Kerry campaign, supporters get tough on Bush.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Jill Zuckman

RACINE, W.Va. _ Sen. John Kerry's campaign has a new, unofficial strategy: To get even, get mad.

Across Ohio and into West Virginia this Labor Day weekend, Kerry supporters took to the campaign stage with mocking, caustic, scornful rhetoric directed at President Bush's military service and Vice President Dick Cheney's lack of service. Kerry stood by smiling, hands clasped, as the invective flew.

"When John Kerry was dodging bullets in Vietnam, George Bush and Dick Cheney were dodging the draft in the United States," Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, declared Monday at a Labor Day picnic here.

In Akron, Ohio, Mayor Donald Plusquellic described Bush as "hiding in the woods in Alabama" while Kerry "was defending our country."

And in Steubenville, Ohio, Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, introduced Kerry as "a man who was carrying guns through the jungles of Vietnam while George Bush was neglecting his military service and carrying out his responsibilities as a cheerleader at Yale University."

The harsh words came as Democrats have expressed increasing …