Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards Gang Up on Dean

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- In a rare alliance, strategists for John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry discussed whether they could stop the Service Employees International Union from endorsing fellow Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.

The union, the largest in the AFL-CIO with 1.6 million members, announced last week that its 63-member board would decide Thursday whether to endorse the former Vermont governor. "It's Dean or one," said SEIU spokeswoman Sara Howard.

The announcement prompted top aides to Edwards, Gephardt and Kerry to convene a conference call during which they discussed whether Dean's endorsement could be blocked.

snip>

"No matter how much people might disdain their tactics of working together on this, it does point out how important this endorsement will be," said Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi.


http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-dean-labor,0,4751109.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[WindRavenX]

1. Honestly, I don't get this

I am not a Dean supporter, but I just don't understand why the DNC hates Dean...the DNC is right about where Dean is ideology wise (which means, IMO, Dean is far more moderate than Kerry or the others). It seems very strange to me..:shrug:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

19. Because he will lose the g'damn election for us.

motor mouth is out of control.

[Stuckinthebush]

58. Yep...

This damn guy is bringing in disaffected voters, energizing young people, bringing in record amounts of cash from ordinary voters, exciting the base, running on a moderate record, telling the truth about Iraq and the budget deficit, and generally tapping into the anger over the sorry state of our country today.

This jerk is gonna lose the g'damn election for us! Nobody will vote for him! We need a bland, DLC type that is just barely not Republican to ensure we win!

[deutsey]

64. Yeah, and these guys (Kerry et al) are so electrifying voters

:boring:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

67. he's not polarizing either. nt

[deutsey]

78. Kind of hard to polarize such a small group of supporters, I guess

.

[jamesinca]

82. This is something I don't understand

I hear about the Dems not having a spine and they just roll over and take it all the time, they won't stand up for the people, they were pink tutus!!!

Now we have some one who is not wearing a tutu and people are calling him a a loud mouth jerk who is going to ruin the party. What the hell do people want? Does the Democratic party want somebody who sits on their hands AGAIN? Do they want somebody who answers very mild mannered like? This has not worked and people in here rant all the time about such behavior by the Dems!!! So Dean does what people have been wanting a Dem to do and now he is being demonized by his own party? I just don't get some people sometimes.

the hardest part of a new idea is letting go of the old ones.

[LiberalTexan]

93. You have to understand something

(sorry, I know that sounded condescending)....

Dean is not establishment. He didn't go begging to Terry McAliffe to make this happen. He got his ass out there a YEAR ago and started to campaign on his own shoe leather. To me that says how much he loves his country and wants it back. To the DNC, it scares the hell out of them that he doesn't NEED them.

I can't wait till Dean gets the nomination and the DNC starts ooing and aaaaing over him like they didn't treat him like dirt from the git go.

[nocreativename]

83. I know

Every time I see kerry, I wake up just enough to whip the droll off of my face after Gep put me to sleep.

I'm angree about the state of the world, and these guys let them selves get seam rolled.

I've already refused to give money to the DLC and DNC. I give it to Dean and Dean only now.

[leesa]

27. Kerry is one of the rich elite along with Gep and most of the DNC

They LIKE what Bush and friends are doing. They will only shuffle their feet, pretend to disagree and then agree with the Republicans. Jees! How many times do they have to run this routine before we accept that its true.

[KittyWampus]

71. Dean Is Also A Rich Elite Along With Kerry

and to say the Gep and Kerry LIKE what Junior is doing is ludicrous.

For pete's sake....

[nocreativename]

84. Where was Kerry

Ok this kills me, Kerry calls himself the enviro canadate, but where was he on the Leveat Vote, where was he on the Healthy Forest Vote. I'd say voting for something or not voting at all in kind of like saying I like your idea! that's what voting is about.

[Orangepeel]

28. because his campaign is people-powered?

Why is the DNC such a convoluted, complicated structure? Partly, and unfortunately, it is to keep the decision making undemocratic. People in power like to stay in power.

