Another one of Kerry's slip ups.
Posted on 07/23/2006 6:50:04 PM PDT by new yorker 77
Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential hopes were sunk when he buckled under to “authoritarian” conservatives hellbent on smearing his military record as part of a larger “proto-facist” movement, says a former top White House aide whose testimony helped sink Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
John Dean, a Republican who served as Nixon’s top counsel, said Kerry slipped up during the 2004 campaign against President Bush by not suing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth when they published a book calling into question the Bay State senator’s Vietnam service.
“What most surprised me is that Kerry never did anything with the Swift boat attacks,” Dean said. “He waited so long, it was shocking. I thought he should have brought a defamation action against them and he would have succeeded.”
Dean compared the situation to a suit brought by the late Sen. Barry Goldwater following his failed 1964 run for president. Goldwater won a lawsuit against a magazine that published a poll of psychiatrists who said he was “crazy.”
Dean was in Boston this week promoting his new book, “Conservatives Without Conscience,” a harsh indictment of the current GOP power structure that paints Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top party leaders as dangerous “authoritarians” who have ignored the ideology’s founding tenets.
“About 23 percent of the American people are authoritarian conservatives,” Dean said. “It’s proto-fascist behavior. While we’re not a fascist nation, we’re too close (for) comfort. I’m trying to warn people.”
Dean, who fired his first salvo at the Bush White House with his last book, “Worse Than Watergate,” slams the administration on the war in Iraq, accuses officials of fear-mongering and criticizes Cheney’s opposition to a congressional measure to ban torture.
Asked what he thinks the president would have to say about his book, Dean said: “He doesn’t read books. He has trouble reading his one-sheet summary papers.”
These are the words of a stupid, stupid man.
I can't hold that against him. It's the only thing, though.
Thank you for this very apt description of John Dean. Knew it in '74 and it still applies.
Wouldn't a defamation lawsuit force skerry to produce his official military records? I doubt he can do that and win the law suit.
Seems I read that most of the people who sued over the anti-Kerry movie backed out when it got to the disposition phase.
The truth is absolute defense against libel. (Is it libel or slander that is printed? I forget!)
Thank you for this very apt description of John Dean. Knew it in '74 and it still applies ...
Did I mention he was a lawyer too?
Someone should to explain to this Massoftwoshits "journalist" the difference beteen smearing and REVEALING THE TRUTH...
Semper Fi
How ironic...
"protofascist." Or "protocommunist" anti-democratic tendencies
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights
3. Identification of enemies / scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. The supremacy of the military / avid militarism
5. Rampant sexism
6. A controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and ruling élite tied together
9. Power of corporations protected
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections
Huey Long: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag."
Long was shot at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge; he died two days later. His last words were reportedly, "God, don't let me die. I have so much to do."
A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. He served as governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a U.S. senator from 1932 to 1935.
Long created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934, with the motto "Every Man a King," proposing new income redistribution measures action to curb the poverty and crime that came as a result of the Great Depression.
Long was accused of dictatorial tendencies for his near-total control of the state government and media and was noted for his colorful, flamboyant, and bombastic character.
In 1910 he was expelled from school for forming a secret society against adding a 12th year of school as a graduation requirement. He spent the next four years as a successful traveling salesman, selling books, canned goods, and patent medicines as well as working as an auctioneer.
Long as governor, 1928-32
Once in office, Long moved quickly to consolidate his power, firing hundreds of opponents in the state bureaucracy from cabinet-level heads of departments and board members to rank-and-file civil servants and state road workers. He replaced these vacancies with patronage appointments from his own network of political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for their job was expected to pay a portion of his salary directly to Long’s political war-chest; these funds were kept in a famous locked “deduct box” and used at his discretion.
In 1929, Long called a special session of the legislature in order to enact a new five-cent per barrel ‘occupational license tax’ on production of refined oil in order to fund his social programs.
Long arrived in Washington, D.C. to take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932. Initially, his participation in the Senate was half-hearted; he was absent for over half the days in the 1932 session. When he did appear, he made characteristically fiery speeches denouncing the concentration of wealth and criticizing the leaders of the Democratic Party, most notably attacking Senate Democratic leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas for his apparent closeness with President Herbert Hoover.
In the presidential election of 1932, Long became a vocal supporter of the candidacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, believing him to be the only candidate willing and able to carry out the drastic redistribution of wealth that Long believed was necessary to end the Great Depression.
Long’s radical rhetoric and his bullying and use of smear tactics did little to endear him to his fellow senators. Not one of his proposed bills, resolutions, or motions was passed during his three years in the Senate. During one debate, another senator told him that “I do not believe you could get the Lord’s Prayer endorsed in this body.”
In terms of foreign policy, Long was a firm isolationist, arguing that America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War and the First World War had been deadly mistakes conducted on behalf of Wall Street.
Huey Long and several fellow state officials, including James A. Noe and Oscar K. Allen established the controversial Win or Lose Oil Company. The firm was established to obtain leases on state-owned lands so that the directors might collect bonuses and sublease the mineral rights of those lands to the major oil companies. These activities were done in secret, and the stockholders were unknown to the public. Long made a profit on the bonuses and the resale of those state leases, using the funds primarily for political purposes.
That must be Americans who are really and truly concerned for the future of this country.
(Boston Herald)“What most surprised me is that Kerry never did anything with the Swift boat attacks,” Dean said. “He waited so long, it was shocking. I thought he should have brought a defamation action against them and he would have succeeded.”
STFU Dean, Kerry STILL hasn't turned in that "signed" 180 form.
No, you didn't mention that he was a lawyer, but I kinda guessed it from the description. Sounds like most of the lawyers I have ever known.
JOHN Dean is NOT a Republican, no matter what he says. He has spent the last 30-40 years urinating on Republican values, ideas, strengths, and anything else Repub.
He is a mangy wuss who, if a pin could deflate his ego, would skitter around and around making an embarrassing flatulent noise, then settle to the dirt from whence he came, to be trod upon. Serving as road surface would be the most useful functioin of his miserable career.
If I only had time, I would let you know what I really think!
vaudine
For all the grief that Kerry endured for not releasing his DOD-180, and if you believe Dean that the Swift Boat Campaign was largely responsible for his 2004 defeat (as I do), one can only assume that releasing the information contained in his military records was potentially more damaging than refusing to do so. One can only imagine how damaging, but I believe Kerry would have been revealed as the TOTAL FRAUD that he is.
The details of his 180 would be revealed during discovery. That is why he did not sue.
PS John Dean is not an idiot and knows this too. He is just carrying water for Kerry.
Another former Republican gone stark, raving mad.
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