Author: floridagal

Just a few random thoughts from Ryan Lizza’s TNR article last year.  I found this article fascinating. She has quite an organization, one seems almost impervious to the dangers of attacks by the left or the right.  They appear to have planned for all eventualities.

I have so many mixed feelings about her.  On the one hand I realize we had 8 good years with them in the White House, but on the other I have learned so much since that gives me pause.  

Hillaryland…that is really the name.  

Hillaryland…Guide to the Clinton Juggernaut
Not going to post stuff in order, but in order of  fascination to me.  First off, Mark Penn, her pollster.  I don’t like him at all.  He and his company have meddled too much in polling in other countries.  Now I would never imply they might meddle here…

Well, I found out that Dick Morris brought him into the tightly knit group…amazing, huh?

When Howard Wolfson, Harold Ickes, Mandy Grunwald, and Mark Penn were thrown together six years ago, there was no reason to predict they would produce a twelve-point victory for Hillary in New York. Wolfson, the communications czar, had no previous experience in Hillaryland, but, as a local, he was liked–or at least feared–by the New York press. Ickes, the expert on New York state politics, had been unceremoniously dumped by Bill Clinton at the moment he thought he was going to be promoted to chief of staff (he read about it in the newspaper). Grunwald, the ad-maker and a 1992 campaign alum–that’s her voice yelling out of the speakerphone at James Carville in The War Room–was kicked out in 1995 to make room for the new team, which included none other than pollster Mark Penn. Penn, in turn, was brought in by Dick Morris, a man that Ickes has hated–“He’s a sleazy son of a bitch,” he has said–for about 25 years, ever since they tangled in the politics of the Upper West Side.

Some more about Penn, whom I just don’t like.  

Ever since then, Penn has been the messaging mastermind of Hillaryland. His stubborn centrism, arrived at by sifting through tons of granular-level psychographic polling–that is, psychological and demographic–has long angered liberals, and it is likely be the greatest source of future tension in Hillaryland. “We kind of know what Mark is going to say in every situation,” says one top adviser to his left. But there is little doubt that Hillary is a true devotee of Penn–who is also a Tony Blair adviser and partisan of the transatlantic Third Way project–and his middle-of-the-road style of politics.

And back to the beginning of the fairly long article for some background the power of the group.

Today, Hillaryland is a vast political empire based in Washington and New York that, in its scale and ambition, is unrivaled in Democratic politics. But the spirit of Hillaryland, as well as many of its leaders, remains the same. Alan Patricof, Hillary’s Senate campaign finance chair, who has been raising money for the Clintons for two decades, says, “She’s got a very loyal group of people around her who have supported her for a long time.” In fact, everyone in Hillaryland says that. They prefer to compare Hillary’s operational style to George W. Bush’s rather than Bill’s. The unspoken, and sometimes spoken, premise is that, unlike her husband’s White House team–not to mention the last two Democratic presidential campaigns–there are no mercenaries in Hillaryland, only true believers, a culture they say is hardening now that many Democratic sharks are circling Hillaryland, looking for a way in.

And now to the Ins and the Outs of Hillaryland.  

In Hillaryland, you’re either in or you’re out. Bill Clinton famously agonized over pushing aides from his inner circle. He cried and apologized the day his fired press secretary Dee Dee Myers left the White House. After the 1994 elections, he dawdled and couldn’t bring himself to get rid of several advisers who were left wondering about their status, even as he began to rely on their replacements. In contrast, Hillary’s team likes bright lines, and one way they maintain them is by firmly establishing an in-crowd. Joe Lockhart, the White House press secretary and face of the Clinton administration for two and a half years? Out. (They suspect he’s a John Edwards man, though an Edwards aide says he isn’t.) James Carville? In. (He’s personally close to Hillary and speaks to her regularly.) Doug Sosnik, one of Bill Clinton’s senior strategists in the late ’90s? Out. (He’s advising former Virginia Governor Mark Warner.) John Podesta, Clinton’s last chief of staff and now the president of the Center for American Progress? Way in. (He has important links to labor and environmental groups and serves as a policy conduit to Hillary.) Leon Panetta, Clinton’s second chief of staff? Far out. (He clashed with Hillary and tried to keep Hillaryland at arm’s length from the West Wing.) But trying to determine who’s in and out is nothing compared with figuring out who’s influential and who’s not. That search takes you deep into Hillaryland.