Dean's campaign is revolutionary, regardless of how much other campaigns want to deny it. I've volunteered in many and the Dean campaign is like nothing else. It is bottom up and driven by volunteers. Centralized control is very light and the campaign takes suggestions from ordinary volunteers.

Some people, who run and are wedded to the idea of a traditional, media driven campaign and the big donors it requires, might find that threatening.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

34. apparently you missed Gerry Brown in '92

1-800 veryrevolutionary. :eyes:

This is all about winning. And Dean is a loser from the moment we nominate him. Don't believe me? Here's just one of the things I read over in P&C:

"...a Democratic activist from LeClaire, Iowa, who had been considering supporting Dean, said Sunday night the country already had learned about trusting a governor without foreign policy experience."

http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1019919&t=Local+News&c=2,1019919

There's no doubt whatsoever the GOP spin machine will be cranking out this and many other such lethal hits on Dean in a general campaign. Give the DLC credit here- they're trying to win the election and stop Bush.

[tsipple]

41. About That Governor...

"...the country already had learned about trusting a governor without foreign policy experience..."

Yeah, Bill Clinton was just awful, wasn't he? Brought peace to Northern Ireland. The nerve!

:evilgrin:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

44. Uh huh.... a Rhodes scholar too.

something Dean is most definitely not.

[JNelson6563]

50. elitist thinking

only a Rhodes scholar can figure out foriegn policy? YOur "arguments" and criticsms grow more absurd daily. Your freudian slip shows and man, it ain't pretty!

I look at your posts and the many like yours (from the few who who harbor equal bitterness and hatred) and I see why we Dems hold absolutely nothing.

We are so busy hating each other we lose sight of the real enemy. In fact, we are becoming the real enemy.

Pure folly, this hate-mongering. Best left to the reich-wingers (though you and your ilk give 'em a good run for their money)

Julie

[NewYorkerfromMass]

68. I am hating ONE thing: the prospect of losing

and Mr. "I am not afraid to lose" apparently would be happy in doing just that.

[unfrigginreal]

77. Thank God paranoia isn't contagious.

Try some of our Kool-Aid and you might feel better.

[RetroLounge]

70. Neither is most if not all of the members of DU

so why should anyone listen to anyone here?

[Orangepeel]

43. well, go ahead and deny it.

Denying it has worked so well for the other candidates so far.

Of course, I and the hundreds of thousands of other Dean supporters must all be deluded when we call the campaign revolutionary. The SEIU members who want to endorse Dean must be deluded. You and that guy from LeClaire must know best.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

46. I'd be happy to go before the SEIU and warn them off this mistake.

but why spoil the party? ...ignorance is bliss.

[soleft]

57. Hey Orangepeel!

:hi:

[rdub]

75. he's shaking things up

he's an outsider.
he's shaking things up.
he's not in the club.
etc. etc. etc...

[Cha]

2. Wow! I hope Dean gets this endorsement!

[blm]

3. Well, can you blame them? The media built up Dean as a populist.

Many people believe he is. The media has never portrayed Dean honestly, as a career long compromising centrist. I don't think the SEIU would vote for a centrist like Dean who was very business friendly and even advocated for deregulation of energy industry while Gov.

Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards got painted as Bushlite thanks to Dean. The media lies and puts the onus always on the other candidates. The truth needs to be disseminated.

[seventhson]

5. Dean would govern as a populist and therefore the unions would be BEST off

with Dean.

Endorsing the likely winner is good strategy for the unions too.

I hate to see Edwards get sucked into the DLC cabal. He is an outsider with guts who would look great on Dean's ticket as VP.

As for the comment above that Dean is the DNC guy - nothing could be further from the truth. Kerry PRETENDS to be a lefty and he talks a good fake liberal line while voting out of the right side of his mouth for the war, etc, - DEAN IS a big D Democrat. But the DLC is to the right as is the PNAC which is way to the right and that is Kerry's base and background.

[blm]

24. What makes you think core Libertarian Dean would govern as a populist?

He NEVER DID in 11 years as governor or before that in elected office. Why doesn't Dean's actual record of aligning with the GOP in Vermont bother those who believe he's a populist now?

