I love this guy

[Roguish Lawyer]

He's great for the GOP

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/04/dean.gop/index.html

Dean sticks to his guns, still aimed at GOP
Saturday, June 4, 2005 Posted: 12:14 PM EDT (1614 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is defending remarks he made that enraged Republican leaders this week.

"I don't hate Republicans," he said, in an interview Friday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "But I sure hate what this Republican Party is doing to America."

In a speech Thursday before a Washington conference sponsored by the "Campaign for America's Future," Dean told the audience that many Republicans "had never made an honest living in their lives."

His comments irked Republican leaders and sparked a quick response by Republican National Committee press secretary, Tracey Schmitt. In her statement, issued Thursday, she said, "Dean's priority is to generate mudslinging headlines rather than engage in substantive debate."

His speech, she added, "illustrates that the Democrat Party not only lacks leadership but is overflowing with anger."

In Friday's interview, Dean said that he did not intend his remarks to refer to the more than 50 million American people who voted for President Bush's re-election, but rather to Republican leaders whom he said do not understand the difficulties of waiting in line for eight hours to vote, as some did in Florida during the last election.

"We don't go after voters," he said. "But we do go after bad leadership," and cited the national deficit and the war in Iraq as evidence of the Republican administration's incompetence.

Thursday's comments were not the first of Dean's to generate controversy. In April, he called Republicans "mean. They are not nice people." And in May, in his first televised interview after being elected to DNC chairman, he said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should go to jail.

Dean's comments spring from scandals involving alleged illict campaign contributions and corruption revolving around DeLay. Last fall, three political fund-raisers with ties to him were indicted in his home state of Texas. Then the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times. Since then, questions have been raised about whether he knew about the dubious sources of money behind trips he took to Britain and South Korea.

Dean said Friday of his characteristically strong words, "I guess my job is to outrage the Republicans these days."

[CPTAUSRET]

Duck Fean!!

[casey]

Duck Fean!!

No, no, no...... let the brother speak Terry..... let him speak.......

[CPTAUSRET]

No, no, no...... let the brother speak Terry..... let him speak.......

casey:

You are correct, he is doing us a lot of good right now.

Lost my head, Coach!

[casey]

casey:

You are correct, he is doing us a lot of good right now.

Lost my head, Coach!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh, Speak, Howard Speakkkkkkkk...............

[brownapple]

In a speech Thursday before a Washington conference sponsored by the "Campaign for America's Future," Dean told the audience that many Republicans "had never made an honest living in their lives."

Shades of the Glenn-Metzenbaum debate years ago...

[12B4S]

He's got to be in front of every camera, microphone and reporter as often as possible, until that SAD day he's axed as Chairman of the DNC.

[Goggles Pizano]

I'm curious how this type of mudslinging is playing out in the "queen of the country" camp? I bet she is pushing to have him testing ejector seats right now! LOL! God I love watching liberals implode.

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/6/5/95119.shtml

I think it might be starting sooner than you expected.

BMT

[Martin]

In a speech Thursday before a Washington conference sponsored by the "Campaign for America's Future," Dean told the audience that many Republicans "had never made an honest living in their lives."
Shades of the Glenn-Metzenbaum debate years ago...
From my archive...

Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn: "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a 'real job'?"

Senator Glenn: "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by antiaircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the Space Program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my Life on the line. It was not a nine to five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank.

I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a Veterans Hospital and look those men - with their mangled bodies - in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job!

You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee...and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this Nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job?

I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men - SOME MEN - who held a REAL job. And they required a dedication to a purpose - and a love of country and a dedication to duty - that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I HAVE held a job, Howard! ---What about you?"

[Bravo1-3]

I actually read something in one of the local papers around here that said Howie is actually too conservative to represent the DNC. :D After I was revived, I started laughing again.

I really thought that Terry Mac was the best thing that ever happened to the GOP. Now I see the light.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Martin, that exchange is a hoax. I'm sure one of the Snopesophiles will be by with a link shortly.

