I’m continually amazed at the words that fall from the lips of the Democratic National Committee Chairman, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
By way of review, I’d like to remind you of some of his more recent attacks, oh I mean statements, about conservatives and Republicans.
“I hate Republicans and everything they stand for.”
“The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.”
“This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.”
“Well Republicans…a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."
He’s also called Republicans “evil,” and described the party as one that is “pretty much a white, Christian party.”
I need not comment on those quotes. They speak for themselves.
I’ve come to expect those kinds of irrational, demeaning statements coming from him. It has, to be very honest, made me happy when I think of elections but sad for the sake of the state of the national debate. It’s a ridiculous commentary on our society and our political system when a man who thinks and talks like Howard Dean is the best that one of the two major parties can do.
I was pleased to hear that Dean took on a slightly different tone this last Monday. It turns out that Dean channeled his passion towards his own party. Please allow me to share my favorite Howard Dean ‘deep thought’ first.
When he addressed his Vermont audience, he informed them of his revelation that “There are Democrats everywhere.” I, too, sometimes manifest a similar gift of stating the obvious. Perhaps it was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments. However, I cannot imagine what response that insightful statement received from the Democrats (or any other party members) in the room. Should he get out more?
He made several other statements that would take too much time to cover and would, honestly, be difficult for me to write about without cracking up. Suffice it to say that there was more of the same.
Article comments
1 - billy
Dean is a great leader, and it shows since the dems are up 50% in fundraising while the gop is stagnating. while i agree with some of what you said, you miss the boat. the problem in politics is the gop swift-boating patriotic americans like sheehan and dean and kerry who disagree with them. you think there wont be a backlash against republicans? think again
its like smacking someone in the face and then saying, dean is a wierdo, why can we all just get along. it isnt going to work that way.
2 - Rich
Name calling, mischaracterizations, cherry picking quotes, I can do the same to your political leader on the right who ever it may be.
Critique President Bush start on any subject education, economy, Iraq, war on terror, his rationality, insightfulness?, social security,
pro-life?
--Rich
3 - Malacandra
If you think some of the things Gov. Dean says is funny, take a look at some of these quotes... from the man who is President of these United States:
"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."
"You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."
"Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease."
"I understand small business growth. I was one."
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
"The benefits of helping somebody is beneficial."
"We're in for a long struggle, and I think Texans understand that. And so do Americans."
"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here."
"And one of the things we've got to make sure that we do is anything."
"We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end."
"Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better."
"The relations with, uhh -- Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh -- because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know -- European values, they're universal values. And those values -- uhh -- being universal, ought to be applied everywhere."
"I don't think there's a Democrat idea, I don't think it's a Republican idea, I think these are just ideas that need to be on the table. I think I'm the first President ever to have stood up and said, bring all your ideas forward."
"Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment."
"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."
"I'm going to be a president who hails success as well as failure."
This is one President who has Deep Thoughts. Often impenetrably deep.
4 - rbp0554
>>“I hate Republicans and everything they stand for.” [An extreme view that is not shared by all democrates]
“The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.” [I agree with this statement for the most part]
“This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.” [I don't agree with this... but GWB certainly has not increased our standing in the "World Stuardship Rankings".]
“Well Republicans…a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives." [Not true... yet another extreme view not shared by all dems]
He’s also called Republicans “evil,” and described the party as one that is “pretty much a white, Christian party.” ["evil" is extreme... Actually, it probably is mostly a "white Christian party"]<<
5 - Demi
Dean is the little toe of the Democratic party.
Which may or may not be true, depending on if the Dems really want to take the next Presidential election.
There is one quote which may apply...
"The worst wheel on the wagon, makes the most noise"
I'm just not into the Dean scene or the Carvelle lack of tact.
Certainly the Democrats can come up with SOMEONE who can fill the void with intelligence, civility, and aplomb. It would be so refreshing.
The Dems have failed to impress, not the party diehards, but the swing vote, the Notpublicans, and I don't believe they have accomplished that for quite a while. One glance at the election stats will provide a testament to the ineffectivness.
Certainly one can say the Republican's have a similar track record. But I would not concur; after all look who won.
Before a debate sparks about Florida etc.... The democratic party did not show up, close elections are just that, close elections, not land slide victories. What happened to those?
"Characters" like Dean are not enhancements, they're not even window dressing.
I can still vote; and I will vote for whomever I feel inspires trust, integrity, and character. I don't get that with Dean, and I apologize for not being a pom-pom girl for the Dems. I won't stoop to that.
I have to look myself in the mirror every day, the Dems need to bolster my conscience, that the day after an election, I will truely feel good about the Democratic vote I cast.
