Democratic Party ad assails Bush on the economy; Bush radio ad criticizes Kerry

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic Party will go on the offensive Saturday with a new television commercial that accuses President Bush of "favoring corporations that move their headquarters oversees" while praising nominee John Kerry's plan to "export American products, not American jobs."

At the same time, Bush's campaign is rolling out a radio commercial criticizing Kerry on taxes and terrorism, claiming that the Democrat is "just like clockwork" on both issues.

Acting independently from Kerry's campaign, the Democratic National Committee's independent expenditure office will spend another $6 million next week - about the same amount it spent in its first week on the air - to run ads in local media markets in 20 competitive states.

The DNC is filling in for Kerry on the airwaves. He stopped advertising until September to save money for the homestretch. The DNC's first ad - a positive spot that showed part of Kerry's acceptance speech at the nominating convention - will continue to run next week along with the new ad.

It says: "Millions of good jobs lost to plant closures and outsourcing. Yet President Bush protects tax breaks, favoring corporations that move their headquarters overseas." Then, the ad claims "America can do better" and argues that Kerry will "end tax-killing loopholes" and "provide incentives to companies who create good jobs here."

Bush's re-election campaign is spending roughly $850,000 over a week to run the radio ad. It accuses Kerry of talking tough on terrorism even as he voted against funding for American troops and proposed cutting the intelligence budget after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

The ad will air in 19 states where Bush's campaign is running TV ads, positive commercials that talk about the "optimistic" mood of the country under his administration.