Posted on 01/15/2004 2:29:50 PM PST by billorites
He's a hardheaded penny-pincher, she's a publicity-shy doctor. PEOPLE magazine sat down with Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean, 55, and his wife, Judy, 50, for their first joint interview. Read 17 things we learned about him, then peruse the exclusive transcript.
1. He calls his wife "sweetie"; she calls him "Howie."
2. He wore his prom tuxedo to one of President Clinton's White House state dinners to save money, but coughed and split his pants and had to be escorted home by state troopers covering his posterior.
3. His staff forced him to buy a new suit at Paul Stuart in New York for the campaign (it cost $800). "It nearly killed me."
4. He always turns off the lights when he walks out of a room. He used to get into fights with his wife about turning up the heat in the winter, so now she pays the bill so he doesn't have to see it.
5. The last sitcom he watched was All in the Family in its original run.
6. He is compulsive about recycling. Once he picked up every newspaper off an airplane at the end of a flight and hauled them to a recycling center. He also does recycling inspections of his staffer's bins.
7. He insists that paper in his office be printed on both sides.
8. He likes Outkast and Wyclef Jean (his son's music) as well as Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead.
9. He fixes the toilet at home; plumbing is his "therapy."
10. He never takes taxis or limos. In New York City he takes the subway.
11. Asked his favorite food indulgence, he responds: fish. (He later amends this to chocolate chip cookies.)
12. He drinks generic ginger ale and snacks to save money.
13. He plays the guitar and harmonica. He sings '60s folk tunes (see: Peter, Paul and Mary above.)
14. Despite his reservations about cost, he was finally persuaded to take his shirts to the dry cleaner last year. He used to just throw them in the wash.
15. As the governor of Vermont, he drove himself and pumped his own gas.
16. He has been known to tape his shoes together.
17. He wears '70s-style gold-rimmed glasses that he won't update; his wife carries a purse covered in pen marks. They are both devoted discount shoppers ...
Well, a couple weren't too bad. The "Sweetie" "Howie" thing is normal married couple sounding.
11. Asked his favorite food indulgence, he responds: fish. (He later amends this to chocolate chip cookies.)
Now, this #11 reminds me in a weird way of the "Job in the New Testament" business. You know? Like who says "fish" is an indulgence. Sounds like he was all hepped up to say "fish" as a favorite food, as a health point. Then realizes later his answer was supposed to be a treat, so has to "amend" his answer. I mean, who amends an answer to "favorite food indulgence"?
Thanks for the ping. This one had me chuckling throughout.
I have to think that someone who is so ignorant as not to know that niggardly is not a racial slur is unlikely to have any idea how it would be spelled.
2. He wore his prom tuxedo to one of President Clinton's White House state dinners to save money, but coughed and split his pants and had to be escorted home by state troopers covering his posterior.
and this one:
15. As the governor of Vermont, he drove himself and pumped his own gas.
contradict each other??
Yep.
IIRC, Jimmy was too cheap to take a motorcade parade to his inauguration and forced everyone to walk a couple of miles in the cold down Pennsylvania Avenue. He cheapened everything he touched as presidente.g., ordered the removal of the souvenir baubles and trinkets from Air Force One that folks like to snag.
He thought he was projecting an inspiring image of thrift and cost consciousness. In fact, he led people to conclude that he was cheap, graceless, and had no sense of proportion. They thought to themselves, "He we are suffering under 'malaise,' our Armed Forces are disntegrating due to lack of spare parts, while our president is spending his time ordering the Secret Service to hide all the souvenir ashtrays on Air Force One."
Hmmm. Funny, you don't look churlish.
"Tax-hike Mike" was another nut-case who thought he was saving the world by wearing worn-out shoes, turning off all the lights in the house and clipping coupons and doing his own grocery shopping (at the Brookline Stop & Shop). He threw around his own nickels like they were manhole covers but he sure loved to collect them from everybody else (through all the fees, fines and taxes he imposed as Massachusetts governor).
I like ginger ale.
Perhaps it's just another cheap ploy to appeal to the southern redneck voter, whom he wants us to believe that he can relate to.
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