How do you accept Dean's 10 month old conversion and use of Nader rhetoric coopted from his 2000 campaign against Democrats?

[JohnKleeb]

85. Actually the unions would be best off with Kucinich or Gephardt

I dont see Dean proposing a workers white house now do I.

[Nevernose]

6. I wouldn't blame Dean or the media for the "Bush-lite" image

There's been a lot of animosity towards the more entrenched Democrats since Bush stole the election, and even before/during the election (if I never read another "Nader cost us the election" thread ti will be too soon).

[w4rma]

10. The SEIU knows who Dean is. They see him the same as Weinstein does, IMHO.

"There are leftists, but there is no left"

In These Times founder James Weinstein on the American left's "long detour" with communism, its current crisis, and the hope he sees in Howard Dean.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Joan Walsh

Oct. 30, 2003 | Nobody would mistake left-wing scholar and publisher James Weinstein for Roger Ailes. But long before there was a Fox News, Weinstein knew that the failure of the American left to become an enduring force in American politics was in part a failure to compete in the marketplace of ideas and in the world of media -- and that back when the left thrived, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it relied on a web of local, regional and national newspapers and magazines. So while most of his colleagues focused on their books and the world of academia, he played a leading role in founding journals like Studies on the Left and Socialist Review, starting San Francisco's Modern Times bookstore and, most notably, In These Times newspaper.

I worked at In These Times in the mid-1980s, back when it called itself "an independent socialist newspaper" (being more honest about his politics than Roger Ailes, Weinstein didn't choose the motto "fair and balanced"). I saw the label as one of Weinstein's charming eccentricities -- he was determined to revive socialism's respectability, take it back from those who had stolen it -- but the paper's left-wing politics were not eccentric; it was unexpectedly hardheaded. That was where I lost my romance with identity politics, with believing that some amalgam of women, blacks, gays and other pissed-off people would gradually rise and transform American politics. The paper covered all those movements, but critically. And it backed efforts to work within the Democratic Party, like Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential runs, discouraging the vanity and nihilism of third-party politics -- the impulse that ultimately turned into Ralph Nader's disastrous Green Party run in 2000, which gave the presidency to George Bush.

Weinstein knows disastrous third-party efforts firsthand -- he was a Communist Party member for a short time in the 1940s, and became briefly infamous on the left in the late 1970s for helping to confirm historian Ron Radosh's revisionist account of the Rosenberg case: that despite the left's claims that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were falsely accused and wrongly executed for spying for the Soviet Union, Julius did in fact pass information to the Soviets. (He also favorably reviewed Radosh's "The Rosenberg File" for In These Times.) To many on the left Weinstein's admission was heresy, given the history of redbaiting and right-wing witch hunting the left had endured in the 1950s. But Weinstein has always reckoned clearly with the contradiction of that decade -- redbaiting was a disaster, but so was communism, and both had hurt the American left.
…
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2003/10/30/weinstein/index.html

[JNelson6563]

54. Do you know what "enabling" means?

Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards got painted as Bushlite thanks to Dean.

haha No, dear, they got painted as Bushlite becuase they were so busy standing shoulder to shoulder with pResident Bush and making what they thought were clever political decisions. Seems they were not so very clever afterall with their "safe" votes and now they must pay. The price? Lack of support from an angry American public.

They shoulda listened to all of us who called, wrote and faxed but no, what do the unwashed masses know? Better to listen to political advisors.

Not.

But it is much easier to blame Dean than to deal with reality. They painted themselves into a corner. Dean has merely given voice to what many many of us already felt.

It's damn sad really. Lifetimes of standing up for democratic issues worth little because of they failed to stand firm in the face of the new fascism.

Julie

[blm]

62. Because they negotiated for the better resolution you all want to dismiss?

Guess not too many give a shit that Bush wanted to avoid any UN involvement, no weapons inspectors, present NO evidence, and include further invasions of Syria and Iran.

YOU don't give a shit about those concessions, but, the rest of the world and especially Iran and Syria DO.