I would love to know which “In person” told Hillary to suggest that if we disapproved of the way she spoke of her Iraq War vote, there were others to vote for.  I am considering taking her up on that, at least in the primaries.  

This really poses a problem for people like this grandmother caring for her deceased daughter’s nine-year old daughter.  The $100,000 death benefit and the $400,000 life insurance will only go to the daughter when she is grown.

Family Struggles after Death in Iraq

WASHINGTON – Her daughter was killed by a bomb in Iraq. Eight months later, Susan Jaenke is both grief-stricken and strapped-behind on her mortgage, backed up on her bills and shut out of the $100,000 government death benefit that her daughter thought she had left her.

The problem is that Jaenke is not a wife, not a husband, but instead grandmother to the 9-year-old her daughter left behind. “Grandparents,” she said, “are forgotten in this.”

LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Susan Jaenke, left, has struggled to make ends meet since she took over care for Kayla, whose mother was killed in Iraq.

For the Jaenkes of Iowa Falls, Iowa, and others like them, the toll of war can be especially complex: They face not only the anguish of losing a son or daughter but also the emotional, legal and financial difficulties of putting the pieces back together for a surviving grandchild.

Hagel and Latham are introducing a bill that would permit the $100,000 to go to the proper guardian.  

Jaime S. Jaenke, a Navy construction-battalion medic killed last June in Anbar province, is particularly striking because she was a single parent who clearly meant to assign her mother the benefit. Jaenke, 29, filled in her mother’s name on a form and carefully spelled out her wishes in a letter. But by law, the $100,000 benefit goes first to a spouse or a child. So 9-year-old Kayla Jaenke collects the $100,000-plus $400,000 in life insurance-after she turns 18, leaving Susan Jaenke to ask, “What about the next nine years?”

Has this always been a problem, or has the process changed?  In a way it seems logical to make the child wait, but it leaves the person caring for the child without resources.  

Sometimes lately I remember just what it was like leading up to the vote on Iraq, and what it was like when they started bombing.  I was stunned by the attitudes I had encountered when I called the offices of our Democrats.  I knew most of us active online at the time could see all kinds of things showing it was a tragic unnecessary invasion.  

But the offices I called were so casually accepting of the fact that Bush said it was necessary.  He had been in office long enough by that time for them to know better than to trust him.

Do you remember when Bill Clinton said:

“I want it to have been worth it, even though I didn’t agree with the timing of the attack,” Clinton said

I realize that he really did pretty much go along with it. I guess that is why Hillary is having so much trouble speaking out about it.

Bill Clinton and Iraq, 2004

CNN — Former President Clinton has revealed that he continues to support President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq but chastised the administration over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

“I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over,” Clinton said in a Time magazine interview that will hit newsstands Monday, a day before the publication of his book “My Life.”

Clinton, who was interviewed Thursday, said he did not believe that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil or for imperialist reasons but out of a genuine belief that large quantities of weapons of mass destruction remained unaccounted for.

Noting that Bush had to be “reeling” in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush’s first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining “chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material.”

What I find even more devastating is that three of our major Democrats were told by former Clinton WH advisors that they should go along with it.  Two of them did not, and they spoke out. One went along, has since said he was wrong, it was a mistake.

The advisors of our former Democratic president, and possibly the former president himself advising to vote for an unnecessary war….that seems so wrong. Brief snippets from what Howard Dean, Russ Feingold, and John Edwards said about the advice they got.

In 2003 Dean said once that Saddam should be disarmed, though in the rest of the interview he said Bush had not made the case yet. Jeremy Scahill later asked him about the “disarming” Saddam statement.

From Huffington Post in November 2005:

During the New Hampshire primary in January 2004, which I covered for Democracy Now!, I confronted Dean about that statement. I asked him on what intelligence he based that allegation. “Talks with people who were knowledgeable,” Dean told me. “Including a series of folks that work in the Clinton administration.

