I wasn't even a Deaniac. But this writer is WAY over the top!

[wyldwolf]

"The story of how Howard Dean went from a supposed attacker, battering down the stodgy gates of the Democratic institution, to an insider hell-bent on weakening the party, further explicates that he and his party in fact helped reelect George W. Bush. What follows should serve as a dramatic warning of what the liberal end of the Democratic Party actually looks like, and why such a slight alternative to the Republican Agenda will not win important elections," wrote Frank (LO, p35).

How did Dean and his party help Bush? By driving down the same "super-highway to oblivion," only slower, a bit more cautiously; hence, "like" Bush, but not Bush. What "follows?" A detailed, description of what Dean and his party are really about, and it's not pretty.

First, Frank puts the real Dean, not the media inflation/creation, under the journalists' microscope and finds . . . a Republican in "Democrat Drag."

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Engel0707.htm

Adam Engle - you try to make the case in your review of this book that liberals helped re-elect George W. Bush.

I would agree. But it wasn't liberals like Howard Dean and John Kerry. It was so-called "progressives" like yourself and Joshua Frank who keep propogating the myth that there is no difference between the Democratic party and the Republican party.

I wish you and yours would go the way of Henry Wallace. You'd be lucky to get the 2% he got in 1948.

[WLKjr]

1. Here's a reply from a proud Deaniac:

(to the author of that column)

Hey buddy, go fu*k yourself you self-righteous asshat!

[bahrbearian]

2. I thought it was these guys who got Chimpy elected?

[wyldwolf]

4. according to the writer, Howard Dean should be in that picture

...but I don't believe any of them aided in the "election."

[bahrbearian]

7. I guess we elected an enabling party, were is the opposition party?

[snowbear]

3. The guy says he's a "Born again Republican"

I looked at that site and he's nothing but a ReTHUG.

Why should we read any of his comments about Dr. Dean???? :shrug:

[wyldwolf]

6. he was jesting

I read that as deep sarcasm.

[ZombieNixon]

5. There are certain individuals who exist just to bring down Democrats.

They really believe there is no difference between the two parties and who think that the Democrats must be destroyed for them to pursue an agenda that is just as nonsensical and dangerous as those they purport to oppose (who happen to be in office right now). And this is coming from a self-proclaimed liberal and progrrssive. Don't let 'em get to you.

[democracyindanger]

8. Frank's an expert

'cause he helped run that wildly successful Nader campaign.

[sandnsea]

9. Interesting read

The part about Dean is why Kerry people can't figure out what the "progressive" draw is. Kerry's record over that same period is infinitely better than Dean's on environmental and social issues, and Kerry even had many accomplishments for women and minorities in small business. Never understood the progressive attraction to Dean, it was all Trippi image-making. I wouldn't put it quite as harshly as this article, but it's still true in part.

Which isn't to say either one of them is just like a Republican, I agree 100% with you on that. That's what is currently hurting Democrats, that and that these people proclaim themselves to be Democrats when they're really socialist/communist/anarchists. They really should go create their own party, I beg them to all the time.

[Larkspur]

10. Joshua Frank is a well-known anti-Dean pundit

And yes, Howard Dean was born into a Rockefeller Republican household, was a Rockefeller Republican until 1980 when he went to work on Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign and got involved in Vermont's Democratic Politics.

Frank seems to ignore all the social service programs Dean enacted, like helping getting nearly all children in Vermont health care and enacting a social service program to help mothers take care of their newborns and lower child abuse rates. Is that what he meant by balancing the budget on the backs of the poor?

Dean also demonstrated political courage. Did Frank mention that or did he gloss over it? While Dean was no social progressive activist, he did sign the first Civil Union bill in the nation when his political popularity in Vermont was hovering at 35%. Can you imagine Kerry doing that if his political popularity was at 35%? Dean signed that bill without fanfare but he did it and then he went on to win re-election against a Repuke, who was funded by the Right-wing machine that supports Bush now.

Frank, like Kucinich and Nader, do not really understand Dean's supporters, most of whom were in the 30-49 age group, not the young adult group that the Media said it was. We knew that Dean was not the "flaming liberal" that the corporate controlled Media claimed he was. Many of us are Moderates who lean Left too. We knew that we would not agree with Dean on every issue, but we supported his willingness to champion our frustration at the Hill Dems, who kept rolling over for Bush instead of fighting for core Democratic principles. Dean was willing to fight for core Democratic principles, courageously attack the Right-wing machine, and do both passionately.

Kucinich's problem is that he looks like a gnome, so when he attacks the Republicans, they laugh at him. The Repukes didn't laugh at Dean, whose budget balancing in Vermont, was a threat to their corrupt free-spending ways. Nader was always looked upon as a fringe candidate. He was a great lawyer for consumer advocacy, but as a politician he had no experience or system to back him.

Oddly enough, Dean, who was given no hope to succeed in the primaries, developed a system, albeit from the seat-of-his-pants and with Joe Trippi's help, to take him from obscurity to front-runner status and put pressure on the Dem Establishment. Neither Kucinich nor Nader could do that.

Does Frank tell his readers how Howard Dean won the endorsements of SEIU? Dean did it by following Andy Stern's directions, directions which Stern gave to every Democratic Prez candidate. Only Howard Dean, not Kucinich, not Kerry, not Gephardt, not Edwards nor any of the other Dem Prez candidates followed Stern's advice. Those directions and advice were "You have to win endorsements from the majority of SEIU local groups to win the national SEIU endorsement." Dean worked the SEIU local groups the same way he worked the 440 DNC members to win the DNC Chair -- one-on-one. Since none of the other Dem Prez candidates followed Stern's advice, the SEIU endorsement was a lock for Dean.

This work ethic of Dean's impressed me the most about him and that's why I would drive 5 times to NH to campaign for him on some of my weekends and use my personal vacation days to take time off from work to help the Dean campaign during the NH primary. I would never have done that for any of the other Democratic Prez candidates.

I think David Sirota and John Nichols understand Howard Dean and his real appeal to Dean supporters much better than Joshua Frank ever will.

[lojasmo]

11. Why anybody would read even a REVIEW of Frank's book is beyond me.

And citing it as legitimate criticism of Dean is preposterous.

[wyldwolf]

13. so... where did I cite it as a legitimate criticism?

I'll wait for that.

[CTLawGuy]

12. to say you were "not even a Deaniac"

is an understatement

:)