The McCain of Vermont ( and an interesting friend to boot)

AZcentral ^ | 08/17/03 | Scutari

[Pikamax]

His face has been splashed on the covers of Time and Newsweek this month.

And his cyberstumping - the use of the Internet to raise big bucks and organize supporters - has turned Howard Dean into a political phenomenon. The former Vermont governor whose iconoclastic ways remind some of Arizona Sen. John McCain stops by Tucson on Monday.

[Stultis]

You know, he does remind me of McCain, which in turn reminds me of the strawberries!

[alloysteel]

By rights, Howard Brush Dean III ought to be a RINO, and beneath the thin veneer of Democrat, that would probably best describe most of his political positions.

Son of Howard Dean, Jr., of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Old Eastern money. Child of privilege. Even tried his hand in stock brokerage, before he decided he owed something back to the human race, and went to medical school. Couldn't find an internship in the New York metro area anywhere, went to Vermont. Got his license, but discovered he had a defective vertebra, and declared unsuitable for military service. Celebrated by going skiing. Got married to Judith Steinburg. Practiced medicine for a while, never did get it exactly right, got bored and ran for elective office. Since elective office in Vermont is not a full-time occupation, kept doctor's office hours most days, regarded both as time-fillers. Lots of time to dream up strange schemes for delivery of medical services, none of which were economically viable. After being elected lieutenant governor, Dean was enjoying his hobby jobs, until the sitting governor had had the bad judgment to die, elevating Dean to governor. Elected in his own right, Dean was governor for about twelve years, when it looked like the next election was going to go against him, and he went looking for another position. He set his hat for the Oval Office, and went into a sort of John McCain impersonation.

Was all this intentional, or just happenstance?

[Welsh Rabbit]

I totally oppose that. I think it's anti-Latino. I'm against that kind of stuff. We need to be sure the federal government is paying its fair share for health care, education and security.

All your money belongs to us....

We should have a forest fire initiative which thins forests and removes dead trees from areas right around communities. We don't need to be cutting down 30-inch trees in the national forest in order to save homes near Tucson.

What an idiot. I guess he's fine if the forest burns up as long as no home are lost? Cutting a few trees will save many more.

[Stultis]

Q: Who is your political hero?

A: Harry Truman. He stood up for what he believed. He said what he meant and meant what he said.

Truman was saving his own skin ^
			Posted by presidio9 On 07/21/2003 10:08 AM CDT with 20 comments Do we let Harry Truman off the hook because, despite his self-recorded anti-Semitism, he bucked his State Department and recognized Israel? That is the question in the aftermath of the discovery in the Truman Library of the most vicious remarks ever made about Jews by an American President. ...What really clinched the deal was that Clifford told Truman that he'd lose the 1948 election unless he recognized Israel. And that he'd better do it immediately, because New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, the Republican who would be his opponent, would demand it and take the Jewish vote. Moreover, the Russians were going to recognize Israel, too.
Truman Called Proof of Soviet Spies in U.S. a 'Fairy Story' ^
			Posted by kattracks On 07/02/2003 5:40 PM CDT with 65 comments Novak notes that the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who discovered the existence of the decrypted Soviet cables and arranged to have them released, did not believe that Truman, who was calling the Hiss case a "red herring," knew about the cables. Moynihan told Novak that "President Truman was never told of the Venona decryptions. It gives one pause now that all Truman ever 'learned' about Communist espionage came from the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, the speeches of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, and the like." For this, Moynihan blamed the fetish for government secrecy in general and Omar Bradley in particular. Bradley, he indicated, had withheld the information about Venona from the president. But Novak later learned that there is plenty of information available that Truman did know about the intercepts and simply brushed them off as some kind of "fairy story."
The Origins of McCarthyism ^
			Posted by Pokey78 On 06/20/2003 11:11 PM CDT with 50 comments What did Harry Truman know, and when did he know it?

[Keyes2000mt]

My stance is that George Bush does what he always does. He talks a big game and does absolutely nothing. His Healthy Forest Initiative is pushed as an excuse to open the wilderness areas to logging, and it never did deliver on its original promise. We should get rid of this president and his pandering to big timber.

Of course it hasn't delivered on its original promise. Want to know why, Einstein? Because Congress hasn't enacted it. Get a clue.

We should have a forest fire initiative which thins forests and removes dead trees from areas right around communities. We don't need to be cutting down 30-inch trees in the national forest in order to save homes near Tucson. I don't think we should use the forest fire tragedies as an excuse to open up logging miles away from where homes are.

Hmm, apparently Governor Dean is under the assumption that forest fires only go a few feet. I'm sorry to dispossess you of this notion but believe it or not forest fires do travel from far away from homes and communities to homes and communities. it appears that forest fires spread.