And Feingold’s reference about his advice.  From David Sirota’s blog this month. Audio clip included.

Us versus the Washington consultants

After the election we had on November 7th and after polls have registered the public’s deep anger at the President for trying to escalate the war, you would think Democrats would be pushing legislation with real teeth and not just non-binding nothingness, especially if the GOP was going to filibuster anyway. Well, you’d be wrong. In the audio excerpt, I asked Feingold if this is because of Ben Nelson-ism – that is, because of conservative Democrats who are willing to use a brinkmanship progressive senators rarely use. As you can hear, Feingold says it’s even deeper – he says this is a battle between Democrats’ Washington consultant class and the rest of the country – and he specifically targets the D.C. elites from the Clinton administration, who he accurately notes largely supported the war from the get-go.

Dean and Feingold did not support the war, Edwards did.  Here is what he says about advice he got.

MR. RUSSERT: Why were you so wrong?

SEN. EDWARDS: For the same reason a lot of people were wrong. You know, we–the intelligence information that we got was wrong. I mean, tragically wrong. On top of that I’d–beyond that, I went back to former Clinton
administration officials who gave me sort ofindependent information about what they believed about what was happening with Saddam’s weapon–weapons
programs. They were also wrong.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16903253 /

I hate to tell Bill Clinton this, but it does not appear to “have been worth it.”  Not one little bit.  And I fear this may be part of the reason Hillary can not speak clearly on this.  

This is amazing what Al Gore is doing.  He is shaping our policy here in the US by his environmental actions.  God bless him.

Sydney to host Live Earth concert

SYDNEY will host one of a series of worldwide concerts announced today by former US vice-president Al Gore to focus attention on the threat of climate change.

The 24-hour event on July 7 will feature a powerhouse lineup of acts from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi with concerts.

More about the concert.

“Live Earth” will take place in Sydney, Shanghai, Johannesburg, London and cities to be announced in Japan, Brazil and the US. Another concert will take place in Antarctica, Mr Gore said.

It’s hoped Live Earth will trigger a broad movement to address what Mr Gore calls a global climate crisis.

“We have to get the message of urgency and hope out,” Mr Gore said at a news conference, where he was flanked by actress Cameron Diaz, rapper Pharrell Williams and producer Kevin Wall.

…”More than 100 performers are scheduled to appear, including the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Duran Duran, Korn, Pharrell, the Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw…

He is making so much difference in our world.  I mean who else has had a concert in Anarctica.  Amazing.

This story moves me.  I live in a home that has been in my family for decades.  It is in one of our city’s historic districts.  We thought that offered a degree of protection from rampant destruction, but it doesn’t anymore. Not here anyway.  Roads can go where they want them to go.  

We realized this was getting very serious about 2003 when the Bush administration kept pushing the envelope.  Historic homes, even famous ones are no longer safe. We were researching this so we could figure out how to preserve old cemeteries and historic homes as part of genealogical project.  I think, correct me if wrong…the bill was called SAFETEA LU.  

I understand how this family feels.

Looking back

A visit to the homestead is a trip back in time.

The oldest home is a beige two-story house built in 1850, and at one time it was the only house between Winter Haven and Bartow. It is filled with beautiful old furniture, and black and white family pictures line the walls.

PIERRE DUCHARME/THE LEDGER
The original home of the Atkins family stands on their property in Winter Haven. A road may threaten the homestead.

In the early 1900s, Robert Atkins’ great-great grandmother allowed neighbors to use a dirt path on her property to feed and water their horses. Eventually, they built a road for easier access.

Today, the Atkins family faces the prospect of a modern highway that they say threatens their way of life. The road, an extension of Thompson Nursery Road, could split the 180-acre homestead that has been in the family for seven generations.

….”For 150 years we’ve hunted, fished and gone horseback riding here,” said Ken Atkins. “This would destroy us.”

PIERRE DUCHARME/THE LEDGER
Christopher Matthew Atkins, 7, walks through a pasture with his dad, Robert Atkins, on the family’s property in Winter Haven on Friday. The extension of Thompson Nursery Road may split their homestead that has been in the family for seven generations.

