Howard Dean, rebel firebrand turned Democratic Party head (branded radical leftist)

Yahoo News ^ | 2/12/05

[Libloather]

Howard Dean, rebel firebrand turned Democratic Party head
1 hour, 19 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Howard Dean, the outspoken medical doctor whose run for the Democratic presidential nomination last year spectacularly flared and burned out, surprised fans and foes alike by taking the leadership of the Democratic Party.

As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he assumes responsibility for a party much-chagrined after ceding two presidential races and control of Congress to rival Republicans, and unsure how to define itself to voters.

Branded a radical leftist by his opponents and distrusted by the party's powerful Washington old guard, Dean is now tasked with reinvigorating Democrats and delivering more victories in the elections of 2006 and 2008.

The blunt campaigner of last year's primaries will now need reserve, tact, and disciplined management to expand the party's voter base, refill its warchests, and halt a decade of Republican electoral success.

But Dean, an unrepentant nonconformist, could change the rules of the political game. He has made it clear that he will be less mute than his predecessors, who were more backroom party managers than crafters of the party's political stance.

"I don't think it's possible to stifle your opinions," Dean was quoted as saying in the Washington Post recently.

The stocky, easily smiling 56-year-old paid dearly last year for his forthrightness. His unnuanced opposition to the US invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) and to the Bush government's tax cuts put him at odds with the more compromising party leadership.

Ultimately, it was his heavily televised primal scream after one disastrous primary that killed his chances for the nomination.

But when the more compromising John Kerry's loss to President George W. Bush in November left the party leadership chastened, Dean discretely lobbied local party branches around the country to support him to be DNC chairman.

The move dumbfounded the consultants, bureaucrats and money-men in Washington who normally called the shots at party headquarters.

Born a child of privilege to a prominent stockbroker in New York in 1948, Dean was already rebellious as a youth. He studied medicine, married a classmate, Judith Steinberg, and the two doctors set up a family medical practice in the liberal northeastern state of Vermont. They have two children.

Dean entered politics in 1982 and became Vermont's governor in 1991, holding the post until he resigned last year to contest the Democratic presidential nomination.

Despite his leftist image, as governor he cleaned up state finances and ensured that most Vermonters had health insurance or subsidized health care. A hunter, he also defended the right of people to own guns.

But in the presidential race, most attention fell on his pioneering move to give same-sex couples the right to enter into civil unions, and on his opposition to the Iraq war.

Now, with the Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, he is being counted on to unite the Democrats and make the party attractive to more voters.

"What is needed is a clear differentiation between the parties," said John Siegel, a law professor in Washington who also advises the Democrats.

"Dean might be someone who could provide clear distinctiveness, so that could be good," Siegel said.

Dean has already moved to redefine the Democrat image.

"They focus on things like gay rights and abortion," Dean said of the Republicans in a January television interview. "We need to focus on things that most Americans care about," like helping the disadvantaged, improving education, and enabling more people to get health insurance.

"That's how you win elections," he said.

He has promised to methodically retake the political terrain lost to the Republicans, not only in the 2006 congressional elections and the 2008 presidential poll.

Dean says the Democrats will fight at all levels, hoping to reconquer politics at the county and state level, before retaking Washington.

[Libloather]

And to top it all off, Yahoo put this piece in the Celebrity/Entertainment section...

[standupfortruth]

I particularly enjoyed the part where he early on expressed his rebellious nature by showing his rich stockbroker dad by becoming a rich doctor dad! ROFLMAO

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Never, ever underestimate the extent of the tyranny which can be imposed in the name of something called "the public health."

[SkyPilot]

"They focus on things like gay rights and abortion," Dean said

Who is They Kemosabe? It is the Democrats and Liberals who are going around the nation getting "married" and throwing it in everyone's face. It is the Democrats who think abortion is a sacrament. It is the Democrats who have sought to use to courts as a star chamber for to construct their Utopia.

[verity]

The party symbol should now be that of a 'braying' jackass.

