CNN has been bashing Dean all day in a continuous loop. From what I hear, Biden’s office is being inundated with letters and calls. The staffers are answering the phone by begging callers not to yell at them. Nice going Joey.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Man, thats one rough letter!
That “Hanity and Biden” line was brutal. I think I’m going to rip it off next time I go up against a Biden booster.
See.. That’s why I miss New Hampshire so much.. People there are wicked honest!
(I’m from Mass…)
We only have to look at Biden’s bankruptcy bill vote to know where his loyalties are and they are certainly not with us. That’s the reason for the concerted attack of centrist types on Dean.
OT: Through the graciousness of SusanHu, I had the pleasure of meeting Howard Dean last Sunday evening. I’ve been contemplating whether or not to write about it and how to write about it. Look for something on this soon.
You said: “concerted attack of centrist types on Dean”
Dean is the most sensibly centrist in the party. Biden, Lieberman, et. al. seem to be selectively centrist.
Personally, I wouldn’t classify Dean as a centrist. He doesn’t advocate moving to the centre. Rather, he advocates sensible positions and reasonable compromise solutions on minor issues. To me, ‘centrist’ means people like Al From, the Clintons, etc. who keep racing rightwards in a vain attempt to keep themselves comfortably between the two parties.
Good morning! I tried to comment last night, but when I hit post, I got kicked off the site – and even my book-marked link wouldn’t get me back in.
Good points (that I find myself sandwiched between, here). Sounds like I may have been misusing the term centrist, when I meant moderate. (Unless, of course, you consider my use of “moderate” lacking in appropriateness as well 🙂
I personally do not view Howard as a liberal. NRA support, etc. (and okay, ya got me there, because at 6:00 a.m. I can’t think of the “etceteras” to which I refer.)
Anyway – now that I’m back in, I’m going to revisit the HoHo picture and link you posted earlier. Good day!
Moderate actually seems to work pretty well. He’s definitely not liberal across the board, but he also doesn’t dismiss liberal positions out of hand. He’s willing to engage in discussion about them.
they are corporate.
Howard is liberal where it counts IMO, anti unjust war, he understood that NCLB was bad legislation.
He even convinced me that a balanced budget was a liberal ideal.
If Biden needs some idea of how to help the party I am sure that Dean would be happy to advise him.
Please do write about your experiences. I’ve been a huge fan since his great speech to the DNC (?) back in 2003 (?)
Here’s a pic: http://photos1.blogger.com/img/258/2008/640/Dartmouth_III.jpg
Dean had just finished a great speech at Dartmouth College, telling the students to run for office themselves. It was quite a speech, but that’s not unusual. 😉
I’m the short one with all the buttons. I was handing Kerry stickers out to students on Nov. 1, long after Dean dropped out of the race. The sticker-accepters outnumbered the sticker-rejecters by about 4 to 1, in NH. It gave me hope for Nov. 2, but alas, what might have been. I wouldn’t have been thrilled with Kerry, but at least we would not now be in Iraq. 🙁
The taller woman is a NH state rep in the seacoast district, who wasn’t a Dean-dozen, because she jumped into the race too late. She was a write-in for the primary and WON, which put her on the ballot for the general, which she also won. Not bad for a newbie Democrat against an incumbent Republican in NH… It was actually her picture, I just wormed my way into it.
Oops! I accidentally cut the first line, which said:
Please diary your experience with Dean! I’ve met him a couple of times, but never for long.
WOW! That is SO cool! Thank you!
(as I melt at the thought of getting to be that close to HoHo :^)
Since when were “average Joes” clamoring for MBNA relief? Which people from middle America put MBNA rights high on their list of priorities?
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.: CAREER PROFILE (SINCE 1989)
Top Contributors
1 MBNA Corp $214,050
RESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Top Contributors
1 MBNA Corp $240,675
So, it only take $200,000 – 250,000 to buy influence.
Interesting. So we can buy our country back, one Congresscritter at a time.
Delaware has 435 precincts. About $535 from each precinct collected by a single organization should get the organization a seat at the table, right?
But that might just raise the price MBNA was charged.
Okay, I’ll beg.
PLEASE, please, PLEASE write something about your meeting with our hero, Dr. Howard Dean.
to beg you to write about your meeting with Dean, either! C’mon!
I do wish, though, that people wouldn’t tell at the staffers. That just plays into the ‘Dean supporters are angry lunatics’ meme. (though I am angry and pretty much a lunatic, too :)..).
Maybe it’s the internet format, but it’s unfortunate that many people become accustomed to responding with the equivalent of road rage. Not the most effective means, in my view.
that’s ‘yell’ at the staffers…spellcheck is my friend…
Makes perfect sense to me. My rule of thumb has been to give the staffers the benefit of the doubt – the person answering the phones probably has as much influence over the congress critter as a blade of grass does over a lawnmower. Hence, I treat staffers respectfully and only ask that they reciprocate.
Well, there you go being all reasonable and shit. Clearly, when Dear Leader Dean is involved, a herd mentality is much more desirable.
(I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
naturally. Pandering for political gain.
As 2008 approaches, he’ll probably come out for No Child Left Behind and Star Wars missile defense.
Maybe they’re all piling on Dean because they know he’s the only one who can light a fire under the party and blow them out of the race for the nomination.
People have been trashing Dean ever since the primaries. The technique has worked in the past..but one thing it tells me is that the opposition is scared shitless of Dean. For good reason? 😉
If I were Dean I might pound away at the opposition by calling them afraid and telling everyone exactly how they are afraid.
I’m not a strategist so that might be a horrible idea but I would think Dean’s people should think of something to turn the tables on them and put them on the defensive…. and since it’s using their own violence against them it would be a great zen-like move
The technique has worked in the past.