“I was hoping that my grandkids would be able to enjoy this like I did,” Robert Atkins said. “My father would not be happy.”

I was trying to explain this to one of our county planners here, but he said oh no the historic places are safe.  I need to go back through some old files after reading this today.

The largest conservation land area in Florida is called “Bombing Range Ridge.”.  I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that name they have given.  It is really is a bombing range, designated as one of our main ones since we stopped bombing Vieques, Puerto Rico.  Instead we are dropping 500 to 2000 pound bombs in Avon Park, Florida, and using live ammo to boot.

Bombing Range Ridge

A short distance away, seven Florida scrub-jays hop along the ground looking for acorns before returning to the stunted scrub oaks containing their nests.

The area is called the Bombing Range Ridge and Flatwoods Project, an area covering 44,000 acres that stretches from the Avon Park Air Force Range to Lake Kissimmee State Park along the eastern edge of Polk County.

“This is one of Central Florida’s last unfragmented landscapes,” said Keith Fountain, The Nature Conservancy’s director of protection. TNC is a private conservation organization that purchases and manages environmentally sensitive land.

The article goes on to point out that many of Florida’s reserves now are privately held.  I did not know that.

It really is called Bombing Range Ridge.  

I guess it’s me but I find it odd that they would have the nerve to call a bombing range where they use live ammo and drop 500 to 2000 pound bombs a nature reserve, a conservation area.  But then this is Florida.

Moving bombing from Vieques to Avon Park, Florida

About 930 inmates and dwindling endangered birds living in and near the Avon Park Air Force Range in Highlands and Polk counties could experience Florida’s version of shock and awe under a Navy plan to bomb with new vigor and high explosives. The Navy plans to more than triple its bombing missions at the range and begin dropping live 500- to 2,000-pound bombs in addition to dummy bombs, which have been the main air-to- ground ordinance dropped there since World War II.

Navy spokesmen said high explosives may have been used in bombing runs there for a short period in the 1970s, but no one was certain. Ground troops train at the range with mortars and artillery, such as howitzers. But the plan would dramatically increase use of explosives at the base, which straddles the county line on the eastern edges of Highlands and Polk.

No one is certain? You mean you don’t know whether it was used for bombing runs in the 70s?  You did not keep records?  

Aside from calling a bombing range an area of conservation…which is just plain stupid…a local congressman is salivating at the prospect and scorns any effect on the wildlife.

As for endangered wildlife on and around the range, Putnam and the Navy say the fauna have gotten used to noise by now.

“The scrub jays know how to duck and cover,” Putnam said.

Congressman Adam Putnam, Florida, District 12, says to just let the scrub jays duck and cover.

This guy was just elected to be 3rd in line of Republican power in the House.  We who have him as our congressperon are appalled he would talk like this.  Betcha if one of our Democrats said anything at all similar it would be all over the news.

From Hotline on Call:

Putnam Wants To Know: Where Were The Rednecks?

“White rednecks” who “didn’t show up to vote for us” partly cost GOPers their cong. majorities, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) told fellow Republicans today. And Putnam, seeking the post of GOP conference chair, chided ex-Chair J.C. Watts (R-OK) for ruining the conference’s ability to serve its members.

Three Republicans in the room independently confirmed to the Hotline the substance and context of Putnam’s remarks. But Putnam’s chief of staff insists that the remarks were taken out of context.

Examining the 2006 midterms, Putnam blamed the GOP defeat on “the independent vote, the women vote, the suburban vote.” He said that “heck, even the white rednecks who go to church on Sunday didn’t come out to vote for us.”

Here is what this 32 year old Republican looks like.

And here is the proud write-up from the local paper which sings his praises almost daily.  Proud as punch they are.  

Putnam Takes No. 3 Republican Position

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow defeated three challengers Friday to become chairman of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 position in the party leadership.

Putnam, who decided to run for the job after the Democratic takeover shook up the Republican leadership ranks, won on the third ballot, 100-91.

As chairman, Putnam will be responsible for shaping and spreading the Republican message. The job will boost his profile, and he says Florida’s.

