Bush trades blows over 'botched Iraq joke'
Senator John Kerry has traded his harshest blows with George Bush since the 2004 election race after warning students not to get "stuck in Iraq".
Mr Bush accused the former Presidential candidate of troop-bashing after the comments which were made to a group of California students.
But Mr Kerry told the President it was him and not the troops in Iraq who were the target of his criticism and called Mr Bush's Oval Office supporters "hacks who are willing to lie".
Mr Kerry added his comment that those unable to navigate the country's education system "get stuck in Iraq" was "a botched joke about the President and the President's people, not about the troops".
He added "the White House knows this full well".
The row is dominating the mid-term elections as the Democrats threaten to take back the House and possibly win control of the Senate as they galvanise the anti-war vote.
Senator John McCain, considered a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, called upon Kerry to apologise to the troops saying those serving in Iraq were there because "they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education".
Senator Kerry fired back, calling upon Mr McCain to get apologies from the administration for a botched policy.
