Dean will probably get in trouble for this

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

He just said on C-SPAN (coverage from a women's issues rally in NH) that ideologically the right-to-life movement compares to the Taliban's telling women how to behave. I'm sure the Repugs will go after him for this statement! (I agree with him 100%, BTW.)

[jenk]

1. This will be on Drudge in 2 minutes

[SalParadise]

2. He's right of course....

Fundamentalism is fundamentalism whether it's Christian or Islamic.

[Renew Deal]

3. Oh boy

That's gonna piss of the wingnuts

[BootinUp]

26. yeppers

trouble

[OKNancy]

4. Only with the rabid right

This is what kills me about all the hash and re-hash of the candidates statements. The pundits act like we are running a general election right now. It's the Democratic primary stupid.
Democrats like that kind of talk.
Democrats like Michael Moore calling Bush a deserter, and we like any bashing of the right-to-life movement.

[webkev]

5. it's a gray area -30 % of Democrats are weary of it -nt

I'm Pro choice, but I respect people who don't agree with me fully

[jsw_81]

6. Dean is correct

The American Taliban (or "Talibornagains" as I like to call them) can be just as extreme as the real Taliban. Dean has made this point many times in the past.

[caledesi]

37. Dean is correct. Agree. Also

I don't get what the deal is about the abortion issue and voting for president bec the president doesn't decide to bring the issue to the Supreme Court, the congress does. Go figure.

[patricia92243]

7. He is right; and if he apoligizes, I'll choke him.

[AP]

8. His secret weapon? Getting out the vote for Republicans?

[lastknowngood]

9. It's always dangerous to speak truth

n/t

[adamrsilva]

10. That kicked ass

.

[Democrats unite]

11. I think the majority of the people here would agree

With Dean on that statement. I see no problem with it.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

12. I don't mean this forum

I mean by the media and other muckrakers.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TeacherCreature]

16. I love his openess

I am tired of politicians who can't say what they stand for because they are too affraid to lose a vote.

[Tesha]

36. *THAT* is *EXACTLY* why Howard Dean is different from most...

I am tired of politicians who can't say what they
stand for because they are too affraid to lose a vote.

*THAT* is *EXACTLY* why Howard Dean is different from most
politicians and it is *EXACTLY* why most of his supporters
have chosen him; I've heard them say it again and again!

Tesha

[caledesi]

38. Yes! Yes! Yes!

[Tesha]

41. Thank you for confirming my statement! ;) (NT)

[w13rd0]

14. He's absolutely correct...

...the Taliban and the Taliborn are ideaological brethren when it comes to the oppression of others.

[TeacherCreature]

15. I am glad the repugs will go after him on this!

I love that we finally have someone willing to speak up on this issue directly.

[beaconess]

17. This is the guy who wants to reach out to the Confederate Flag crowd

but compares Right to Lifers with the Taliban?

Setting aside for a moment the fact that the overwhelming majority of Confederate flag wavers are probably also Right-to-Lifers, why is he so eager to reach out to one group while he doesn't hesitate to trash another?

Why are racists just misguided, manipulated potential Democrats who just need a little love, while anti-abortion activists are terrorists?

Jeez, Howard.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. Do you seriously think he lost votes?

I don't. Any anti-abortion person I talked to will vote for the devil himself if he says he's 'pro-life'. They aren't planning to vote Dem anyway. What Dean did was energize the majority of Americans who want to keep a woman's right to choose and who, I believe, are getting a bit worried about the right wing fundamentalists. Dean's opinions echo my own-I see the right-wing 'Christian' as being akin to the the Taliban in their hatred and intolerance.

[beaconess]

19. You could say the same thing about the bigots he wants to appeal to

Why the difference in strategy?

[wellstone dem]

34. Don't know if it cost him votes but

it was over the top. I know many folks who are anti-abortion and pro-life. They differentiate those who are only anti-aborttion and those who are truly prolife--opposing abortion, opposing the death penalty, supporting liveable wage policies, supporting programs that address domestic violence and child abuse, supporting welfare for those in need, supporting affordable housing, supporting affirmative action. They are as frustrated at those who are only anti-abortion as most who post here. More temperate remarks would have been appropriate.

[SheilaT]

20. Dean's strength is is willingness

to speak up for what he believes in and tell the truth as he sees it.

The woman being interviewed at the end is saying that seeing the candidates and hearing what they say in context is very important, and she's absolutely right.

[kstewart33]

27. McGovern had that quality too

There are hundreds of thousands of women Dems who are not pro choice. How does this sit with them?

What is the overriding goal---to beat Bush. This does not help.

[not systems]

21. Why do...

so many people only say nice things about our
political enemies.

The republicans have trashed the cultural left in the
harshest terms for decades, look it worked they control
all the levers of federal power.

Dean should call the religious right out and force the
issue into the open so moderate republicans have to face
who they are in the tent with.

[beaconess]

22. I agree - I just wonder why he's so selective in his outrage

He's gone awfully easy on bigots, saying that we need to reach out to them because their economic interests would be better served by Democrats.

The same thing can be said about right-to-lifers, but he doesn't seem interested in trying to make nice with them.

