Conservative Leader calls Dean Dean Too 'Mentally Unstable' to Be President

Talon News ^ | January 1, 2004 | Jimmy Moore

[nwrep]

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The leader of a conservative political group says he thinks Democrat presidential front-runner Howard Dean is too "mentally unstable" to become president and that it is "sad" Republicans want him to be the Democrat nominee.

Religious Freedom Coalition Chairman William J. Murray sent an e-mail to supporters on Wednesday voicing his reservations about the former Vermont governor becoming the Democrat nominee for president that he says are echoed behind closed doors across the country.

"It says something about our nation that a great political party consisting of millions of Americans could possibly pick someone as mentally unstable as Howard Dean to lead their party and carry their banner into a national election," Murray wrote in the e-mail. "I have just made a comment about Dean that has not been printed anywhere, but has been said privately in newsrooms and boardrooms across the nation."

Murray added, "No one, not even Governor Howard Dean, can tell what is going to come from his mouth next."

But Murray said Republicans should not be elated at the prospect of Bush facing Dean in the general election in November.

"Republicans think that Howard Dean as the Democrat front-runner in the primaries is just a big laugh," Murray continued in the e-mail. "I don't think it is funny, I think it is sad."

Murray cited Dean's flip-flop on the issue of Christianity while on the campaign trail as evidence of his blunt description of Dean.

"I was shocked to watch [Dean] at a rally in San Francisco when he growled out loud that he wasn't going to listen to any preachers," Murray recalled in the e-mail. "Then in New Hampshire during an interview on Christmas Day with the Boston Globe, he stated that he would emphasize his Christianity as soon as he began to campaign in the South. What?"

Dissecting Dean's religious background, Murray notes that although his mother was Catholic, his father was Episcopalian and raised him in that faith.

However, when Dean met his wife, Judith Steinberg, she was Jewish. He did not want to convert to Judaism and she did not want to become a Christian. Murray said Dean and his wife contemplated becoming Unitarians as a "compromise."

"Compromise?" Murray questioned. "Unitarians do not believe in a living God."

He added, "Most Unitarians are either agnostics or atheists and they surely do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ."

As for Dean's children, Murray said, "it gets worse."

"The Deans told their children to pick a religion, any religion, and that they would not get involved in their decision one way or the other," Murray lamented.

The two children subsequently chose to become Jewish.

Dean himself parted ways with the Episcopal Church in the 1980's "over a dispute about the route of a public bike path through the church property," Murray wrote.

"Excuse me? Now, I would leave a church if they ordained female deacons or recruited a homosexual music minister...but a bike path?," exclaimed Murray.

Murray said Dean then joined the Congregationalist Church, but now "rarely, if ever, attends."

Citing the recent Boston Globe interview, Murray said Dean was careful not to mention Jesus Christ as being "the Son of God, as a part of the Trinity, or being in any way divine."

"Indeed, he talks of Christ in the past tense, as if He had died in the human sense," Murray contends. "Perhaps Howard Dean would have been better off in a Unitarian Church, but then he would have had trouble winning any elections as a member of a near atheistic institution."

Murray says this indecision about his faith is what makes Dean change his mind so often about what he believes on a daily basis.

"One day [Dean] said he did not know if Usama bin Laden was guilty of 9-11 and that the man should get a fair trial," Murray wrote. "The next day he said Usama deserves the death penalty."

He continued, "[Dean] has stated that the United States should receive 'permission' from the United Nations before waging war and then said that the Iraqi people must determine their own fate."

Murray says this indecision about what Dean believes is evidence of someone who is "not of a single mind," alluding to possible schizophrenia, and that his run for president is both "pathetic and dangerous."

At the end of the e-mail, Murray gives a hypothetical scenario where Dean is the Democrat nominee and behind Bush by 15 percent in the polls in October. Then Bush dies running in a marathon and Vice-President Dick Cheney becomes president and decides to run against Dean.

"The Christian right envisions Cheney's lesbian daughter being married to her female lover in the White House, and they just don't vote," Murray envisions. "The Muslims join with the unions, the gays, the socialists and the loony greens to vote Dean in, and we have a madman in the White House in January '05."

Murray does not believe this is as far-fetched as it might sound and believes it should cause anyone who cares about the values and principles of America to fear the possibility of a President Howard Dean.

"The fact that Howard Dean can raise tens of millions of dollars and attract millions of supporters who really don't care what he says should scare all Americans and the rest of the world as well," Murray concluded.

Reiterating his personal concerns about Dean, Murray says that Bush should want to face the best candidate the Democrats have to offer, not their weakest.

"While Karl Rove may be ecstatic over the Democrats picking Howard Dean as their standard bearer, I am not," Murray stated at the end of his e-mail. "Further, I am sure that President George W. Bush would prefer to run on his merits and his faith against a more worthy opponent than Howard Dean."

The Washington-based Religious Freedom Coalition works on behalf of Christian rights in America and to aid persecuted Christians around the world.

Copyright © 2003 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

[Reagan Man]

I respectfully disagree. Labeling Howie Dean insane is over the top for sure, but calling him "temperamentally unsuitable" is too PC for me. After careful analysis and evaluation of recent public remarks made by Dean, in my book he definitely comes across as a highly emotional and irrational person.