[CRad]

Martin, that exchange is a hoax. I'm sure one of the Snopesophiles will be by with a link shortly.

Actually, according to snopes, the exchange is true.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/glenn.asp

[Roguish Lawyer]

Actually, according to snopes, the exchange is true.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/glenn.asp

I stand corrected.

[Roguish Lawyer]

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/060705/fundraisers.html

Fundraisers jilt Dean
By Alexander Bolton


Three top fundraisers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned at a time when its chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, has come under fire from fellow Democrats for controversial comments and his Republican counterpart has raised more than twice as much money.

Democratic sources link the resignations to Dean’s decision to focus on raising money in small increments through the Internet, as he did during his 2004 presidential bid, and building up the party’s grassroots infrastructure while paying little attention to major Democratic donors.

But other Democrats say the first several months after a party’s losing presidential campaign are naturally a time of transition and it will take time for committee officials to get their “sea legs.”
Dean’s defenders also note that DNC fundraising is ahead of where it was at this point after the last presidential election, when Democrats could still raise unlimited amounts of soft money.

The committee’s finance directors for the two biggest hubs of Democratic fundraising have quit. Bridget Siegel, finance director for New York and the surrounding area, resigned last week, and Lori Kreloff, finance director for California, left the committee last month.

A third top DNC fundraiser, Nancy Eiring, the director of grassroots fundraising, has also resigned, citing strategic differences with aides to Dean, according to a report yesterday in ABC News’ “The Note.”
Siegel told The Hill that she remained at the DNC for the first few months of the year only to help with the transition to leadership under a new chairman and that “Dean is moving the party in a great direction.” Siegel will raise money for Andrew Cuomo’s race for New York attorney general.

Kreloff has set up her own consulting firm, LBK Consulting Inc., and has signed on Maryland Senate hopeful Rep. Ben Cardin (D) as a new client. She said Dean is “doing a wonderful job building the grassroots.”

Eiring did not return a call for comment.

Democratic fundraisers say that there is growing concern over what they call Dean’s lack of attention to major donors and that donors are much less likely to give money if they don’t have sufficient opportunity to meet with the party’s leadership.

“When you don’t have the chairman to fundraise with, or any principals of the leadership, you can’t get major donors to help you,” a veteran Democratic fundraiser said. “You want the leaders of the party to sit down with them so they can discuss their plan.”

“It’s frustrating to be the staff person in charge of that group,” the fundraiser said. “No one wants to stay in a job in which they’re not successful.” The fundraiser added that New York is a competitive place to raise money and that donors often demand detailed explanations of how the money will be spent.

Dean stressed Internet fundraising at a speech he delivered in Washington last week at a “Take Back America” convention of liberal activists and strategists sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future.

In that speech, Dean said many Republicans have “never made an honest living in their lives,” a remark that has prompted criticism from Republicans and caused such Democrats as Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) to distance themselves from Dean.

Concern over Dean’s remarks has fused with concern over the party’s fundraising pace compared with that of Republicans.

Through the end of April, the DNC raised $18.2 million in total contributions, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, although DNC officials say that $18.6 million is a more accurate total.

By comparison, the Republican National Committee has raised $42.6 million, according to FEC data — more than twice as much.

The disparity comes as a shock to many Democrats who touted the ability of Democrats to match roughly the GOP’s fundraising in last year’s election.

“Governor Dean is focusing on the major donors and the grassroots fundraising,” DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. “He meets with our major donors on all the trips.”

Finney said Dean was in San Francisco on Monday and attended an event with donors there. She added that Dean was in Seattle on Sunday; Montana on Saturday; and Kansas, Missouri and Atlanta on Friday and “in each of those places [is] reaching out to the major donors as well as the grassroots.”

Finney also said Dean has raised more money by this point in the presidential election cycle than any other DNC chairman had.

Through the first three months of this year, the DNC raised $14.1 million, ahead of the pace Chairman Terry McAuliffe set in 2001, when he raised $23.5 million in the first six months of that year.

