Mood:
spaceyTopic: Lib Loser Stories
In the latest Dean rambling, he suggested that Kerry lost Florida because Dems have to work and Republicans do not have to earn a living. This article is full of good stuff including a rebuke of Hillary by Arianna Huffington.
<<<<< DNC Howard Dean made some strong statement about the GOP at a Campaign for America's Future gathering.
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Dean: GOP has 'dark, difficult and dishonest' vision
WASHINGTON — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean advised party activists Thursday to reach out to evangelicals and voters in all 50 states, but then risked alienating potential GOP converts by suggesting many Republicans don't work for "an honest living."
Dean's comment came as he recalled conditions at crowded Ohio polling stations last fall. He wondered who could expect voters to work all day and then stand in line for eight hours to vote. "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives," he said, drawing some surprised "oohs" from his audience.
Most of Dean's speech at the "Take Back America" conference here was met with whoops, cheers and standing ovations as he attacked Republicans for "the culture of corruption and the abuse of power" in Washington, and accused the Bush administration of ignoring corporate "stealing" of pensions canceled during bankruptcy proceedings.
Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called the "honest living" comment "mudslinging" and scored Dean for attacking the work ethic of "the record number of hardworking Americans who voted for President Bush." Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said Dean was referring to "Republican politicians and Republican leadership, not hardworking American people."
Dean's remark was the latest in a string of provocative comments that Democratic strategists say fire up activists but complicate the job of expanding the party. "He's got a lot of pluses, and he fires off the occasional errant missile," consultant David Axelrod said.
Axelrod and other Democrats counted Thursday's incident as a missile. "That kind of language doesn't exactly improve our chances of making the case" to Republicans that they should vote Democratic, he said. Mike McCurry, a strategist for John Kerry's 2004 campaign and the Clinton White House, said Dean was making a point about "the pressures on working people." But he added, "Class warfare usually doesn't get us very far."
Matt Bennett, spokesman for the Democratic centrist group Third Way, called the comment "a poor choice of words." Still, he said, "I can't think of a single instance in which an utterance by a party chair has really had a huge impact on an election."
The spectacle amused some Republicans. "Watching a Howard Dean speech is a little like people who go to a NASCAR race to see a crash," said Ed Gillespie, a former Republican Party chairman. He watched Thursday's speech live on C-SPAN and "I just thought, there he goes again."
Tony Fabrizio, another GOP strategist, said Dean is the one who's out of touch with people's real concerns: "He's ranting and raving about Republicans not having held real jobs. It's hatred, hatred and more hatred."
Marc Hetherington, a Vanderbilt University political scientist, called Dean "the party chairman for our times," polarized times that began in the 1990s with the ascent of Newt Gingrich to House speaker. He said Republicans, if they were out of power, would want "somebody who stirs the pot, who gets attention, who speaks to the ideologues that fund the party." In short, somebody much like Dean.
USA Today ~ Jill Lawrence ** Dean: GOP has 'dark, difficult and dishonest' vision