"-US no safer w/Saddam in custody"
-"Bush knew about 9-11 beforehand"
-"most dangerous admin in his lifetime"
-"Bin Laden shouldn't be pre-judged"

These aren't just statements by an over the top and desperate candidate. They are remarks by an irrational person.

Dean is far too unstable to be my president. I prefer the more conservative minded, rational, controlled and sensible leaders like Ronald Reagan and GWBush to lead America.

[savedbygrace]

To the average voter, this writer is saying that a medical doctor, former governor of Vermont, and a presidential candidate is clinically insane.

In a close reading of this article. I don't see where Murray is saying Dean is "clinically insane." Where did you find that?

I see where Moore writes that Murray is "alluding to possible schizophrenia," but I don't see where Murray actually makes that accusation. There's a ton of difference between being mentally unstable and being clonically insane. Don't you agree?

BTW, Murray's reference to single-mindedness is a Biblical reference, not a psychological one. (James 1:8, "A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways.")

[cajungirl]

I agree with what you say, now how to we get the message out and when? That is the question to me. Privately we can all agree he is a major grandiose whack job but to get it out in a form that makes people agree is the issue.

[MissAmericanPie]

Dean is a complete nut job. This is of course obvious to everyone but liberal nut jobs. Bush is a shoe in, unless he blows it over amnesty. But if that is the case you can be sure the communist media will run all kinds of reasons for his defeat other than "It's the illegals stupid".

[cajungirl]

To bring up Jews, Cheney's daughter is the kind of thing that makes me wonder also,,is this article supposed to help us or hurt us. I am not dissing fundamentalists but that is the part of the conservative movement that mosts mobilizes up the left and the center part of the population. Plus Bush is getting Jewish supporters now. I keep thinking of Reagan's big tent, we need to keep it big.

[Reagan Man]

>>>... how to we get the message out and when?

For some, following PresBush`s low key lead will get the job done. Some of us will have to ratchet up the rhetoric to get the attention of the independent voters. Others, like Jimmy Moore, will go over the top to make their point.

I think its fair to say, short of getting down in the gutter and using trash talk as a first option, nothing is really out of bounds. Repeating the same anti-Dean slogans over and over, will also work to get the messge out. OTOH, for about 1/3RD of the electorate who consider themselves hardcore liberals and/or anti-Bush haters, nothing will work.

[Arizona]

It was the moment in the debate when he walked over to Bush in this intimidating strange way and Bush just looked at him.

This is one thing I do love about Bush - he just totally ignores the nutcases, he doesn't even attempt to reason with them nor does he hardly acknowledge that they even exist. He just quietly and steadily goes about his job and allows them to walk off the cliff themselves.

az

[Common Tator]

"You know, this over-the-top rhetoric from our side doesn't help. While I privately wonder about Dean, it is easier to say he is "temperamentally unsuited" to be president. That allegation is easier to prove and doesn't make us sound like wild-eyed fanatics."

Over the top rhetoric?

Yes, it is over the top rhetoric. You are as ignorant of what it takes to win an election as Howard Dean. Elections are won by getting more than half the centrist voters. And what was posted above is as over the top to the centrist voters as is the left calling Bush a gun toting international law breaking cowboy.

Saying what the base wants to hear in an election makes as much sense as Dean saying what the left wants to hear. You both do the same thing to opposite sides of the political spectrum.

I am sure that if Miss Marple ever wants to know how to lose and election by epic proportions, she will call on you... you are undoubtedly a great expert on how to get whipped at the polls by an inferior candidate.

If you are a typical Mason then Dixon must have drawn that line.

[Cicero]

Well, yes, Dean is a nut job. But after reading this article, I have to conclude that William J. Murray is a sanctimonious idiot.

This is the absolute WORST argument not to support Dean that could possibly be made. And on top of that, Murray holds the Republicans responsible for Dean. He even invites Christian conservatives to stay home for fear that if Bush is reelected, Cheney's lesbian daughter will get married to a lesbian partner in the White House! Good grief.

[Rome2000]

fear the possibility of a President Howard Dean.

ROTFLOL!!!!!

There's six weeks between election and inaugaration day.

Just eneough time to sell my house and move to the Bahamas.

[Reagan Man]

Dukakis and Dean. On the emotional scale, polar opposites of the first order. Dukakis always put me to sleep. At least Dean is entertaining. The fact remains, Bush will kick the crap out of Dean.LOL

[riri]

You know the point where al gore lost the election, when it became obvious he was unhinged?

Obviously not enough, because alot of people still walked to a booth a pulled the lever for him.

[tubavil]

Medved said it yesterday too.

[pixmo]

Mentally unstable? That's putting it mildly. ;-)

He'd legislate and tax us into oblivion if he had his way.

[Miss Marple]

I sometimes wonder if some of these "helpful" conservatives are really on the Rat payroll.

[Miss Marple]

Tator, I always apply the maxims you taught me when I am looking at political discourse.

As you said, this is appealing to the most radical of the base. It will send the middle people running for the hills. And we need those middle people's votes.

You said it much better than I could, but we are in 100% agreement on this article.

Thanks for the reply and explanation!

[Anticommie]

He is hot-tempered, arrogant, a liar, and willing to ditch any previously held position in order to get the nomination

Same 'qualities' our former impeached POTUS was blessed with.