Simpletons reduce the entire argument to black and white, antiwar and prowar, blank check memes. Or political operatives with an agenda to reduce it to simplistic terms that can be demagogued.

btw...if you are so sincere, then why aren't you supporting Kucinich? Dean was for the war in 30 days after Bush's start date. That's Bushlite-lite?

[JNelson6563]

74. this was an amendment to the IWR

they had negotiated. If I recall correctly (and I may be mistaken) the IWR passed the same day Levin's amendment was voted down. It may have been the day after.....

blm I notice your tone is getting increasingly shrill and nasty.

Guess not too many give a shit that Bush wanted to avoid any UN involvement, no weapons inspectors, present NO evidence, and include further invasions of Syria and Iran.

But he still got the biggie didn't he? Not to hafta come to congress for permission to kick things off. Activities were to commence at the pResident's pleasure. I am sure the many thousands of dead Iraqi's appreciate the concessions we won though. Not to mention the many soldiers from the "coalition".

YOU don't give a shit about those concessions, but, the rest of the world and especially Iran and Syria DO.

How dare you presume to know what I think?

Simpletons reduce the entire argument to black and white, antiwar and prowar, blank check memes. Or political operatives with an agenda to reduce it to simplistic terms that can be demagogued.

Ah, unless we can understand the nuances of voting for war Kerry's would be base (Dems) screamed bloody murder over and then, when things go awry, regretting the vote and now playing the Dem hard-ass against Bush we are Simpletons. Gotcha. Or maybe I am an operative with an agenda trying to dumb down the dialogue. You couldn't be more wrong.

You are getting heavier and heavier on the personal attacks blm. Here's the kicker:

btw...if you are so sincere, then why aren't you supporting Kucinich? Dean was for the war in 30 days after Bush's start date. That's Bushlite-lite?

You question my sincerity? I don't quite understand just who you think you are throughout this entire post. You claim to know what I think, you name-call and make nasty insinuations and then you question my sincerity??

Regarding my sincerity as a Dean supporter, FWIW I am working to help Dean win the nomination and I will continue working after the primaries to help the Yet-to-be-named Democratic nominee win the WH. Make of that what you will.

Julie

[IndianaGreen]

56. Dean is a centrist, that had enough sense to oppose the Iraq war

unlike those Democrats that voted for it!

Dean supporters know full well that Dean is a centrist, which together with his antiwar position and his relentless attacks on Bush, makes Dean the better candidate.

[blm]

63. War, 30 days later was fine with you? Bushlite-lite?

Nice to see you support the ONLY Dem who was really against the war, Kucinich. Oops...no you don't. You are for Mr. IWR w/Biden-Lugar amendment. Mr. wait 30 days then invade.

[Demobrat]

4. I guess I can't blame them, but how embarassing will it be

if he gets it after all?

[AP]

16. At least they're trying to do the right thing.

They're trying to get the union to endorse a candidate who cares more about middle class opportunity.

[pruner]

7. LMAO!

I'm gonna start calling them the three mouseketeers.

[Khephra]

8. As I've said before

If the DLC Democrats had spent as much time fighting Bush over the year before campaigning began--as they have done since then against Dean since then--we'd be seeing Bush polling in his teens right now.

Nice to see the only unified front that DLC Democrats can offer up is against another Democrat.

[WindRavenX]

9. Yeah..

What a waste of time, energy, and resources that could be used to bring down Shrub; instead, we fight amongst each other and in the end, the factions of the left may never unite again to bring down the common enemy of us all...
It is my greatest wish that we could all do this just once for 2004 and bring down that Chimp together.
Then we can recommence on "Dean VS Kerry" and all that other stuff :)
But we have a serious war out there and a problem president that is bigger than any of the individual canidates themselves..
United we stand, but divided we fall...

[Cha]

12. I suppose they have to attack the leader and

if they should ever be left standing they will attack each other.

My money is on Dean!

[LizW]

11. Now it becomes clear

what the Confederate flag bs was really about, and why Edwards and Gephart were so suddenly outraged, months after Dean's speech.