The inconsistency is very troubling to me. I don't for a minute think that Dean is a bigot himself, but this once again shows how disconnected he is and how he fails to understand how many Democrats feel about the issue.

I wish he had taken the same approach toward the Confederate flag wavers rather than try to convince everybody that "they're not all that bad."

[not systems]

23. I think you are...

miss reading the intent of the flag comment.

He meant that working class southern whites vote republican
but should vote Democratic because it would be in their
economic interest.

His statement was not a endorsement of the C flag or
a comment on what it means but shorthand for a demographic
that should be Democratic but is not.

You are probable right that he should have bashed the C flag
and called on people to reject it as a symbol of hate and
found a better description of voters he wants to reach out
to in the south.

[beaconess]

32. I'm not talking about the intent

I'm talking about treating bigots as misunderstood but valued members of the American electorate whom he wants to "convert" to our side while blasting Right-to-Lifers as Taliban wannabees.

Most people - particularly minorities - understand perfectly well what he really meant. And it was offensive to many of us.

To many of us, Confederate flag waving bigots are just as reprehensible as some of the more virulent Right-to-Lifers seem to be to Dean. And, certainly, many of the anti-abortion crowd, like the Confederate flag bigots, vote Republican but shold vote Democratic because it would be in their economic interests. But Dean seems to know that offering to reach out to them would alienate a significant portion of his base. The problem is that he doesn't understand that similar outreach to bigots is just as offensive to other parts of the Democratic base.

He also may have ruined his chances of appealing to bigots with this comment since, probably with few exceptions, the guys driving around with Confederate flag decals are also anti-abortion. So, while he reaches out to them on the one hand, he just slapped them down with the other.

His selective outrage shows a political tin ear.

[EstimatedProphet]

39. I don't think you get what Dean was saying

You make it sound like you think there's a class of people that vote bigot at every election, that come from Bigotia or some such place.

Dean is trying to reach out to poor Southerners to help them understand that their problems are caused by larger economic trends, not race. He wants to reach out to them because he kows some of them will be turned around if he does. There's a wide variety of issues that are important to them, and there is a lot of cross-over. In many cases if they have a racist outlook it's because they've been sold a bill of goods by the Republican lapdogs, and Dean would like to undo the damage. By reaching out Dean might convince some of them he's right, and they'll drop their Limbaugh-inspired opinions.

Anti-abortion activists, on the other hand, have one issue, and we don't agree with them. There may be some progressives that are anti-abortion, but they still won't agree with our stance on abortion.

[mandyky]

24. He also had an AIDs activist

spat. He was trying to answer her question, she said then why don't you put it in your speeches and he sorta snapped back that if she wanted to be rude he wouldn't bother answering her question.

Personally I find it refreshing to call people being rude just that, but I am sure there is a way for the idiot media to find a soundbyte to further go after Dean. I have come to the conclusion they want him out or dead politically.

[Gin]

25. His campaign is paid for by general public donations.....that gives

him the ability to say things the others can't or won't because they are beholding to big business or big donors with an agenda. It may hurt him...but it damn sure is refreshing.

Dean set the agenda for the others..they bought into his agenda..even to the point of negating their own standing on some issues. So..as a leader..he is very good. The rest of the pack are his followers..even though they won't admit to it.

Whatever happens in this race, Dean has invigorated me to be involved in a way I never have been, and I am not a young person.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Oh no!! Another "scream" of truthtelling!

Quick, call the DLC! Tell Kerry and Edwards to claim that they're too stupid to understand the statement, and that it's "way over the top" and they think that the right-to-pregnancy movement is a fine and necessary part of American life.

[Tesha]

29. Speaking one's mind is a very dangerous oocupation.

I'm sure the Repugs will go after him for this statement!

He doesn't need to worry about the Republicans going
after him -- It's amazing how well a dagger can be
concealed under one of those nice, fluffy pink tu-tus
worn by so many of our Democratic "leaders".

If you rock the boat, you're liable to get stuck. And
not by the "enemy", either!

Tesha

[mandyky]

30. If shrub gets elected, we will have an American Taliban

People like Judge Roy Moore, Jerry Falwell, and the evangelical Christians will be making laws. We will have faith based everything, women and gays will be second class citizens, and our Supreme Court will be a Kangaroo Court that no longer upholds the rights of minorities.

[SheilaT]

31. We already have an American Taliban

and it's exactly those mandyky just named, along with John Ashcroft, Pat Robertson, and many others. If Bush remains in power (note I don't say re-elected) then they will simply be far more open in their repression of all those who don't agree with their narrow, misogynist, anti human rights of all kinds, world view.

[candy331]

33. If you see the picture of Bush signing of the erroneously

named partial birth abortion bill,I'm sure it was noted there were no females there and the white past middle age men there represented the seat of power in this country showing women and this country are heading back wards rather than forward. The Taliban women may have it better because they know they don't have a place or a voice but in this country women think they do and are are gradually losing the little they do have.

[1songbird]

35. That was pretty good actually.

The Rethugs painted Max Clelland as a terrorist so turnabout is fair play.

[snyttri]

40. A better comparison for chat rooms than TV.

[Loren645]

42. I heard that yesterday. I thought it was one of the best things he's said

I agree with him 100% as well.
Damn good comparison.