Monday, December 22, 2003

Code Orange



Howard Dean was absoutely preposterous and well out of the mainstream when he said the nation "hasn't been made any safer" since we've caught Saddam Hussein...
Oh, by the way, there's a slim chance that you might be blown to smithereens
later this week...
Oh, but don't let that stop you from getting on the plane to visit Grandma...
Buh-bye! Don't worry!
Have a good time!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look at fickle William Saletan falling for Centrist DLC pukery:

"We are no safer today than we were the day the planes struck at the World Trade Center," Dean said Thursday, adding that the capture of Saddam Hussein "does not mean that this president—or the Washington Democrats—can declare victory in the war on terror."
Picture that debate next year: On one side, Bush, the Washington Democrats, support for some tax cuts, relief at Saddam's capture, and the belief that by toppling the Taliban, if not Saddam, we're safer today than we were on 9/11. On the other side, Howard Dean."


By next year, we could be dealing with a fresh terror attack..especially if you listen to what the Bush administration is telling you this week. If you really think we're safer from terror now, I think you need your head checked. Read my lips..Saddam was a tin-pot dictator..not a terrorist. Is Saletan now buying into the Saddam-9-11 connection?
If so, he's lost all credibility with me and many others as a reasonable journalist. You tell me who's the one losing track of reality here. I surely don't think it's Howard Dean.

"....Bruce Reed, Clinton's former chief domestic policy adviser, called Dean's remark "a cheap shot at Clintonism."

That's B.S....and Reed knows it. Talk about fakery. Reed's feeling the sting because DLC-darlings Kerry, Edwards, and Lieberman's poll ratings have gone down the tubes.
Bruce Reed is out of touch with Democrats, he's destroying the Democratic party, and I recommended his firing last summer.

The threat of terror is very real, Howard Dean understands this better than most of the others, and he has a plan to deal with it. It doesn't involve lying to the American public. It doesn't involve cowering behind an untrustworthy,
wrong-minded, secretive President who maintains an acceptable popularity rating. Dean will not need masterful advisors who pump his popularity by resorting to deceptive paths. He has been and will continue to be popular by being himself..an honest, intelligent leader with nothing to hide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy Breslin Isn't Fooled By Such Cock and Bull
Breslin: Blaming Saddam For Everything


"...the unmistakable feeling is that more and more of the American public will consider Saddam Hussein a partner in terror with Osama bin Laden and that it was a wonderful thing we did, going to war to catch one of them..."

"...I could hear George Bush and his people all saying: "We went and got Saddam because it is better to fight terrorists in Iraq than in Manhattan."
No matter that Saddam had nothing to do with the attack.
There were 15 Saudi Arabians who were in the suicide attack. Then immediately, the FBI gathered up those members of bin Laden's sprawling family who were in America and got them on planes to Switzerland. And soon, the Saudi Arabian prince was at Waco, Texas, for an amiable day with Bush..."


~~~~~~~~~~

DLC can dish it out/can't take ribbing about what's true.
Lieberman criticizes Dean for comment about Democratic Leadership Council


* Bruce Reed and Al From have sabotaged the progress of the Democratic party. Dean shares much of the group's political philosophy, conservative fiscal principles, and progressive social ideals, but he's been at odds with these two wrong-minded leaders. Iowa and New Hampshire poll results have proven Reed and From very, very wrong about the direction Democrats need to take...something I've been saying here on this blog for almost a year now. *

".....Howard Dean says he was only having some fun when he described the centrist Democratic Leadership Council as the "Republican" part of the Democratic party. But Joe Lieberman, a former chairman of the group, says he did not see anything to laugh about."

"One of the reasons I wish the others guys running for president would tone it down a little bit is that at the end, we're all going to have to pull together in order to beat George Bush," he told several hundred people at a packed town hall meeting.........even the Democratic Leadership Council, which is sort of the Republican part of the Democratic Party … the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, we're going to need them too, we really are." - Howard Dean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quotes from Guardian UK: Tough Climate for Centrist Democrats

"We spent two decades in the political wilderness because the middle class didn't trust us with their values or their taxes,'' said Bruce Reed, a former Clinton aide who is president of the DLC. ``I, for one, don't want to go back there.''

*Then I'll tell you what, chum. I'll tell you straight as an arrow.
The middle class..especially middle class in the Red States.. didn't trust Democrats with their values after 1998.
I think you know why.
I, for one, don't want to go back there.*

"What I can't understand is why our party won't heed the lessons of the one Democrat elected and re-elected to the White House in six decades,'' said Al From, founder and chief executive of the DLC."

* I can't believe I have to tell you this, Al.. pal. I mean, you're the one who's supposed to be the expert and all.
A big lesson was that a man (like Clinton) can be as great as any President ever was....but the minute he was hunted down by the witches of the GOP and impeached for sexual play on national business-time/the taxpayer's dime, he fell amazingly from grace with a hell of a lot of swing voters. Ask Al Gore about why he believes he lost in 2000 (other than the GOP chicanery). Regardless of how great we both might think Bill Clinton was for this nation and the world, if you do not see the association between the sullied 1998 White House and the Gore loss of states like Tennessee in 2000, you'd best seek a new line of work. Perhaps you forget Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist's remark that in 2000, "The tarnished presidency made Gore damaged goods in his home state." When it all falls out, I also think having the good Sen. Lieberman as running mate to Gore was a turn-off for Red-state swing voters. I hate to say this, but I think it's straight and it's true.
So there you have it.
Stop seeking a 'Re-Clinton' or a 'Clinton Cont'd' and open your eyes to the new political genius of the brilliant and popular man standing in front of you...his name is Howard Dean. Joe Lieberman doesn't have the chutzpah it takes to woo voters to take him on as their President. There are no Bill Clintons in your DLC-bunch. Clinton's keen intellect and his political brilliance will always stand, but I am afraid that his ethical reputation will never be repaired. *

9-11 Commission Head Tom Kean States on CBS Nightly News-
"This is not something that had to happen."

Meanwhile, a ridiculous Op-Ed in the N.Y. Post (accusing Kean of having
'an agenda') states:


".....Indeed, Kean has long made clear that he believes his primary responsibility is to the victims' families - who have declared that they will "not stand for some broad, sweeping, historic account."
They want heads to roll. "


Uh, no. I think all they want is the truth.
Is Kean wrong to be working toward an answer for these families?
If this was your father, mother, brother, friend who died (live/in living color) in front of the world on 9-11, wouldn't you want him to be doing what he's doing?
I would.