"SEIU is among the most racially and ethnically diverse labor union, representing janitors, health care workers and other service employees."

[Cha]

13. Yes! Demagoguery at its Slimyiest!

[AP]

17. Sharpton started that, and he wasn't in on the conference call.

And the fact is, Dean IS the worst candidate on race, so it was a legitimate issue to raise.

[Mackay]

21. You're the guy that spends all his time defending Blair

So... I can't help but thinking your derision of Dean is just going to reaffirm what a great candidate he is... at least for those around here familiar with your posts.

After all, how could a poodle lover appreciate anyone who isn't Bush-lite?

[Cha]

33. Touche!

[AP]

80. So Dean wouldn't work with Blair? Man, this guy's even worse....

...than I thought.

Is Blair not libertarian enough for Dean?

[AP]

79. Right. Blair is why Sharpton wasn't on that conference call.

[Cha]

31. The Fact Is Not that Dean is "the worst candidate in the

race" That's pure and udder guttersnipness. Dean is the Best candidate in the race and gepkerwards are wimps to the inth degree.

edit~ typo

[jburton]

14. A year late, and wrong target

They should have focused their energy a year ago on stopping Bush*

Then Dean would not exist. It's their own damn fault.

[AP]

18. They are focused on stopping Bush. I'd bet anything that each one of those

candidates strongly believes that Dean can't beat Bush.

[Khephra]

20. read the thread the wrong way

Ignore.

[Mackay]

22. This proves that Dean is the best choice to beat Bush

No other candidate is so fearsome that the rest have to gang up to beat him.

With or without the endorsement, Dean is the next President of the United States!

[AP]

61. Actually, Dean's popularity right now is partly due to the fact

that you have 4 or 5 good candidates (Kerry, Edwards, Clark, Gephardt) who are very close to the ideal candidate to beat Bush. You have Dean who isn't. 70% of Democrats would probably pick one of those candidates over Dean in a head to head, but the fact that there is one Dean, and four of the other, plus three others, Dean is leading the polls. So it makes sense that the people who are fighting over the same narrower territory (the territory that can actually beat bush) have to coordinate to deal with the guy who gets the unatural advantage in the primary.

[Eloriel]

66. Yeah, that makes sense

The guy who's ahead in the polls and is bringing in new voters along with people from the Republican side and Independents, all age groups, all ethic groups, is the one who can't beat Bush. Yeah, I buy that.

Eloriel

[Eloriel]

65. And as long as they keep believing that and OTHER

rightwing, DLC talking points, they'll probably still be trying to make something of their campaigns when it's all over for them.

They believed that people supported the war, too, and that they should vote FOR the war for political expediency. And a whole lot more.

As I'm reading this thread I'm realizing to just what an extent these bozos are STILL out of touch with their base.

So now their "big idea" is to gang up on Dean. Wow. I'm impressed. Like that'll do a lot for their campaigns. Too bad they can't -- WON'T -- adequately listen to and represent The People but still wanna believe the conventional wisdom and stupid DLC fantasies (or lies) about what really sells.

Eloriel

[He loved Big Brother]

29. AMEN!

"They should have focused their energy a year ago on stopping Bush*

Then Dean would not exist. It's their own damn fault."

All too true. It IS their own fault, and they ARE too late. And they all just lost my vote if Dean doesn't win the primary. I want a leader who can win on his own merits, not by being a conniving wuss like Shrub.

So busy being anti-Dean they forget to be anti-Bush, as their voting records clearly show!!

[Cha]

38. Yes! jburton hit it exactly on the head with that one!

[goforit]

15. It's the Pro-WAR group attacking the ANTI-WAR group!!!!!

SHAME ON THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gepthart can't get any one from his own district to help his campaign out. He is one desparate pathetic fool!!!!!

These guys have had to pay a high price for voting for this war!!!
And just like Iraq they are gonna lose out!!!

[shanti]

23. they are running scared!

THE DOCTOR IS IN - GO HOWIE!

