Posted on 06/09/2005 9:59:33 PM PDT by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON, June 9 - Just four months into his tenure as chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean has found himself on unforgiving - if familiar - terrain. As he visited Capitol Hill on Thursday, he faced a growing number of critics and received a private scolding from leading members of his party for several derogatory remarks he has made about Republicans in recent weeks.
Republicans have attacked him with glee for those remarks, which they have described as "below the belt," while Democrats have struggled to defend him yet have quietly acknowledged that Dr. Dean was showing signs of being as polarizing as they once feared.
"I've always been very cautious and careful to deal with my Democratic friends, my independent friends, my enlightened Republican friends, so I'm very concerned about anything that is unnecessarily divisive," said Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a Democrat in a red state, after attending a closed-door lunch with Dr. Dean in a conference room near the Senate floor.
Mr. Nelson was among those who admonished Dr. Dean, a former governor of Vermont, in private, cautioning him not to risk alienating Republicans with personal insults of the kind he delivered last week, when he said that many "of them have not made an honest living in their lives." Dr. Dean has tossed several other sweeping barbs at Republicans in recent days, saying that the party is made up only of white Christian conservatives who are intolerant of diversity and that he hates what they represent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The people with the money on the Democrap Party will not let Dean be removed. The MSM is stuck with him; maybe his shtick will work, who knows?
(Cough, cough)
Um, glee? What glee?
(Yeeeoooowwww! Dean's better than Teresa Heinz!)
Maybe his purpose is to make Hillary! look better by comaprison to the 15% in the middle.
Dean could be a decoy, maybe they'll can him in time for the mid-term elections...he'll make almost any successor look reasonable.
But that theory would assume that the Dems know what they're doing.
The same people that are ripping Dean have said similar if not worst things themselves, Now they take the high ground?
If so, he's doing a great job as Hillary waddles toward the middle. But his Deaniac internet followers that coughed up all that money in his 2004 presidential campaign bid must feel like suckers.
Let's see, Dean and Nancy Pelosi were waxing religious beliefs right after the elections! Hillary has become Evangelical!! There is no low for these scum!
I think its part of a larger pattern and whole "Dean is a loose cannon" thing is a ploy. To some extent its working, Howie is getting a lot more airtime than any party leader I can recall, especially in a non-election year. The messages are intended to stir things up, Reid has been playing the same game. I think its a garbled attempt to impersonate McCain's straight talk style, or maybe even the old "any press is good press". Perhaps they've finally learned that boring mushy types like Daschle just werent effective. I cant believe that a guy who saw his entire campaign fall apart over a yelp would ever speak in public again without carefully measuring the potential impact of what he says.
Achems Razor - Dean is simply nuts.
NYT's trying desperately to find a way to slam Melhman and this is the best they can do? LOL!
Our Guy is brilliant and sane. Yours is not.
Anyway, I disagree with some people.
I think the Dems & MSM love what he's saying. I know they believe what he is saying. But I think they want him gone.
Dean has never been embraced by the inner sphere of the Dem leadership. They are trying to kick him out without calling for resignation to avoid retaliation by the activists that elected Dean across the country.
Real question is who has more power? Grasroots activists, or MSM and Dem Washington establishment?
The Times is still trying to put their best spin on it.
"and that he hates what they represent."
If I recall (correct me if I am wrong) Dean said, "I hate Republicans. I hate everything they stand for." Not I hate what they represent.
He said he hates Republicans. He hates what they stand for. He hates what he considers the party of white Christians. He hates me, because I am a white Christian.
If he can't control himself, he can't control the country!
It seems Dean is getting the nutz at DU fighting with each Dean's the man! LoL!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1535369
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