Clinton-Friendly Publisher Warning Dems on Dean

NewsMax.com ^ | 12/30/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Mort Zuckerman, who publishes the New York Daily News when he's not socializing with Bill and Hillary Clinton, is warning Democrats against choosing Howard Dean as their standard bearer, calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff."

Zuckerman's paper - America's largest circulation daily tabloid - slammed the Democratic presidential front-runner in its lead editorial on Tuesday, saying several of Dean's recent comments make him seem soft on terrorism.

Said the News:

"It is astonishing that Democrats cannot see the doom that awaits if they nominate a candidate who said this about Osama Bin Laden: 'I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.'"

"The Democrats would be well-advised to imagine the campaign ads that Bush's mastermind, Karl Rove, would cook up," Zuckerman's paper warned.

"He'd start with Bin Laden, move on to Dean's declaration that the U.S. was not safer with Saddam Hussein in custody and happily focus on Dean's irresponsibility in spreading the conspiracy theory that Bush knew about the 9/11 plot beforehand and did nothing to stop it."

The paper's highly unusual preemptive strike is sure to spark speculation about whether the media mogul, who also publishes U.S. News & World Report, is carrying the Clintons' water with the Dean warning.

The News publisher has been tight with the former first couple for the better part of a decade.

Most famously, Zuckermen was aboard Air Force One in 1995 during a trip to Israel for Yhitzak Rabin's funeral. While he played cards with Clinton surrounded by the luxurious trappings of the presidency, then-newly crowned Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was relegated to the back of the plane.

After Gingrich complained, Zuckerman's paper front-paged a cartoon of the top Republican as a crybaby, complete with diapers and bottle.

The cozy relationship between the publisher and president was sometimes reflected in his own U.S. News column, where he gushed in 1998, just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke - "Most Americans see Clinton as extremely intelligent, formidably well informed, and rhetorically persuasive, and as someone who cares about the average American."

But with his newspaper's Dean-bashing editorial today, the $64,000 question becomes, is the ex-president now using his media friend to head off a Dean disaster next year while he publicly maintains the facade of neutrality?

[kattracks]

Going over the cliff with Howard Dean

The Democratic Party has an albatross, and his name is Howard Dean, the candidate most likely to succeed in the party's fast-approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as he drives toward a presidential nomination.

The former Vermont governor has risen above the monotonal drone of his rivals by capitalizing on the rage that many Democrats harbor toward President Bush, notably over the war in Iraq. The difficulty is that fury does not a successful campaign make. It also blinds.

It is astonishing that Democrats cannot see the doom that awaits if they nominate a candidate who said this about Osama Bin Laden: "I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."

Those 46 words reveal with laser-like eloquence that Dean fundamentally misunderstands what's at stake for the U.S. in the global war on terror and so does not have the mind-set to wage the battle effectively. While the country has been on a combat footing since 9/11, Dean is thinking about due-process rights for Bin Laden and, who knows, running him through the criminal justice system. What would President Dean have the Marines do? Read the Miranda rights to a terrorist and arraign him in Manhattan Criminal Court?

True to form, Dean changed his position after his remarks were published in a New Hampshire newspaper and were roundly condemned. Yes, he assured, he wants Bin Laden to get the death penalty. We say a summary execution on the battlefield would be more like it.

The Democrats would be well-advised to imagine the campaign ads that Bush's mastermind, Karl Rove, would cook up. He'd start with Bin Laden, move on to Dean's declaration that the U.S. was not safer with Saddam Hussein in custody and happily focus on Dean's irresponsibility in spreading the conspiracy theory that Bush knew about the 9/11 plot beforehand and did nothing to stop it.

Despite all that, Dean is giving Rep. Dick Gephardt from next-door Missouri a run for his money in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, has a double-digit lead over Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in Jan. 27's New Hampshire primary and could have the nomination wrapped up by March 2. If so, he'll lead the party over a cliff like so many lemmings.

Air-raid drill

Sometimes a person does something so boneheaded that he shows the weaknesses of safeguards that were supposed to prevent that very thing from happening. Pilot Richard Langone is one such dolt.

Langone is the pilot who entered LaGuardia Airport's forbidden zone Sunday. Had he radioed the airport once he realized his error, Langone would have been guided back to Long Island - and no one would be reading his name in the newspaper.

But no. Wrong-way Langone flew on down the East River, over the Brooklyn Bridge and around the Statue of Liberty before being intercepted by a machine-gun-equipped police helicopter. He should be thanked for writing in large letters in the sky just how porous the city's air security is.