I think you’re absolutely right. These chumps are so tied in with our braindead national media that they think it’s still cool to dump on Dean. It’s exactly like those Time cover stories or New York Times “style” (hahaha) features for “breaking” new trends that no 5th grader would be caught dead indulging in anymore.
Still, let’s be upbeat and look on the bright side. This is one of the darkest years our nation has ever faced, yet it’s also seen the bitter end of the presidential campaigns of Frist, Coleman and, now, Biden. Maybe it hasn’t been such a bad year after all.
I think you may have something there. Nothing damages the swaggering image of a bully more than exposing his/her cowardice.
That implies two different threats–Dean the person, and the possibility of a popular movement forming its own consensus that neither media nor power structures shape and control.
Dean also talked about breaking up large media companies.
That pretty much sealed his fate in my opinion.
Dean & Reid are on C-Span2 @8:15 p.m.:
http://tinyurl.com/b6mm7
Give ’em hell, Howard (however, I perceive that he’ll be apologetic and on the defensive w/Reid).
Arrrgh.
to raise dollars specifically from people like me, that want the DNC to know I am contributing for REFORM. And that if they don’t give me reform, but Biden and Lieberman, they will lose my $$. I’m behind Howard Dean and his agenda, 100%.
If this is the message you want to send as well, then join me in contributing here: http://www.actblue.com/list/deanocrats+united
Thanks,
Joani
He might be the worst politician in America, in fact (because he gets just enough support to cause trouble). I’m a longtime detractor of Dean, and I haven’t changed my mind about that. In fact, the silver lining (I thought) of his DNC chairmanship was that he promised not to run for prez in ’08 if he got the job. (Sounds like many of you would be only too glad to let him off the hook…sigh)
But I would probably support Dean before I’d support Biden (and that’s really saying something). I hate Joe Biden worse than a lot of Republicans, ever since he pushed through the so-called “Anti-Rave Act”. I like a good rave as much as the next guy; but it’s so much worse that that. This law puts a chill on concerts and nightlife generally, as a club owner can get into serious legal hot water if his or her bouncers don’t manage to keep out every single joint, hit of acid or X, etc. And Biden had the gall to use the conference committee on the Amber Alert legislation to insert this as an amendment so it would be almost impossible to be voted down. That motherfucker!!
Alan
Maverick Leftist
I hadn’t heard about this imbroglio at all, and I just did a little research. Good for Edwards and Richardson for distancing themselves from Dean’s gaffes (though I guess Deaniacs are bombarding Edwards and putting him between a rock and a hard place). Some of what he says is true, but impolitic. Other stuff doesn’t make sense. How can Dean now be claiming that Republicans are not the party of the working class, when in fact the white working class went for Bush overwhelmingly, and Dean himself was bemoaning the way this group got suckered by the GOP and their “God, guns and gays” crap?
Alan
Maverick Leftist
Did you read Dean’s actual quotes, or just the reporting on them? What Dean said was that most Republicans have not done an honest day’s work in their lives. Very, very few people are going to connect “Republican” with “Republican voter”. What they are going to do is connect “Republican” with “Republican politician”. Even among conservatives, very few self-id as Republican! What Dean was doing here was trying to destroy the image of the Republicans as the “working man’s party”, a party composed of “ordinary guys”. He was making a head-on attack on the image of GWB as a guy you can toss back a six-pack with.
What, exactly, is your problem with this? From your comment, you seem to think that we should allow the Republicans to define themselves as the party of the working man. Is this true?
What I am saying is that currently, the Republicans are the party of the white working class (except for the dwindling percentage of hardcore unionists). They’re also the party of extremely rich people, and that’s an odd combo I’d agree, but the fact remains that the white working class (that is, whites without college degrees) voted for Bush by huge margins name=ViewWeb&articleId=9240 as Ruy Texeira has pointed out. Democrats are the party of minorities and highly educated whites. Sure, I wish our appeal was broader, but I just think Dean, in that comment (which was clearly about Republican voters not politicians, since he was talking about standing in line to vote), was stuck in a time warp from the days of Rockefeller Republicans (like his father).
Alan
Maverick Leftist
to see you have your priorities straight.
Sorry, I guess you’ll have to spell it out for me.
Alan
Maverick Leftist
That’s a wonderful letter to Biden. I’ve always loathed his pompous smarmy self. A most theraputic read. Many thanks
But, the writer gets to the heart of the matter…
There is something to that Hannity and Biden line. Biden, and others need to know they are being played. Some do know, but we Democrats have always, always been bad about “well, you have a point” allowances. We may be fairer but we hurt ourselves. And the criticism needs to stay behind closed doors. Don’t let the media and the other side play us like this.
Biden apparently just does this, he can’t help smoozing up the media, or letting his ego overtake what’s really important.
Surprised to see YOU posting this, BooMan? I thought Biden was your boy…
All of this imbroglio, and the discussion on your open thread poll on ‘who you supported’, points out the most obvious, and depressing, reality about this party right now. We are HOPELESSLY divided amongst ourselves. Innumberable factions and divisions, all of which are also highlighted by the terrible situation in PA re Casey/Penacchio. Where is the LEADER? Who is the UNITER? Who can bring this increasingly dysfunctional ‘coalition’ party back into coherence and cohesion?
I’ll tell you who it is NOT. It is NOT Hilary Clinton. It is obviously NOT Howard Dean (whom I love, personally, but who has proven himself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be far too intemperate for the white-hot national spotlight). It is NOT John Kerry– he ran an incompetent campaign and should not get another serious chance.
What about John Edwards? Resume too skimpy? What about Evan Bayh? Too DLC for the netroots? How about someone from off the radar screen, like Gavin Newsome or Harold Ford?
We obviously need to get our own house in order before worrying about ’08.