Congratulations, Florida, you have done it again.  

As Iraq descends into deeper hell, I think of Dean’s words last December.
For years now many of our Democrats of all levels have worried so much about how we say things.  I was thinking of this as Iraq descends into deeper hell.  About how careful with words some Democrats have been without regard to what we were doing. Without regard to the lives lost and bodies maimed.  

But let one outspoken Democrat say the truth too clearly, too soon,in a way that is painful…and the same ones who are so careful so cautious condemn that person.  It became all about words, all about being correct.  All about never daring to say we were losing, even back then.

This was last December. It was a radio station in San Antonio, Texas. Look at the time wasted and the lives lost.  What he said was true, but it was not politically correct…so it took longer for others to speak out openly.  
What Howard Dean said in December about Iraq.

Saying the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

“I’ve seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, ‘just another year, just stay the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening.”

“I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years,” Dean said. “Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don’t belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don’t have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We’ve got to get the target off the backs of American troops.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What John Judis at TNR had to say about the comments…a very perceptive article.
Truths Dean spoke about Iraq

“There are, however, two very different questions to ask about Dean’s statements on Iraq. The first is whether they are politic–whether they have advanced his own or his party’s electoral chances. Probably not–I am no fan of Dean as a national politician or party chair; and I would certainly concede that a Democrat in Georgia, Florida, or Nebraska might not want to run on what he says.

The second question, though, is whether his judgment on Iraq has been sound. And there I would say that it certainly has been. During the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and during the invasion and occupation, Dean has been almost consistently correct in his statements. He has been the Democrats’ and the nation’s Cassandra–willing to reveal bitter truths about which Republicans and his fellow Democrats would prefer that he remain silent.”

Judis takes time to list the times Howard Dean has been right about Iraq, and it is almost unbearable in the clearness.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Down With Tyranny did not hesitate to come out in support of what Dean said.

A NATIONAL DEMOCRAT WILLING TO TELL THE TRUTH! GUESS WHO!

Telling the truth

“At least Howard Dean, though under tremendous pressure from corporate Beltway careerist slime like Biden, Bayh and Lieberman to keep quiet for the sake of “party unity,” has come out and said what most Democrats are afraid to say– that there is NO WAY TO WIN THE WAR IN IRAQ, despite pie-in-the-sky scenarios painted by delusional Democrats like Wes Clark, Biden and Lieberman.

Dean was clear as a bell when he said in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong. I’ve seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, ‘just another year, just stay the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening.”

Instead of clearheaded, brave fighting Dems like Dean (and Murtha) we’re stuck with a bunch of overly-cautious careerists.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What many Democrats worried about last December when Howard Dean spoke out about the war in San Antonio, Texas.
Democrats criticing Dean and Pelosi for speaking against the war

“Strong antiwar comments in recent days by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have opened anew a party rift over Iraq, with some lawmakers warning that the leaders’ rhetorical blasts could harm efforts to win control of Congress next year.

Several Democrats joined President Bush yesterday in rebuking Dean’s declaration to a San Antonio radio station Monday that “the idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”

This WP article also shows Rahm and Hoyer criticizing Pelosi for standing up for Murtha.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Earl Pomeroy told him to “shut up”, but I understand he later called and apologized.

Shut up, Howard
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Taylor Marsh about Howard Dean and San Antonio remarks. She says he drives her crazy and compares what he said to how Clark would say it.  I did not realize how angry it made her.

This article made me rather sad, as even as late as December of last year she was speaking of all the wonderful victories we have had.  I tend to differ.  There have been too many deaths to claim any kind of victory.

Howard dean drives me crazy

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Alternet about the remarks. Their point is that the concept is now out there, what so many have been afraid to say…that we are fighting a losing war.
Howard Dean: Just Plain Right

But the “can’t win” phrase is out of the box. It’s much like Rep. John Murtha’s call for the United States to “immediately redeploy” — there’s no going back. We can’t win is now a permanent part of the debate on Iraq.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Michael Reagan said he should be arrested and hung.  Well, consider the source.
Reagan threatens

And from the WOAI link above, Dean was also very clear on what had happened to get us into this tragic mess.