Good Luck, I'm hard to please.
6 - ryan
Don't forget this one:
"We have to be out there. We have to be vocal. We have to be pushing our version of the facts because their version of the facts is very unfactual."
RyanClarkHoliday.com
7 - gonzo marx
distort, destroy, distract and deny...
the GOP mantra under Rove
bitching about Dean for standing up and fighting back, in a mild fashion, using the same tools every RNC chair, every GOP mouthpiece , has been doing for the last 13 years...
yeah, right
whining about Carville's "lack of tact" while the WH leaks the identity of a covert CIA agent during wartime fro political purposes
on and on
newsflash: a growing percentage of folks that are neither demlicans or repubocrats are waking up to all the bullshit that has been spewed all over in the last 5 years...and it's these people that will be the deciding factor in the next few elections
so it may just come down to Dean's kind of kookiness, or Rove's orwellian euphemisms like a "Patriot Act" that curtails civil liberties, "bankruptcy reform" that screws the average person but does NOTHING about the
Enrons, Worldcoms and Andersons...even the "medicare reform" that adds a pharmaceutical benefit in which the Government(via Medicare, the biggest buyer of product) is NOT ALLOWED BY LAW to eve negotiate bulk purchasing prices
ad nauseum
Excelsior!
8 - Demi
Gonzo,
You may have just punctuated every point I was attempted to convey.
Thank you
Demi
9 - gonzo marx
Demi,
i live to serve
Excelsior!
10 - Dean For America
"There are a lot of evil men runing around the world and we can't bomb every one of them."
Howard Dean
11 - Bennett
Another lame post by someone who ran across the GOP's Attack Points for Howard Dean, dressed it up a bit, and then posted it to BC...
[sigh]
Thanks to Malacandra for the list of Bush quotes. It warms my heart to have my country led by such a deep thinker.
Speaking of, I heard Newt Gingritch on NPR's National Press Club coverage this afternoon...
Here's a man that I disliked intensely during the Clinton years, but I gotta tell you, everything he said made sense.
Scary, eh?
Based on the quality of his address, his ability to clearly spell out the challenges and the solutions as he sees them, I would swap him out for GWB in a doubletime heartbeat.
If he runs in 2008 he's got a damn good chance of getting elected, and if he actually means to do what he says he'd like to do, it would be a good thing for America.
A big if, as always.
12 - The Duke
If Gingrich wins? Oh boy! Talk about heated debate. Nothing will get done.
As for Bush... when is a President really a "deep thinker?" That's what staffs are for.
Don't try feeding me the "Clinton was a genius" bit. Smart perhaps, communicable, yes (wink wink). But I detected a lack of common sense. The "brains" behind that president was and is Hillary. Who is shrewd, no doubt about it. She may be the next president, and such will suffer the same stonewall that Gingrich will.
Hillary/Gingrich ticket? With McCain as Secretary of Defense. Oooo.
Cornfuze everah-body wouldn't it!
13 - Jude
Howard Dean may not say the words just right, but anyone who's been paying close attention to the tactics and policies of the GOP understand exactly what he's trying to say.
I perceive him as someone who loves what America is supposed to stand for - he respects the power of people like you and me - and when he sees our power being abused, stolen, co-opted, and manipulated, he'll say so.
I'm glad he's defending the Democratic party.
“This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.”
"The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.”
There isn't anything false, inappropriate, or irrational about these statements above.
I think it's about time people start to wake up and see what's happening in this country.
That said, I agree with you that lopsided leadership really is not best for our country. We'll never come together with poor examples set by leaders.
It gets really lopsided when your President and his administration tell you things that are not true, and they are material in determining the war-course of a nation - and they continue to mislead you as they realize the picture isn't like they painted it .. as American blood is spilled.. such as:
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention
August 26, 2002
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
George W. Bush
Speech to UN General Assembly
September 12, 2002
"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world."
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
December 2, 2002
"We know for a fact that there are weapons there."
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
January 9, 2003
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."
George W. Bush
State of the Union Address
January 28, 2003
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."
George W. Bush
Radio Address
February 8, 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
George W. Bush
Address to the Nation
March 17, 2003
"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview
March 30, 2003
"We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country."
Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview
May 4, 2003
"But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found."
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
April 10, 2003
"We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them."
George W. Bush
NBC Interview
April 24, 2003
"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so."
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 3, 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Give me the blatantly honest Howard Dean ANY DAY!
14 - vermont sucks
Hey Howard how's your presidency going?
Oh wait you didn't get elected, you didn't even get your party's nomination. Haha
What a joke this guy is.
As long as this guy and Hillary are speaking for democrats, Republicans will stay in power.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!