Mood:
spaceyTopic: Lib Loser Stories
Howard Dean Again Ratchets up Anti-Bush Rhetoric
Source: Cybercast News Service
Despite being scolded in June by members of his own party for inflammatory remarks targeting Republicans, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean Friday showed no willingness to back off.
At one point, he characterized the Republican version of campaign finance reform as "screwing working people and making sure that the fat cats are giving more money."
Back in June, Dean accused Republicans of operating with a "dark, difficult and dishonest vision" of America. Dean labeled President Bush the "most ineffective" president in his lifetime.
And in referring to the long voting lines during the last presidential election, Dean speculated that Republican voters didn't mind the lines as much. "Republicans, I guess, can do that (stand in line) because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives," Dean said on June 2.
Several Democratic governors and members of Congress denounced Dean's comments, but on Friday, the Democratic Party chairman was back to hurling insults.
President Bush "only likes to hear from people who agree with him," Dean told the College Democrats of America, and Republicans, he said, "are all about voter suppression."
After asking the students to donate money to the Democratic National Committee, Dean said "one of the biggest problems in this culture of corruption that the Republicans brought to Washington, is they sold our government to the highest bidder.
"If we want it back, we'll have to buy it back," Dean said.
He also said the president was partly responsible for a recent Supreme Court decision involving eminent domain.
"The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is," Dean said, not mentioning that until he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court this week, Bush had not appointed anyone to the high court.
Dean's reference to the "right-wing" court was also erroneous. The four justices who dissented in the Kelo vs. New London case included the three most conservative members of the court - Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the fourth dissenter.
The court's liberal coalition of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer combined with Justice Anthony Kennedy to form the majority opinion, allowing the city of New London, Conn., to use eminent domain to seize private properties for commercial development.
"We think that eminent domain does not belong in the private sector. It is for public use only," Dean said.
The former Vermont governor cited moral values as the stamp of the Democratic Party.
"We are Democrats because we have moral values," Dean said. "We think it's a moral value to stop stealing money out of the Social Security trust fund." The Democratic Party's moral values, according to Dean, also include an obligation "to balance the budget," and have a "strong public education system."
The Democratic Party chairman suggested that Bush should be "reaching out and putting a collar and a mouthpiece on some of these people in his own party that are encouraging bigotry against immigrants in order to win the 2006 election.
"I am sick of being divided!" Dean shouted over the applause.
Regarding his support for Bob Casey, the pro-life Democrat running for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, Dean said that "we ought to respect people's positions of conscience."
"A pro-life Democrat, unlike a pro-life Republican, cares about kids after they're born, not just before," Dean said.
He closed by encouraging the College Democrats to "fight for what you believe in ... We don't need two Republican parties," Dean said.
Townhall.com ~ CNSNews.com ** Howard Dean Again Ratchets up Anti-Bush Rhetoric