[stopem]

This will probably get to be entertaining if nothing more. LOL

[Rummyfan]

Howard Dean, the outspoken medical doctor whose run for the Democratic presidential nomination last year spectacularly flared and burned out

Who is Howard Dean? That he was ever the Democratic Presidential frontrunner was totally a media creation, as it was before, well before, a single primary vote was cast. The media then proceeded to destroy him via THE SCREAM. How many votes did he collect through the primaries? Did he even get five percent? Now he will head the DNC. He should be great entertainment. He was governor of a teeny, tiny ultra-lib ultra-Blue state and has as much in common with the United States on a national scale as Pelosi of Bernie Sanders does.

[MisterRepublican]

"Branded a radical leftist by his opponents and distrusted by the party's powerful Washington old guard..."

That's not true! The Democrats are comlpetely UNITED behind Dean, just as they are UNITED about everything else.

This analysis brought to you from Bizarro World.

[CLS]

radical leftist? No let's call the spade a spade --- he is a COMMUNIST. They simply call themselves 'progressive democrats' today and jeer at the use of the word communist.

Come to think of it, "Communist" could be viewed positively in comparison to these "progressive democrats". At least the communists were honest and open about their philosophies and unafraid to admit them. The deans, clintons, kennedys, kerrys of our country have not said one honest phrase in the past 30 years as to WHO they are and WHAT their goals are.

[conservativeharleyguy]

ONE RANT COMING UP:

"Branded a radical leftist by his opponents"???

I believe that the proper way of expressing that would be: "EXPOSED as a radical leftist by his opponents" (just in time, I would say).

Just a matter of perspective (right or left).

However, the news is supposed to be free of perspective from either direction, and in the immortal words of Sgt. Joe Friday, should contain "Just the facts ma'am".

Yahoo news is just old-stream leftist message in a slick new media package.

They cherry-pick and recycle the usual drivel from the usual sources.

Just look at their bylines; Reuters, AP, UPI, BBC, etc.

Then take it with a very LARGE grain of salt.

As far as YAHOO posting it into the Celebrity?Entertainment section.

Simply another reinforcement of my theory of "Conservative Constituency" vs "Liberal Fan Mentality".

Liberals vote like groupies ("I like his hair", "He's so handsome", "He plays the saxophone", "She's nice", "I hear he as a big di**", etc.). It's essentially an emotional response.

Conservatives vote for principles ("Abortion is murder", "I'm paying too many taxes for too little return", "It's about character and integrity, not sex", "It's illegal dammit", etc.). It's a reasoned, principle-based response, and that's why when conservative politicians step outside of the lines on what their constituents' values are based on, we put them out of office ASAP. Because the values count.

And conversely, it's why liberals will excuse and justify just about any bad behavior. They can't simply admit that they fell in love with a shithead, because then they'd have to look at what screwed up part of themselves made them do something that dumb. Who wants to do that anyway, when all they have to do is just elect someone to make them feel good about their own patchoulli-reeking, washed-up paleohippy selves?

[TheGeezer]

But Dean, an unrepentant nonconformist, could change the rules of the political game. He has made it clear that he will be less mute than his predecessors, who were more backroom party managers than crafters of the party's political stance.[emphasis added]

I love it.

"I don't think it's possible to stifle your opinions," Dean was quoted as saying in the Washington Post recently.

I love it even more.

[Smartaleck]

Clowns are entertaining are they not?

[Smartaleck]

"They focus on things like gay rights and abortion," Dean said
"Who is They Kemosabe?"

Clinton politics rule #1. Accuse your adversary of doing the very thing you've been doing.

[SkyPilot]

Clinton politics rule #1. Accuse your adversary of doing the very thing you've been doing.

Amen.

"I am tired of hearing the Republican talk about 'values.' We have values!"

Bill Clinton, addressing the Democratic National Convention, 15 July 1992.

[hinckley buzzard]

"Ultimately, it was his heavily televised primal scream after one disastrous primary that killed his chances for the nomination."

Here's why we should never take hack writers seriously. This sentence should read,

"After an all-out maximum effort ended ignominiously in a disastrous primary defeat in Iowa, a humiliated and financially drained Dean never recovered his standing as media darling-of-the-month."

[woofie]

"....and our values include Monica"

[Arnold Zephel]