[seventhson]

25. Put the Lime in the Coconut and Call the Doctor!!!

He's got the Remedy!

Dean/Edwards in 2004!!!

[PurityOfEssence]

32. "is there nothing I can take to relieve this bellyachin'?"

Say "woo woo"
Put de lime in de coconut and call me in the morning

(I absolutely love Harry Nilsson; he died too young.)

It's amazing how the Deanies are oblivious to every greasy smear and underhanded slandering from Dr. Jekyll, but shriek when any maneuvering happens against their guy.

The bellyaching and cries of 'foul' from the supporters of the guy who came in spitting vitriol and invective at his basically decent adversaries is as tiresome as it is puerile.

(Don't take this personally, seventhson, you just sparked the rant, and the line in the song just screamed at me.)

[Cha]

36. Dean points out the truth ..so we can't really fault

him on that. gepkerwards come up with some Lies that smack of demagoguery and, of course, we are going to call them on it.

[PurityOfEssence]

88. Dean uses the truth when convenient; distorts and smears when he sees fit

There is no other canditate in this race who has been caught with more sneaky misrepresentations and deliberate deceptions than this man; he should at least stop puffing up with righteous indignation when called on to defend his actions.

[Pastiche423]

45. 7th -

You break my heart when you put Edwards in the vp slot.

[Upfront]

26. Three Against One

Hell, Dean still out numbers these guys. Go Howard

[tsipple]

30. Kerry+Gephardt+Edwards = "The Axis of Feeble"

:evilgrin:

[He loved Big Brother]

40. That is hilarious

You may have coined the next catch-phrase! :D

[NewYorkerfromMass]

35. Hey Dean's neck IS pretty big

but.....

[Cha]

37. So What?

[He loved Big Brother]

39. "So what" indeed.

Christ. :eyes:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

42. Why don't you let the poster who said Dean still outnumbers

3 other guys answer this. IOW it was an equally stupid thing to say.

[RetroLounge]

73. Ooooh, Dean doesn't have a neck. The HORROR!

So you just prove how you pick a candidate. Nice.

But Dean is not electable: Right...

Because he can't raise money:



Because he doesn't have any support:



because blacks won't support him:

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10232&news_iv_ctrl=1301

isn't your denial a wonderful thing!

[Rowdyboy]

47. Odd coincidence...The same name is missing from the "3 Musketeers"

who want to derail Dr Dean that was missing when Dean was crucified for mentioning the Confederated Flag...Wesley Clark.

He chose not to engage in such anti-Dean coalitions and his comments on the confederate flag issue (what a piece of ridiculous idiocy!) were quite moderate.

The adult candidates in the race are Clark and Dean. I wish them both well.

[Voltaire99]

48. A taste of how the Democratic Party would treat President Dean

In any number of ways, the party is telling Dean to go to hell.

Dean supporters who find his campaign "refreshing" and his centrist politics "revolutionary" should brace themselves for more abuse from the other candidates as well as from the top. A lot more.

It's not that he's so heterodox or daring. He's hardly any less conservative than Clinton. But his unschooled rhetoric - and his cyber-fundraising - scare the corporate suits.

Dean's dangerous. He hasn't learned the lessons of humility and obedience that glimmer from the corner of Gephardt's eyes; he hasn't learned to cloak his every utterance in the syllables of the Kennedy School, like the Lurch-impersonator, Kerry; nor is he enfumed with an air of sour moralizing like the scold Lieberman.

After years on their bellies, the likes of Al Fromm and Terry McAuliffe can't tolerate even the semblance of a populist. These are the guys who've built careers out of telling the public that the party must heed the status quo, must dress for GOP weather; they'd rather lose than answer to Dean.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

59. Gore was a better populist

and most Democrats actually liked him.

[janx]

72. We're ready and not afraid of snakes.

Although we get riled a bit when anyone tries to thwart the democratic process.

[teryang]

49. Edwards is making a mistake

he was one of two logical choices on Deans ticket.

