Robert Novak: Dean's holiday gaffes have Democrats worried

Union Leader ^ | 1/05/04 | Robert D. Novak

[kattracks]

STEVE MURPHY, Rep. Richard Gephardt’s campaign manager, last week professed to being baffled. How is it possible, he wondered, that Howard Dean’s bizarre comments about Osama bin Laden attracted so little news media attention? The answer is that apart from being obscured by the holiday season, the Democratic presidential front-runner’s words got lost in his own stream of unusual remarks.

Dean’s post-Christmas comments that he could not suggest a penalty for the terrorist leader and author of the 9/11 catastrophe until he was judged guilty had no time to sink in before he began saying things that stunned his party’s faithful. He sniped at Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe for not protecting him from the party’s other candidates, and warned of his 1.5 million supporters defecting if any other Democrat is nominated for president.

Dean’s holiday performance reflects the yearlong pattern by the former governor of Vermont. To characterize Dean’s remarks as leftist tilt that can and will be corrected by a quick pivot to the center is a faulty diagnosis of the doctor’s disease. James Carville last week summed up the Dean problem: “He seems to not appreciate the glory of the unspoken thought.”

For Carville to make this comment on national television gets the attention of Democrats, including Dean and his campaign staff. Carville, making no pretense at objectivity, is a passionate partisan emotionally committed to George W. Bush’s defeat. As architect of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election victory, he is in demand for party functions nationwide and a vigorous fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Carville, neutral in the race for the presidential nomination, rarely speaks ill of a fellow Democrat. But he did on CNN’s “Crossfire” last Monday: “I’m scared to death that this guy just says anything. It feels like he’s undergone some kind of a political lobotomy here.”

Maria Echaveste, a Dean adviser who was President Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, sat across the table from Carville looking like a deer caught in the headlights. “Not every candidate ends up being President from the day he walks out there,” she said. “They mature. And this is what this man is doing.” Off camera, she suggested Dean needs a little rest.

Being overworked is a poor excuse for Dean’s holiday gaffes. They began Friday before last when the Concord Monitor published an astonishing interview with Dean. After reiterating that capturing Saddam Hussein did not make America safer, he asserted in regard to Osama bin Laden that “we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.” Dean usually will not budge from his bloopers, but his staff was so shaken by this that on Friday he tried backing away. He told the Associated Press he advocated the “death penalty” for bin Laden under “the rule of law.”

Two days later in a Sunday meeting with reporters in Iowa, Dean was even more puzzling. Scolding McAuliffe for not protecting him from other candidates, he said: “If Ron Brown were the chairman, this wouldn’t be happening.” As DNC chairman in 1992, Brown did not lift a finger as other candidates savaged front-runner Bill Clinton.

In the same Sunday session, Dean warned that “if I don’t win the nomination,” his million and a half supporters are “certainly not going to vote for a conventional Washington politician.” Echaveste found it difficult to explain these outbursts.

Yet, the most disturbing of Dean’s holiday gaffes came before Christmas. Answering a questionnaire from the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, asking his “closest living relative in the armed services,” Dean listed his brother Charles — actually neither alive nor ever a military veteran. He disappeared at age 23 in 1974 while visiting Laos as an anti-war civilian as part of a world tour, and his body was discovered last month.

I asked Maria Echaveste off camera Monday why the governor would make such a mistake. “That’s an old story,” she replied. While there is no statute of limitations on gaffes, this one appeared in print only Dec. 14. What bothers James Carville and other loyal Democrats about their prospective nominee is what this pattern portends for the future.

To find out more about Robert D. Novak and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

[Fledermaus]

Oh who cares?

If the Democrats weren't such whores, one of them among the 9 dwarves would just come out and tell the truth: Howard Dean is a psychotic moron. He's insane.

But they won't because they need the "viability" when/if Dean wins the nomination. And if that happens they'll line up to wear knee pads and "Monica" him.

If our country is so far gone that one of these idiots actually beat Bush, then I'll join the terrorist myself since the US will truly be the Great Satan.

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[goody2shooz]

Boy, have the Democrats got a real mental case wanting to be their candidate, or what?

[billorites]

"Off camera, she suggested Dean needs a little rest."

Maybe a little quiet time at the Retreat.

[Ronin]

He's a Capt. Qweeg.

[Iowa Granny]

a nice listing of "Deanisms".

[samtheman]

This is the first thing of Novak's I've read since he committed his act of treason against the United States a month or so ago. Although this is a fairly straight-forward piece, I couldn't help thinking, why do we need Novak to write this kind of thing? Aren't there others who can do this kind of political reporting? Why do we need Novak at all?

I can't look at his name, or read any of his words, without the single phrase being repeated over and over in my head: Novak's a traitor, Novak's a traitor, Novak's a traitor.

[Diogenesis]

Hey Mr. Novak, what did you say?

As an American traitor, who did you expose today?

[Yak]

Novak's a traitor, Novak's a traitor, Novak's a traitor.

For those of us less well informed, please explain.

[mylife]

Go Howie!!

Gosh this guy is such fun to watch.

What a Marooon.

[samtheman]

He printed the name given to him in a private conversation, a name that was identified to him (rightly or wrongly) as a "CIA operative" and then he stood at his sanctimonious "freedom of the press" podium and denied doing anything wrong. How it is "freedom of the press" to expose CIA operatives --- even if it turns out later, much later, after the fact, that they may in fact be very low-level or even merely desk-workers? He's always been an uncertain conservative, in my opinion, more of a cranky little man than anything else, and then he played the traitor gambit, and sticks by it with sanctimonious self-righteousness.

Well, there. I've convinced myself. I won't be reading anything more with his name on it.

[spodefly]

If our country is so far gone that one of these idiots actually beat Bush, then I'll join the terrorist myself since the US will truly be the Great Satan.

The fact that Al Sharpton is actually 1/9th of the Democrat disease attempting to gain the Presidency already puts us in the category of "far gone". And you are right -- if any of the current field (with the possible exception of Lieberman) gets into the White House, this country is doomed.

[DainBramage]

“As DNC chairman in 1992, Brown did not lift a finger as other candidates savaged front-runner Bill Clinton. .”

At the time Brown was quoted as saying, "I need to help Clinton like I need a hole in the head".

[mombonn]

“They mature. And this is what this man is doing.” Off camera, she suggested Dean needs a little rest.

Imagine if a Bush advisor had uttered the same comments, either before or after he was elected!

[OldFriend]

All the media, including those on FNC, treat Sharpton with courtesy and respect. They ignore his unsavory history, his ugly racism, his inciting to riot that left several people dead, his hatefilled anti-semitic rants........

Our own Sean Hannity bowed down and kissed 'the reverend's' feet during an interview not that long ago.

The entire media is condoning this hatemonger's actions. One wonders at the hysteria if the republicans welcomed David Duke to their side in a primary and gave him all due respect.

How long ago was it that Trent Lott was pilloried for his comments at Strom Thermond's birthday party.

[camle]

give him some cheese. he seems to already have a good whine...

[TUX]

The problem for Carvile, McAwful, and all the other Toon hit men is how to knock off Deano "The Mouth" and get their hands on his internet contributor list.

Cueball's comments are the first of many to come from the Toon cabal.

Its all about money, stupid.

[nutmeg]

read later

[TUX]

Black man with Rev. in front of his name gets a press pass reguardless of his black history.

Just ask Shakedown Jesse, Sharpton's role model.