But some donors say the party’s leadership has not been clear about its policy goals.

“What would the leaders of the Democratic Party like to do five years from now?” asked Steve Kirsch, a California-based donor and founder of InfoSeek.com. “You don’t know and nobody else knows, and that’s a problem.”

However, Steve Grossman, who was DNC chairman in the 1998 election cycle, defended Dean.

“In any period of new leadership, in any organization, there’s going to be a transition, a shakedown period, and people are going to find their sea legs over a period of time,” he said.

Pointing out that Dean traveled to Boston three and a half weeks ago to speak to about 100 major donors at two events, Grossman said, “People found him to be electrifying. They’re seizing on the message,” which Grossman described as “strategic, thoughtful and tactical.”

Joe Cari, DNC finance director in 2000 and a DNC member, said Dean is “doing a great job.”

“There is a transition period,” he added. “He’s clearly finding his footing as a chairman, but it takes a while. It takes a while to get the right people in place.”

[Gypsy]

[
Joe Cari, DNC finance director in 2000 and a DNC member, said Dean is “doing a great job.”

“There is a transition period,” he added. “He’s clearly finding his footing as a chairman, but it takes a while. It takes a while to get the right people in place.”


Couldn't agree more...he's just perfect! They need to keep him....

[Manstein]

**Update on Dean's antics**

Drudgereport is reporting-

CAUGHT ON TAPE: DEM CHAIR DEAN CALLS GOP 'WHITE CHRISTIAN PARTY'

"'They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party'..."

Perhaps that will be that straw that breaks the camels back.

[Roguish Lawyer]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/07/MNdean07.TMP

In S.F., Dean calls GOP 'a white Christian party'
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."

"The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people," Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. "We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the type of people we are. But that's not enough. We do have deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities."

The comments are another example of why the former Vermont governor, who remains popular with the party's grassroots, has been a lightning rod for criticism since being elected to head the Democratic National Committee last February. His comments last week that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," which he later clarified to say Republican "leaders," were disavowed by leading Democrats including Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Dean was outspoken -- as usual -- as he trolled California this week, stoking his party's coffers, and meeting with grass-roots activists. His San Francisco visit was at the tail end of a cross-country road trip, and Dean said that he will continue to pound the pavement -- and the GOP -- to get the Democratic message across to new voters, particularly in minority communities.

But Dean's style and rhetoric have sparked increasing criticism from inside the Democratic Party in recent weeks -- and gleeful Republicans say they couldn't be happier.

"Where do I sign up on a committee to keep Howard Dean?" crowed GOP operative Jon Fleischmann, publisher of the FlashReport, a daily roundup of California political news and commentary. "He's the best thing to happen to the GOP in ages."

"I'm thrilled he's the DNC chair," says Tom Del Becarro, chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Party. "Howard Dean is scaring away the middle. People don't like angry people. They like hopeful people.''

But Simi Valley Councilman Glenn Becerra, a staffer with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Bush appointee to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, said Tuesday he was far from amused by Dean's suggestion that Republicans constitute "a white Christian party," and called the Democratic Party chairman "an embarrassment."

"I'm living proof that the (GOP) isn't what Howard Dean is trying to describe,'' Becerra said during a telephone interview. "It's a sad day when Democrats don't have any ideas to put forward, and they have to resort to race politics. President Bush didn't get 40 percent of the Hispanic vote (in 2004) because we're a monolithic, white Christian party."

Dean, speaking in a roundtable discussion Monday, downplayed the controversy over his rhetoric.

"This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough," Dean said. "We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet."

Dean said that he had been addressing the matter of Americans standing in long lines to vote.

"What I said was the Republican leadership didn't seem to care much about working people," he said. "That's essentially the gist of the quote."

Still, the words brought sharp rebukes from fellow Democrats such as Biden, who Sunday said Dean "doesn't speak for me ... and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."

Other Democrats, including Richardson, said such comments hurt Dean's effort to increase Democratic registration, contributions and votes in red states dominated by Republicans.

