesn't mean their postwar turn to the social-welfare state has made them better. It has not."

Smith isn't lying when he says he likes the products. A Pendleton businessman who made a fortune in the frozen-food industry, Smith loves French-cut suits and has plowed much of his wealth back into Europe.

Smith once owned a stable of mostly European sports cars and he owns a 16th-century putting iron said to have belonged to King James IV of Scotland, part of a set of four golf clubs that cost $1.25 million.

When he entered the Senate in 1997, he rejected a chance to take over a government investigations committee in favor of heading the European affairs panel.

He's even a member of the congressional French Caucus.

At the same time, Smith has long complained that European nations have adopted overly generous social benefits that have raised taxes far above U.S. levels and made it more difficult to create jobs.

That's the kind of thinking that led to his comments about Kerry.

"I add up all of his spending proposals, and he doesn't even begin to pay for them by taxing the rich, and what that means is what he has done in the past, and that's to tax everyone," Smith said. "So John Kerry to me represents socialism."

To Kerry supporters, however, Smith's comments were simply name-calling.

"Here's a guy who claims to be an Eastern Oregon farmer but who has spent more time in European capitals than 99.9 percent of all Oregonians," said Jim Edmunson, the state Democratic chairman.

Smith also said he is skeptical of Europe's ability to take meaningful military action, and disagrees with Kerry's criticism of President Bush's handling of Iraq.

"When it comes to having the wallet, the will and the weaponry . . . they're not in a position to help," Smith said. "When you net out John Kerry's foreign policy, it is essentially this: 'Let's take a tin cup to Paris and beg them to help us out.' "

Edmunson said it is Bush who has hurt the United States by acting largely unilaterally in Iraq.

"It's ridiculous to suggest a Kerry administration is going to weaken America by strengthening our reputation overseas," he said.