No F-16s - the fighter jets that can shoot down a terrorist's plane - were sent to intercept Langone's single-engine Mooney. This could be because they were busy. Or it could be because no F-16s patrol the city skies, even though Mayor Bloomberg requested air cover last week. City officials aren't sure because the federal government so far has refused to respond to Bloomberg's plea.

Langone broke no rule by buzzing the Statue of Liberty: While the air space over most of the city is off-limits to planes without clearance, as it was before the terror attack, flying circles around the national landmark is perfectly legal. It shouldn't be. A temporary New Year's restriction keeping aircraft a mile from the statue should be made permanent.

Langone may lose his pilot's license for clearing the air about these security lapses. As consolation, the flying ace will soar forever as a New York Knucklehead.

You can e-mail the Daily News editors at voicers@edit.nydailynews.com. Please include your full name, address and phone number. The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters. The shorter the letter, the better the chance it will be used.

Originally published on December 30, 2003

[Rebelbase]

""He'd (Rove) start with Bin Laden, move on to Dean's declaration that the U.S. was not safer with Saddam Hussein in custody and happily focus on Dean's irresponsibility in spreading the conspiracy theory that Bush knew about the 9/11 plot beforehand and did nothing to stop it.""

These are great times. Its keeps getting better and better.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff."

What kind of two-bit rag hustler is Mortimer Zuckerman?

He can't even get his literature correct!

Hey Morty, it's lemmings that go over the cliff.

An albatross or "gooney bird" is something you hang around your neck.

It looks like it won't fly but soars splendidly when aloft.

[SF Republican]

I have heard that in the wild it is not unusual for parents to eat their young; this must be what it is like.

[theFIRMbss]

>calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff"

Hi! I'm a lemming. If you want to know about cliffs, call me, not birds...

[doug from upland]

Former KABC talk show host Michael Jackson (not the perv, the leftist whacko in L.A. talk radio) had Mort Zuckerman on his show many times defending the Clintons. I just pictured Clinton DNA dripping down his chin. Yuk.

[jmaroneps37]

So nice to see a ratmedia type 'get it' and realize he can't do shiite about it. how-odd?'s the man. The primary system that the rats themselves wanted, will wrap itself around the evil donkey's neck and kill it. Hee hee hee!

[punster]

GO DEAN! GO DEAN!

[gipper81]

Mort thinks he hit an inside fastball in addition to his obvious outstanding foreign policy and political skills.

Captions?

[KarlInOhio]

Mort's just mixing his metaphors before they hatch.

[TomGuy]

Who, oh who, will step forward and rescue the Democrats from themselves? Who, oh who will take up the challenge and lead the party next November? Oh who, oh who???



H i l -

la - ry

to the ressssscue!

Hillary to the rescue.

[More and more it appears "events" and directions are being set up to allow Hillary to avoid the degradation of public campaigning (and questioning) and walk in at the convention to accolades and being crowned the Democratic Candidate for 2004.]

[gov_bean_ counter]

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

"The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Dems ship is going down.

[uncbob]

when he's not socializing with Bill and Hillary Clinton, is warning Democrats against choosing Howard Dean as their standard bearer, calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff."

Hey Mort just what do you call what Clinton did to the party in 94

[DoctorMichael]

"....cozy relationship between the publisher and president...."

Kinda sums things up.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Mort's just mixing his metaphors before they hatch.

Must be a mild case of "clintonspeak".

[colorado tanker]

Don't listen to this man! The nation is angry that President Bush "stole the election" and attacked Iraq contrary to the wishes of France and Germany. People are furious that Bush is proposing conservative policies after running as a conservative. The nation will unite behind Dean in bringing liberalism back to the White House.

So, gehead and drink the Kool-Aid. Besides, cliffs, like liberalism, have unfairly gotten a bad name.

[fightingilliteracy]

calling the Vermont Democrat "an albatross" who is likely to lead his party "over the cliff."

you might try actually reading the article you reference. the above quote is actually from newsmax.com (the conservative rag) about the article written in the new york daily news(granted a liberal rag). in the original article (also printed in the forum, so laziness isn't an excuse) the literature references were used in two separate paragraphs and appropriately i might add.

[RoseofTexas]

The more I hear the RATS whine over MAD COW DEAN, the more rooting I'll be doing for him!!

[betty boop]

More and more it appears "events" and directions are being set up to allow Hillary to avoid the degradation of public campaigning (and questioning) and walk in at the convention to accolades and being crowned the Democratic Candidate for 2004.

Well the old bait-and-switch routine worked pretty well for the Dims when the "sure-to-lose" Torricelli was bumped at the last minute by Lautenberg in New Jersey's last senate race. HRC, drafted at the last minute at the Convention to be the "savior of the Democrat party" -- I can see it all now. Shades of The Manchurian Candidate somehow come to mind....