“What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate,” Dean said. “It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people.”

And everything he said was true.

It is no surprise that Rove and others in the White House are treating them with a lack of respect now.  I was listening to Countdown tonight, and it reminded me of these statements about George W. Bush from someone who knew him and worked with him as governor.  Keith Olbermann was reviewing a book coming out called “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo.

It should be no shock that this administration holds the Christian right in contempt, just as they do most everyone and everything else.  This statement is from a book that came out in 2004 in the fall.  

There is no link, as it is transcribed from the book called “You Have the Power.”
From pages 2 and 3 of You Have the Power:

I ran for president because I was angry about where our country was going and I thought we could do better.

I was horrified by the way George W. Bush was governing our country. Mortgaging our future with irresponsible tax cuts for his friends. Despoiling our environment with huge giveaways to industry. Dividing us in the worst possible ways. Endangering our children with air pollution and draconian cuts in health-care services. Turning America into a monster in the eyes of the rest of the world.

He goes on to say that he had been surprised at Bush’s presidency because he had not seen those qualities when they were governors together.  

I hadn’t started out a Bush-basher. In fact, I’d been predisposed to like George Bush. I knew him personally and had dealt with him professionally when we were both governors. He’d always been charming and hospitable to me and my family, both in the Governor’s Mansion in Texas and at the White House. He’d always been more than upright in the business dealings between our states, keeping his word when he had no legal obligation to do so. What I knew of his record in Texas bespoke a moderate man who was willing to put pragmatism before ideology, to raise taxes when necessary to equalize state education spending, and to take some heat from the right wing of his party for doing so. (“I hate those people,” he’d once snarled at me when I ribbed him at a White House governors’ gathering about some trouble he was having in Texas with the Christian Coalition.)

I’d approached his presidency with an open mind. ‘I hadn’t voted for Bush,

but I didn’t expect the worst of him, either. After all, I’d always been in

the moderate middle of my own party — a staunch advocate of fiscal

discipline, a devotee of balanced budgets, pro-choice but also pro-gun

owners’ rights, and in favor of the death penalty in some instances.’

            — Howard Dean

            From his book, ‘You Have the Power’

The contempt they have shown to a group of good people who trusted them by letting the Mark Foley situation go on so long is going to hurt them badly. Despite all the articles today saying it won’t have an effect…it will.  The cover-up was in itself a form of contempt.  This book by Kuo appears to be the icing on the cake.

The NYT article tonight, and several comments by strategists this week about Dean’s strategy makes this welcome and appreciated.

Thank you, thank you, Bill Maxwell of the St. Pete Times.  Sounds like you have been saving up those words for a while.  I thank you for saying them this week, they are much needed.  Since you are not much for compliments, I consider them high praise.

Democrats Need to Grow a Spine

But first let us get back to Dean. As far as I am concerned, he has told the truth about the GOP and Bush. If he has erred, it has been on the side of harshness, not dishonesty or hypocrisy.

And now more from the beginning of the article.

When Howard Dean took over as the Democratic national chairman, I hoped that other Democrats would study the straightness of his backbone and grow one just like it. Dean came into the job showing his utter contempt for right-wing Republicans.

I was convinced that he was the man for the job, that if Democrats were to regain any semblance of respectability and real authority, they would have to face reality and start playing the GOP’s brand of smash-mouth personal politics.

….” Here is sampling of Dean’s GOP truths:

Dean: “All we ask is that we not turn into a country like Iran where the president can do anything he wants.”

Dean: “Mean. They’re not nice people. They want to run nearly every aspect of your life.”

Dean: “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re good.”

Dean: “Lord knows this administration is beginning to erode the core of our democracy.”

And a last paragraph from a blunt speaking columnist at the St Pete Times.

Some final words from Howard Dean as he responds to a challenge to one of his attacks on Republicans: “This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough. We have to be tough 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 to make ends meet.”

Nasty and mean, yes, but acceptably so.

One of those inspiring op eds that catches one’e eye and let’s one see someone is noticing.