toledoblade.com --

WASHINGTON - Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Sherrod Brown argued, interrupted, name-called, and late-hit their way onto the national stage yesterday morning, in the kickoff debate of a U.S. Senate race that now appears as uncivil as it is competitive.

Mr. DeWine, the incumbent senator from Cedarville, Ohio, and Mr. Brown, a congressman from Avon, clashed over the Iraq war, scores of national security votes, trade policy, taxes, and one another's effectiveness and trustworthiness on NBC's Meet the Press.

Each candidate pitched himself and his opponent in stark, familiar terms. Mr. DeWine called Mr. Brown "on the fringe of his own party" and dubbed himself "the one candidate in this race who has demonstrated I can work with Democrats and Republicans to get things done and make things happen for Ohio."

Mr. Brown said Mr. DeWine and others on the Senate Intelligence Committee "simply haven't done their jobs," and he declared "the fundamental difference in this campaign is I've devoted my whole career to fighting for the middle class."

At times, Mr. DeWine ("you are absolutely unbelievable") and Mr. Brown ("Mike, you know better than to say things like that") made host Tim Russert look less like their moderator and more like their mother.

"Time out," Mr. Russert said, after an exchange where Mr. Brown and Mr. DeWine talked over one another with escalating volume. "Time out, time out, time out, time out, time out." Mr. Brown finished his sentence anyway.

Mr. DeWine stayed out of one partisan squabble, saying he would not echo President Bush in labeling Democrats the "party of cut-and-run" in Iraq. But he and Mr. Brown took nearly every other chance to disagree, including:

On Iraq, Mr. DeWine said setting a timeline to withdraw U.S. troops "would bring disaster," and that once Iraqis can handle their own security "we're out of there." He said he would not have voted for the war if he knew Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and, asked about polls showing Iraqis favoring an American pull-out, declared: "We're not in Iraq primarily for the Iraqis. We're in Iraq for us."

Mr. Brown said he would instruct the military to draft an Iraq strategy for one-and-a-half to two years from now. He said Mr. DeWine's plan amounted to "just, 'stay the course.' " He accused Mr. DeWine repeatedly of failing to ask tough prewar questions on the intelligence committee, saying, "We've had this war prosecuted so incompetently and ineptly as a result."

On security, the candidates accused one another - in echoes of recent campaign ads - of failing to provide body armor for American soldiers. Mr. DeWine said Mr. Brown voted five times against money for armor "when it counted, when it was real money." Mr. Brown said he pushed the President and administrative officials for better armor in early 2003 and said if Mr. DeWine "had asked those same questions, we would have a safer America today."

Mr. Brown said he would renegotiate trade deals including the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is a central theme of his campaign. Mr. DeWine touted his work protecting American steel but also enumerated Ohio's income from exports. "That's where our jobs come from," he said. "That's where our future comes from. And once again he - you know, he doesn't understand."

The candidates accused one another of favoring tax policies that hurt ordinary Ohioans. They knifed each other over congressional voting records each said showed the other can't be trusted.

"Mike DeWine's been on the Intelligence Committee for 12 years," Mr. Brown said. "Whom do you trust to wage the war on terror? Somebody that's going to keep his focus on al-Qaeda, on protecting the United States of America, or somebody that's just saying, 'Status quo in Iraq, status quo, status quo.' "

Mr. DeWine shot back: "Do you trust a man who, during the 1990s" - after a series of terrorist attacks - "voted 10 separate times to cut, to cut our intelligence spending?"

In a heated exchange later, he pushed Mr. Brown several times to defend the votes. "He won't answer the question," Mr. DeWine said. "The facts are correct."

Mr. Brown stammered a moment, then said, "I would be glad to answer the questions."

Mr. Russert, who is refereeing a series of Senate debates this year, cut in. "People watching these debates and this one," he said, "have a sense that Washington has broken down in terms of our ability to find common ground."

Contact Jim Tankersley at: jtankersley@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.

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