But Alicia Wang, a DNC member and vice-chair of the California Democratic Party, said that "if there are any criticisms, it comes out of love. It's like family."

Grassroots Democrats "love him," she said of Dean, whose roller-coaster presidential bid drew thousands of new voters and donors to the party before his defeat during the primaries. "People again and again, say, we need him to speak up ... and sound like a Democrat."

But Dean's performance -- and his problems -- have become a concern to deep pocketed donors in California, particularly Silicon Valley, which is the No. 3 ATM for political fund-raising in the country, behind New York and Los Angeles, said Wade Randlett, a key party fund-raiser in the high tech center.

"He's got himself in trouble with social commentary, and that's not what the DNC chair does," Randlett said.

"For small donors, hearing 'George Bush is bad' is enough," Randlett said. "What I'm hearing very clearly from big donors is: tell me how we'll win."

Randlett said Dean has been criticized for not quickly improving the pace of fund-raising for the party with a recent Business Week story suggesting that he has been far outpaced by Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman.

According to the story, the DNC has raised less than half of the $42.6 million raised by the RNC in the first four months of the year.

Dean, whose schedule in San Francisco Monday included the roundtable, a visit to a gay and lesbian house party, and a fund-raiser, called the report "total hooey."

"It's silliness and gossip. We're raising twice as much money as we did in 2003," Dean said. "We're raising a million dollars a week. We're doing fine."

But Republicans note Mehlman wrapped up this third trip as chairman to California last week, and trumpeted an aggressive schedule in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Jose and Sacramento that included hitting Hispanic small business events in Santa Ana, addressing African American voters and women's groups.

"(Ken's) an operative, a tactician," said Fleischman, of FlashReport. "Dean is a politician."

Randlett said he hopes and expects party leaders will soon "have a sit-down" with Dean over his message "that we're smarter than they are, and we ought to be running the country."

It's an approach that appears "shrill, angry and dismissive of all things Republican," Randlett said.

Garry South, a leading Democratic strategist, said of Dean, "the only thing we can hope is that he understands the difference from being a shadow president to being the head of the party when we're out of office."

His job is to "get the Democratic Party ready for the next election," South said. But "if he views himself as the public face of the Democratic Party, then we have a problem."

Dean says the criticism doesn't bother him.

"I'm used to it. Look, this is a tough job. But it's not as tough as running for president."

In His Own Words

Here are some Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean's comments while speaking this week with minority community leaders and journalists at a roundtable in San Francisco:

On Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Gov. Schwarzenegger has been a big disappointment to a lot of Californians ... Americans are tired of politicians that break their promise, especially in an area like educatio ... so I think there's going to be a lot of questions about whether the governor really cares about average Californians."

On Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the Minutemen: "This is why I don't agree that there's no difference between Republicans and Democrat ... you would never have heard a Democrats talk like that ... I think the Republicans are always like this. I remember (former Republican Gov.) Pete Wilson ... got elected by victimizing immigrants. Republicans always divide people."

On illegal immigration: "(Democrats) understand we have a border problem. But we think that if you enforce the laws you already have, the people who are already here ... they haven't broken any laws, they paid their taxes, a lot of them are paying into the Social Security system and getting nothing. Those people ought to be on a reasonable track toward citizenship."

On past promises by Democratic officials to minority communities: "It does make a difference that we now have senior management that is African American (and minority) ... which means we're not going to have the white boys' club make all the decision anymore. Everybody's going to be included."

On San Francisco politics: "It's always a pleasure to come to San Francisco because I don't look so liberal when I come to San Francisco."

On the Democrats' strategy for the 2008: "We're trying to resurrect this party. We're going to be in every state. You're not going to see any 18-state strategies. We're going to be in places like Mississippi and Kansas and Idaho. We're going to be in the Republican counties of California from now on; we're not going to try to win by getting San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley ... we're not going to sit around anymore. We are going to fight back. We haven't been fighting back."

[12B4S]

:cool: