Way to go, Edwards/Biden! I'm sure we'll just rake in the cash now!

[ecstatic]

A party full of enemies and people who contradict each other. The GOP is so smart, I know they've been waiting for the moment when we would turn on each other and, as a result, become less of a threat.

[saracat]

1. Oh, Of course, It would be "their" fault.

[AntiCoup2K4]

2. The time has come to cut the DLC cancer out of this party.

Let them join the Republicans, who they vote with anyway, or start over on their own and build their own organization without leeching off the dying carcass of this once great party.

Yes, I said dying carcass. Not terminally though. Allow the DOCTOR to do his job and the patient may yet recover.

[sybylla]

3. Well said, AntiCoup!

I fully agree. The DLC is slowly killing us and it's past time to cut them loose.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

9. Totally agree

The DLC appears to be little more than a thinly-veiled GOP team of infiltrators into the Democratic Party. Support for Iraq and more wars further afield, support for that atrocious bankruptcy bill, support for still more and more outsourcing to throw hard-working, educated Americans out of work-- the DLC is worse than the GOP b/c they support this filth within the guise of the Democratic Party, casting dishonor upon all us.

The whole DLC lot-- Biden, Hillary, Edwards, Bayh, Lieberman-- might as well just join the GOP and get this intolerable game they're playing over with. This is getting very old very fast.

[Southsideirish]

4. I couldn't have said it more beautifully myself. These GOP wannabes

are trying to put the skids on the power and thrust of the REAL Democratic Party. They are trying to staunch our life's blood flow and we must stop them.

[GreenArrow]

15. it's terminal

Even if, miracles of miracles, the patient recovers, it will require heart, mind and soul transplants.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Dean is not the reason I'm not sending money to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC.

It's the cowardly cave-in to the banks and credit card companies when the Senate Democrats voted for cloture and thus brought the bankruptcy bill to the floor for an, as Dr. Frist would say, "up or down vote"--where it received 74 votes and has already been signed into law by Dubya.

My money is going directly to Democratic candidates who vote like Democrats. If the Democrats do not stand for economic justice, they stand for nothing.

I've recently sent money to Bernie Sanders, an Independent, who votes like a real Democrats, and I'm very pleased to see that Dean is thinking about supporting his candidacy. His website is http://www.bernie.org if you would like to do likewise.

Let the Democrats do something to ameliorate the worst aspects of the bankruptcy bill, and then ask for money. Until then, "fugetaboutit!"

[wellstone dem]

6. I did the same thing

after welfare deform

[IndianaGreen]

7. Bernie Sanders votes like Democrats used to, on the side of the people!

Far too many of our politicians have become corrupt and disconnected.

[KoKo]

8. Rove could have been running the Dems with the spite that Biden/Edwards

have done to us. There's NO EXCUSE...except that THEY ARE PART OF THE SHADDOW GOVERNMENT.

The more this goes on the angrier I get. I can blame the "Media" for jumping on this because they are with the Corporate/Globalists or I can say why would Biden and Edwards give the media/Rove and the RWingers fodder to LAUGH AT US?

It's really disgusting and not something we Dems here could have anticipated at this point with Bush in trouble.

How many "Theaters" can we Progressive Dems fight on? And Edwards was INVITED to SPEAK to the Progressives JUST THIS WEEK?

What gives Here? :shrug:

[Adelante]

11. Edwards was given an award at that conference

The Tom Paine Common Sense Award - the highest they give.

[lyonn]

10. Apparently Dean not only threatened Repubs during

his campaign for Pres. but he must scare the Dems in power. Interesting. Oh, forgot about the infotainment people, Dean makes them money from time to time because they can get away with pecking at him with few to defend him. Ain't Dean great! What other Dem gets that kind of attention?

[KoKo]

12. Interesting article from John Aravosis's America Blog Website about Dems

Comment by one of his guest bloggers about the whole issues with all the quotes. It puts into context why what Biden and Edwards did is important to point out. It's a good read...

.................................


Dems. love to eat their own
by Joe in DC - 6/5/2005 08:22:00 PM

Why is it that Democrats just love to attack their own? Howard Dean makes a fairly innocuous criticism of Republicans. The response? He gets dumped on by leading Democrats, John Edwards and Joe Biden, both of whom are (surprise, surprise) thinking about running for President themselves. The "controversy," such as it is, is over these remarks, as reported by AP:

While discussing the hardship of working Americans standing in long lines to vote, Dean said Thursday, “Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.” Dean said later his comments did not refer to hard-working Americans, but rather to the failure of Republican leadership to address working-class concerns.

Dean also said he thinks Tom DeLay should be in jail. So what's the problem? The GOP doesn't care about working class concerns and Tom DeLay probably will be in jail (and certainly should). So, again, what's the big deal?

This looks like another one of those cases where the Right Wing media machine ginned up over Dean's comments... fed them to the media.... who then got Democrats (who conveniently are running for president, so they want to knock Dean out of the picture) to bash Dean. Seriously, the GOP must just sit back and laugh over how easy it is. Our people fall for it every time. They got this headline from AP: "Dems Blast Dean For GOP Remarks".

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/06/dems-love-to-eat-their-own.html

[flpoljunkie]

13. Also interesting perspective from the Left Coaster blog on the same topic

(Emphasis mine.) Also, let's hope Dean has learned the lesson from his most recent gaffe that using precise language matters--so that he can be an even more effective DNC Chair. Dean's is a passionate and committed fighter, and we need him at his most effective because we cannot count on the support of the SCLM to speak truth to power.
______________________

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004560.php#more

<>So, the context of Dean's remarks is clear. That should be sufficient, right?

In this case the answer is NO, it's not. Why?

First, if Democratic leaders want to get more support for the Democratic party from Republicans, they DO need to be careful about how they phrase their criticisms about Republicans. It is very important that they explicitly call out the Republican party leadership rather than simply use the phrase Republicans. The reasons are simple.

The real target of Democrats is the leadership of the GOP and their brown shirts in the "fair and balanced" media - the target is NOT rank-and-file Republicans; so there's no reason to not make this clear up front. While the Far Right Republicans have been brainwashed by their party and their media, there are many thoughtful Republicans and conservatives among us (even playing a leading role on issues of importance to Democrats - example).

Many Republicans voted for Kerry/the Dems in 2004 (or did not vote for George Bush) - you don't want to alienate them. For heavens' sakes, American Conservative magazine endorsed John Kerry in 2004 with the following words: "George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism."

Rank-and-file Americans (especially Republicans) are misled and lied to daily - by GOP leaders and their brown shirts in the media - and criticisms by Dems are always distorted to keep these misinformed people further misinformed about the Democratic party; why add more fuel to the fire at a time when Dems don't have much influence over the media?

Let me say this again. Not only does accuracy matter, it is especially important when you have virtually no influence over the media (a media that is firmly biased in the other direction). Democrats should have learnt this by now.

more...

[KoKo]

14. No matter how "precise" we are, though, the media will distort or lie

about it. We've seen that going back to Jimmy Carter and before. You could read from a script and the media will distort it, if you are a Democrat.

Dean can give back to the Right Wing Repugs what they dish out and he can make mincemeat of a Blitzer. The more he is muzzled the more he becomes the kind of Democrat we get angry with for not "standing up" to the Repugs.

It's hard to have it both ways. Dancing around issues so as not to make Repugs who might want to vote for us angry isn't going to help us. Not enough of those Repugs seemed to cross over to push Kerry in a landslice causing the DRE machines to short circuit in 04.

A strong message against Bush and Repuglican blowhards, Faux, Limbaugh, Colter and the Corporate MSM Hacks will eventually win over more Democrats to get out and vote when they see our party standing up for something and fighting back. I could care less about feeding Repugs "treats" to get them to join us? Just my opinion, though. :shrug:

[flpoljunkie]

16. Yes, but let's not make it easy for them to attack our party thru Dean.

Dean did not "dance around." He used a broad brush to tar all Republicans. This is not smart if you are trying to make headway in the "red states" or anywhere else with those who we hope are beginning to wake up to the fact that the Bush administration is not who they pretend to be on TV.

Dean's message can be both strong and accurate if he learns to use language more precisely, and to think a bit before he speaks. Let's hope he is learning from his mistakes. I certainly hope he is, as we need him to be as effective as he can be for our party and it's goal of economic and equal justice for all Americans.

[Larkspur]

22. No, Dean did not attack all Republicans

He did an excellent job of clarifying his statement on Blitzer while staying on the offensive. The Media intentionally took Dean's comment out of context and they will continue to do so in the future. The Media needs to be scrutinized and blasted for their mistakes and hidden agendas also.

[flpoljunkie]

23. Dean did attack all Republicans originally. Blitzer gave him opportunity

to correct his mistake, and Dean very wisely took advantage of this opportunity and corrected himself--removing his broad brush criticism of all Republicans and limiting it to the Republican "leadership--something which Dean must continue to endeavor to do--for the good for us all.

Dean has evidently "moved on." I suggest we at DU do the same.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004560.php#more

This USA Today piece gathers some of Dean's latest and previous "controversial" comments. The one that is making the waves now is his statement from last week's Take Back America conference:

Dean's comment came as he recalled conditions at crowded Ohio polling stations last fall. He wondered who could expect voters to work all day and then stand in line for eight hours to vote. "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives," he said, drawing some surprised "oohs" from his audience.

[Larkspur]

24. No, Dean did not attack all Republicans

You and the Media took Dean's comments out of context. Dean was talking about the long lines many voters, mostly minorities in Democratic districts, faced during the 2004 election. He was criticizing the leaders, mostly Republican, who managed the election process in their respective states.

George Lakoff during his interview on C-SPAN was asked by the C-SPAN host about Dean's "controversial comment" and immediately Lakoff rebuked the host and the Media for taking Dean's comment out of context. It was a pleasure to see the C-SPAN host wince when beaten with the Truth. Lakoff scolded the host and the Media by saying that he was present during that speech and everyone in that room knew that Dean was talking about Republican lawmakers, not Republican voters.

On Wolf Blitzer, Dean clarified, who he was critiquing during that speech, and he did a wonderful job. I watched the video of Dean's interview with Blitzer on the web.

[flpoljunkie]

25. Suit yourself in believing otherwise. Read it again. Whether he was

talking about voting in Ohio, does not change what he said.

Let's hope he has learned to be more precise when he speaks. That is the bottom line. We need Dean to do this if he is to be effective for us Democrats.

[Me.]

21. "trying to turn red states blue

rather than trying to turn other Democrats black and blue."

Perfect way of putting it.

[peacetalksforall]

17. It says more about Biden and Edwards than it does about Dean.

Biden and Edwards just don't get it. We have a viciously divided country whose leaders on one side are trying to takeover the world and destry this country and Biden and Edwards want to go around playing nice with 1950 manners?

They both fell to the bottom of my admire list. Biden didn't have to fall far.

[gratuitous]

18. Memo to Jonathan and Joe

Let the Republicans defend themselves, if they can. That is all.

[Al-CIAda]

19. Isn't Biden late for another PNAC meeting?

Edwards, the Bilderberger's called, they said maybe next time.

[JNelson6563]

20. I'd spare Edwards but Biden

needs a severe beating.

Julie