[KaraokeKarlton]

52. I think this is why Lieberman stopped attacking Dean

He knows Dean is going to win and there is no stopping him from doing so. Joe is only staying in the race to try to keep his name out there and has toned it down towards Dean in some last ditch hope he will have a shot as Dean's VP.

[Hawkeye-X]

90. Bwahahahahah

Lieberman a VP for Dean? Surely he jests.

He can go back and sit in his Senatorial seat from CT. After all, he has it for another two more years.

Hawkeye-X

[paulk]

81. maybe Dean is the one making a mistake

Dean's rhetoric has gone a long way toward alienating the other candidates. If I were a Dean supporter I would see Kerry, Gephardt, and Edwards working together against my candidate as a very bad sign.

It wouldn't surprize me if votes weren't already being lined up for the Iowa caucuses here. I don't have the most recent polls, but I'm sure that Kerry, Gephardt, and Edwards combined are polling well ahead of Dean. If these three work together they can easily defeat Dean in Iowa, perhaps even denying him a second place finish.

A "DLC" alliance against Dean is not good news for the Dean campaign.

[teryang]

91. Perhaps Gebhardt has an advantage there

But the problem with Gebhardt and Kerry is that they along with Lieberman are insiders who helped bring us to the current state of affairs.

Edwards is a completely different type and has real promise. So does Dean and so does Clark. I respect the lesser candidates more than G, K an L. These three are used goods.

[IndianaGreen]

51. Fuck all of them!

All I want to know is what is their exit strategy for Iraq? Nothing short of an immediate and unconditional withdrawal will do!

[KaraokeKarlton]

53. We can't just walk away now

If we do, there is going to be another Taliban type government that we will eventually have to go back in and deal with after another devastating terror attack. We have to stay involved, but we also have to bring in the UN and give them at least equal control over what goes on. We need international troops in, and some American troops staying, and we are responsible for rebuilding the mess we've made.

[IndianaGreen]

55. Too late for all that!

And Islamist government in Iraq became inevitable the day we invaded the country. Nothing we do can prevent it! Even in the unlikely event there is true democracy in Iraq, the Islamists radicals will win the election hands down (as they did in Algeria a few years back).

Since the outcome is inevitable, why should we risk more lives?

Bring the troops home now!

[paulk]

76. It's not a given that "Islamists radicals" would win an election in Iraq

While it's true that Shiites make up the majority in Iraq, moderates outnumber the radicals by quite a bit. There are plenty of other good reasons to get out of Iraq without throwing disinformation into the mix.

[teryang]

92. I'm with you, start packing now!

Anything else just prolongs the inevitable. Defense economics 101: Sunk costs are no costs.

[ozone_man]

60. "It's Dean or no one,"

What part of that don't they understand?

[janx]

69. This is very low-rent behavior.

And I note that Clark is not joining in, thank goodness.

[nocreativename]

86. I thought

They were all fighting against Bush. Hmm. I see how this is. I HATE THE DLC.

[eissa]

87. I concurr

with all those who have correctly stated that if those damn fuckers in the DLC had committed this much energy to bringing down shrub, we would be leading in the polls. The Dean campaign appealed to me not because he called the other candidates bush-lite, but because they ARE bush-lite. I was opposed to the Daschle/Gephardt leadership early on because of their ineptness at standing up for democratic principles and the ass-licking they provided shrub with. All I wanted was someone with some cajones -- and Dean is the man!

[nolabels]

89. I suppose if Dean wins the nomination, the DLC will indorse" * "for prez

With leadership like this why do corporations do most of the funding for the republicans? Those multinationals could probably save money by cutting back on the funding of both (make them hungry approach). Dems candidates seem to spend more time attacking each other than the doings of *

On edit: title spelling

Btw who works for who and who pays who's bills. This silly trio seem more in fear of upsetting thier corporate masters and lossing cash than getting in good with the voters. I no longer send donations to the Dean camp, but these fools might make me want to start again. Showing your weakness by ganging up on another, that is pathetic

[Hawkeye-X]

94. OFFICIAL: Dean gets SEIU endorsement

Way to go Dr. Dean!