Before a sun-drenched crowd of thousands at the University of Pittsburgh, U.S. Sen. John Kerry yesterday charged the White House had displayed a "twisted sense of morality and ethics" in questioning the patriotism of its political critics.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, pauses during his speech at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland yesterday. Kerry, wrapping up his weeklong "CampusTour," then went on to a fund-raiser at Omni William Penn, Downtown. Click photo for larger image. Photos & Audio See more photos of Sen. John Kerry's visit to Pittsburgh, including audio clips of the candidate and people who attended the rally.

Kerry targeted Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove for particular criticism.

"I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve, when they had the chance," said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran. "I went. I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism and asking questions about the future of our country."

Kerry, who was in Pittsburgh for the Oakland rally and a subsequent fund-raising lunch, spoke on a day when the Bush-Cheney campaign began airing television commercials questioning Kerry's commitment to the troops in Iraq.

Pointing to a giant flag suspended from a crane above Bigelow Boulevard, he added, "You see those stars and stripes over there; I fought under that flag ... and I saw that flag draped over the coffins of friends, and I've seen how these people in the White House today, in their twisted sense of ethics and morality ... they don't think twice about pretending to America that I somehow don't care about the defense of our nation."

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, rejected Kerry's criticism.

"Nobody has ever questioned John Kerry's patriotism. What is at issue is John Kerry's judgment." Schmidt said. "[Kerry] said the threat of terrorism is exaggerated. ... John Kerry voted for the war in Iraq but voted against money for American troops in Iraq in harm's way."

Kerry charged that his Republican opponents had a pattern of sliming opponents.

"[They] don't think twice about challenging [Sen.] John McCain and what happened to him when he was a prisoner of war; they don't think twice about challenging Max Cleland, who left three limbs on the battlefield in Vietnam and challenge his patriotism," he said.

Kerry referred to reports that in the South Carolina GOP primary in 2000, McCain, then President Bush's chief rival for the nomination, was the victim of a whispering campaign about his conduct while a POW. Those reports, however, have never been directly tied to the Bush campaign.

In 2002, Cleland, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, was defeated for re-election by a Republican campaign that aired commercials that linked his picture with that of Osama bin Laden, charging that his votes in the Senate had lent comfort to terrorism.

Countering Kerry's reference to the fact that Cheney and Rove had not served in Vietnam, Republicans also circulated transcripts of a 1992 Kerry speech on the Senate floor, in which he denounced efforts to make an issue of the fact that President Clinton had not served in the military.

"We do not need to divide America over who served and how," Kerry said then. "I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways."

On a beautiful spring day, however, Kerry's words of outrage were leavened by nostalgia, prompted by the presence of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and her sons, Andre and Chris.

Heinz Kerry called it a homecoming, reminding the crowd that she'd come to Pittsburgh as a young woman and raised her three children here. Two of them spoke to the crowd -- Andre with a rousing, "How younz doin'," followed by passable imitations of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton; Chris with the observation that amid the good memories were sad ones.

"My father, we buried him right around the corner," he said, referring to Heinz Chapel, where the funeral of U.S. Sen. John Heinz took place.

Yesterday's visit to Pitt capped a week of campus visits for the Kerry campaign. The perfect blue skies and the presence of celebrities ranging from singers Bon Jovi and Tom DeLonge, of the group Blink-182, to Franco Harris all helped produce by far the largest crowd that had greeted the soon-to-be nominee all week.

	Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Singer Jon Bon Jovi warms up the crowd for Sen. John F. Kerry before yesterday's rally at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland. Click photo for larger image.

Republicans staged a counter-rally across Forbes Avenue in David Lawrence Hall. U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, characterized Kerry as a flip-flopper, charging that he had initially supported NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, the war in Iraq and the USA Patriot Act and later changed his mind on all four issues.

"Which is it?" Hart asked the crowd of about 75 college students, many of them Young Republicans who had driven in from more than a half-dozen area colleges.

Outside, across the street, a shirt-sleeved Kerry received a generally warm reception and repeated rounds of applause as he outlined previous proposals to offer college tuition tax credits and establish a program to reward two years of volunteer service with the equivalent of four years of in-state college tuition.

"I'd rather have Kerry than Bush but I don't exactly trust Kerry," said Crystal Hoffman, a sophomore at Carlow College. "He did vote for the Patriot Act and to go to war, so I think he's kind of floppy."

Pitt history major John Caramanica said his views more closely resemble those of independent candidate Ralph Nader.

But this fall, Caramanica is going to vote for Kerry.

"I voted for Nader last time, and I kind of regret that because [the 2000 election] was so close and Bush won," Caramanica said. "I guess it's kind of an irresponsible thing to do."

But Aaron Kanik, sitting on a curb on Bigelow Boulevard as other Kerry supporters drifted away from the rally, said Kerry isn't just the lesser evil to them.

He said he was impressed by Kerry's tuition aid proposals, as well as promises to extend health care for all Americans and his opposition to the war in Iraq.

"It's not just that he's speaking to kids, it's that he's speaking about things that everyone cares about," Kanik said.