Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney blasted Gen. Wesley Clark on Saturday, saying the general's claim that he could guarantee America wouldn't be hit by another terrorist attack during a Clark administration renders him unfit to be president.

"I think it's a disqualifying statement, frankly," Gaffney told WABC Radio's Monica Crowley. "I think it's that serious."

"Either the man is completely out of touch with reality or he is prepared to say anything to get elected," Gaffney continued. "The idea that anyone could promise that there will be no more terrorist attacks on America if you vote for me would be laughable, if it weren't so serious."

On Thursday, Clark told the Concord Monitor, "If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the American people . . . Nothing is going to hurt this country - not bioweapons, not a nuclear weapon, not a terrorist strike - there is nothing that can hurt us if we stay united . . ."

Fellow Democrat and presidential rival Sen. John Edwards told the Monitor that Clark was plain wrong. "It is very difficult for us defensively to prevent an attack from occurring. . . . As long as we live as we live now, there is always going to be a hole somewhere."

Meanwhile, Bush Border Security Chief Asa Hutchison dismissed Clark's boast as "bravado and rhetoric."

"We recognize each and every day that we could be attacked and I don't know that any one person could guarantee anything else," he told national radio host Sean Hannity. "We do our best every day."

On Friday the Monitor editorialized on Clark's comments, observing, "To now, it has been Dean who showed a propensity for bold assertions. . .