"I'm A Wild And Crazy Guy!"
Posted on 11/05/2003 10:53:09 PM PST by sweetliberty
Dean says he is 'appalled' by Jeb Bush and the Legislature's moves in ordering a feeding tube reinserted into a brain-damaged woman.
BY PETER WALLSTEN Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE - Saying Florida Republicans should be ''embarrassed'' by their handling of a nationally watched right-to-die case, Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean accused Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature of interfering in a private matter when they ordered a feeding tube reinserted into the body of a brain-damaged woman.
Speaking just three blocks from the governor's office, Dean told a crowd that he was ''appalled'' by Bush and Republican lawmakers' move last month to overturn a court order and keep Terri Schiavo from dying after living for 13 years in a vegetative state.
''I'm tired of people in the Legislature thinking that they have an MD when what they really have is a BS,'' Dean, a physician and former Vermont governor, said to thunderous applause from about 200 lunching at the Capital Tiger Bay Club, a bipartisan group of Tallahassee movers and shakers.
Dean also lambasted Florida's Republican governor for his refusal to end the state's ban on gay adoptions. Earlier in the day, Bush unveiled a program aimed at finding homes for thousands of foster children -- but reaffirmed the ban on gay adoption while endorsing adoptions by single parents.
Bush's administration has defended the unique-in-the-nation ban in court, arguing that children are best raised by a man and a woman.
Said Dean, who legalized civil unions for gays in Vermont: ``In all the other states in the country gay people are allowed to adopt. It hasn't harmed children, and children are better off with loving parents no matter what their sexual orientation is.''
WHAT'S TO COME
Dean's comments foreshadow a tension that will play out in the 2004 election as both parties seek to mobilize their core voters to avoid a repeat of 2000, when the race ended in a statistical tie in Florida.
The Schiavo case and gay adoption have emerged as emotional wedge issues for both parties.
Republicans are seeking to engage millions of religious conservatives who failed to turn out in 2000.
Democrats want to mobilize gays, lesbians and other social liberals.
In the Schiavo case, her feeding tube was reinserted Oct. 21 after Bush signed a law written specifically for that one instance.
Democrats argue that the law violated the constitutional separation of powers.
Bush and other Republicans, siding with Schiavo's parents, said they got involved in the case because Schiavo could recover.
Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj called Dean's remarks on Schiavo ''shameful,'' accusing him of being ``flip about a serious issue that involves protecting the rights of the disabled and, most importantly, the right to life, which is a fundamental right in the Florida Constitution.''
For Democratic presidential candidates, the issue has not been clear cut.
Dean's opposition contrasted sharply with recent comments by one of his rivals for the Democratic nomination, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who told The Associated Press two weeks ago that he supported the Republican governor's actions.
''I feel very strongly that we ought to honor life and we ought not to create a system where people are being deprived of nutrition or hydration in a way that ends their lives,'' said Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew. His more conservative stands on a variety of issues have hurt him with liberal primary voters.
Dean visited the capital on his first Florida campaign stop since U.S. Sen. Bob Graham dropped his own bid for the White House, opening Florida up for fundraising and vote-gathering by other candidates.
`STRAW POLL'
Florida's primary is set for March 9, probably too late for the state's Democratic voters to help choose the nominee.
But a proposed ''straw poll'' at the state party's December convention gauging activists' opinions on the presidential field has prompted several candidates to visit.
Acknowledging that he might be pandering to the hometown crowd in Tallahassee, where Graham announced Monday that he would not seek a fourth term to the U.S. Senate, Dean said the state's senior senator was an instant contender to be his running mate if he's the nominee.
''I told Bob Graham the day he made his decision to drop out [of the presidential race] that he was on the short list,'' Dean said.
By venturing into Florida, Dean stepped onto the home turf of Bush, who recently ridiculed Dean for governing a state ''half the size of Miami-Dade County'' and labeling him a candidate for ``hot, angry people that aren't rational.''
Tuesday marked Dean's first visit to the South since the weekend, when his opponents began criticizing him for telling the Des Moines Register that he wants ``to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.''
Dean said he was referring to his strategy of helping Democrats retake the GOP-leaning South.
Several of his rivals said the remark was racially polarizing.
They also accused Dean of reinforcing stereotypes about whites in the South.
INSURANCE
''We want people who drive pickup trucks in the South to vote Democratic because their kids don't have health insurance either,'' Dean said Tuesday. ``We have got to stop having our elections in the South based on race, guns, God and gays and start having them on jobs and health insurance and foreign policy.''
Poking fun at the Confederate flag flap, members of the Tallahassee Tiger Bay Club gave Dean several parting gifts to remind him of the South: two country music CDs, a photo of NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a Florida State Seminoles cap.
I recall that on the night of the 1st Rat candidate debate, I heard a talk show (possibly Savage) with live coverage and commentary. Someone commented that all or most of the Rats had come out in support of "right-to-die" laws, except maybe Lieberman.
So far I haven't found any coverage or confirmation of that point. I'd be really appreciative if anyone has a link to a confirming source.
This is what Drudge is headlining. What an idiot Dean is!
VR
The leftists instinctively reject the only Democrat candidate decent enough not to always pander to the culture of death. It is a shame that the Democrats reject their only candidate who is not 100% a creature of special interests (though I think Lieberman has already compromised way too much). Once in a while Lieberman will at least give a thoughtful, honest answer (though I think he is wrong on many issues). All their other candidates sound like well-trained parrots.
Dean has always struck me as a bright, labile, explosive bipolar. It would not surprise me in the least if he were on Lithium or Depakoate.
Like many bipolars, he was (is?) a bad self-medicating alcoholic to boot. In AA they would call Dean's overall arrogant wacked-out demeaner a "Dry Drunk."
He is not mentally fit to be President.
"I'm A Wild And Crazy Guy!"
Me, too.
He's the candidate for thrill seekers.
Dean May Be a Leftie, But He's No McGovern, Mondale or Dukakis - He's a George Wallace
A friend in New Hampshire who attended one of Dean's campaign rallies out of curiosity, commented that he cannot remember a situation where he saw so many angry and resentful white people. In a recent speech, Dean compared the situation of Americans today, to that of Americans during the Revolutionary War, in that in both eras, America was under the rule of oppressive kings named George.Dean's political campaigning style sounded familiar. I scratched my head and tried to figure out which past politician had the style of Dean. Then it occurred to me...of course...George Wallace in '68. Dean is appealing to the same emotions of angry and resentful whites, but there is a difference in class. Wallace appealed to angry lower-class whites who were members of union households, while Dean is appealing to angry upper middle-class Starbucks yuppies. But the politics of resentment is the same in both cases.
That about says it all right there. I think it must considered what the definition of the word "upper" is.
Coffee out of my nose alert. LOL
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