Free Republic

You won't be seeing any video of Howard Dean's x-rated, epithet-ridden New York fund-raiser because Team Dean made sure to bar the TV cameras. Which suggests they expected trouble. Maybe it was the same foresight that inspired Dean to seal his records as Vermont governor for 10 years because of worries, as he put it in a moment of candor to Vermont public radio, about "future political considerations. We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor." So there were no TV cameras last Monday night when pro-Dean comics took the stage...

Watching presidential politics lately, I've been thinking back to when I was 13 years old and had my heart broken for the first time. It was 1972, and I was antiwar and infatuated with Senator George McGovern. But as I handed out McGovern leaflets in Yamhill County, Ore., I was greeted as if I were the Antichrist. Soon afterward, Mr. McGovern was defeated in a landslide. As Howard Dean will probably be, if the Democrats nominate him. It is, of course, the Democrats' privilege to stand on principle, embrace the man they admire most and leap off a cliff together....

Watching presidential politics lately, I've been thinking back to when I was 13 years old and had my heart broken for the first time. It was 1972, and I was antiwar and infatuated with Senator George McGovern. But as I handed out McGovern leaflets in Yamhill County, Ore., I was greeted as if I were the Antichrist. Soon afterward, Mr. McGovern was defeated in a landslide. As Howard Dean will probably be, if the Democrats nominate him. It is, of course, the Democrats' privilege to stand on principle, embrace the man they admire most and leap off a cliff together....

<p>Fla. -- Democratic presidential candidates flocked to a Walt Disney World resort here yesterday, seeking to tap into the pain of the 2000 election and denounce the administration it installed, enthralling state party convention delegates who seemed happiest when jeering the GOP and President Bush.</p>

Mon Dec 1, 8:41 PM ET Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (news - web sites) laughs after seeing a student wearing a Bush-Cheney campaign T-shirt behind him during a taping of 'Hardball,' with host Chris Matthews, Monday, Dec. 1, 2003, at Harvard University's Institute of Politics in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

HOWARD DEAN wants Osama bin Laden to get 30 years to life. No hanging by the neck until dead. No firing squad. Not even a lethal injection for being the mastermind behind the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans. That's the upshot of Dean's exchange with Chris Matthews last night, an exchange ignored--and in one case glossed over--by a Dean-friendly press. MATTHEWS: Who should try Osama bin Laden if we catch him? We or the World Court? DEAN: I don't think it makes a lot of difference. I'm happy . . . MATTHEWS: But who would you like to, if...

As investigative reporters and “oppo” researchers flock to Vermont to dig into Howard Dean’s past, they have run into a roadblock. A large chunk of Dean’s records as governor are locked in a remote state warehouse—the result of an aggressive legal strategy designed in part to protect Dean from political attacks. DEAN—WHO HAS BLASTED the Bush administration for excessive secrecy—candidly acknowledged that politics was a major reason for locking up his own files when he left office last January. He told Vermont Public Radio he was putting a 10-year seal on many of his official papers—four years longer than previous...

As investigative reporters and “oppo” researchers flock to Vermont to dig into Howard Dean’s past, they have run into a roadblock. A large chunk of Dean’s records as governor are locked in a remote state warehouse—the result of an aggressive legal strategy designed in part to protect Dean from political attacks. DEAN—WHO HAS BLASTED the Bush administration for excessive secrecy—candidly acknowledged that politics was a major reason for locking up his own files when he left office last January. He told Vermont Public Radio he was putting a 10-year seal on many of his official papers—four years longer than previous...

PLAYING DOCTORThe Kerry campaign in Iowa is looking into the events that transpired on Saturday in Des Moines, when former Vermont Gov. Howie Dean, a licensed physician, helped a man who appeared to suffer a seizure on a street. It turns out the man was a Dean volunteer, and Dean just happened to be passing by when he noticed a crowd and wondered what had happened. According to eyewitness accounts reported by numerous press outlets, Dean pushed his way into the crowd (apparently certain that a doctor was needed for whatever was occurring), cradled the man's head in his lap...

Service Employees International Union's political committee and three New York City union groups have agreed to pay $262,000 in penalties for campaign finance violations, including improper record-keeping. The civil penalties, announced Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission, involve violations from 1998 to 2000. SEIU's political campaign committee, known as COPE, paid $75,000 in penalties last December. Under an agreement reached with the FEC last month, New York's Health and Human Service Union 1199, Local 1199 Federal Political Action Fund and 1199 SEIU Federal Political Action Fund shared an additional $187,000 in fines. Among the violations, the FEC found that in...

WASHINGTON The persistence of a quotation he insists is an "urban legend" is evidently infuriating Howard Dean. At lunch last week in the Washington bureau of The Times, the reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg identified herself and started to ask a question. Dr. Dean immediately interrupted: "I want to quickly jump on you for a sec here," he said sharply, and referred to an article she had written based on an interview with Senator John McCain in which yesteryear's maverick took issue with a reported remark of Dr. Dean's. "I never said that. I never said that," the man from Vermont...

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean has been -- and I quote -- "paying `bloggers' or professional Internet surfers to keep the enthusiasm up on his website," according to The Hill, a newspaper which reports on the U.S. Congress. The shocking revelation appeared in an October 8 article titled, "Dem Presidential Rivals Suffer `Growth Pains' Chasing Dean." James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's online Best of the Web page comments: We're all for free enterprise, but this does point up an advantage of "old media" over bloggers. Professional journalists may have their biases, but those of us who work for...

You Knew It Was Coming (Dean Site trashes new Official George W. Bush Campaign Blog) George W. Bush now has a campaign blog. Matt will have more on this in the morning, but in the meantime, inspired by a different Texan, I'd like to issue my own personal response: Mr. President, I'm a blogger. I know blogs. Bloggers are friends of mine. And your site, sir, is not a blog.We welcome all readers of this new somewhat blog-like site to use this as an open thread to discuss what you think of it, because the Bush folks aren't interested in...

What Makes The Bush Haters So Mad? First, it was how he got the job. Now it's how much he's doing with it By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Bill Moyers may have his politics, but his deferential demeanor and almost avuncular television style made him the Mr. Rogers of American politics. So when he leaves his neighborhood to go to a "Take Back America" rally and denounces George W. Bush's "government of, by and for the ruling corporate class," leading a "right-wing wrecking crew" engaged in "a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States way of governing," you know that something is...

Name that tune When not collectively ganging up on President Bush, Democratic presidential hopefuls individually are coming up with some unusual campaign gimmicks to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Take Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who is announcing the availability of a signed limited edition die-cast replica of the Craftsman Truck Series No. 50 "Bob Graham for President" Ford F-150 truck driven by racing phenomenon Jon Wood. One can play with the nifty red and white toy trucks for an $80 campaign contribution. The die cast is signed by Mr. Wood, who drove the F-150 to victory...

<p>September 8, 2003 -- Democratic presidential contender Joe Lieberman last night took sharp issue with front-runner Howard Dean's statement that America shouldn't "take sides" in the Middle East. "If it was thought out, it's a mistake. If it wasn't, it's very important for Howard Dean, as a candidate for president, to think before he takes positions," Lieberman told The Post.</p>

I think too many people overestimate the 'mushy middle'. I haven't seen enough of Wes Clark to comment on him, but as of now, I think there are THREE candidates that have a shot to beat Bush. Gephardt is a long shot, but I think he COULD based on electoral college and his labor ties. Wes Clark I have listen on his military background, but I need to learn more about him, and then Dean. Sharpton, Mosely-Braun, and Dennis Kucinich are jokes. I thought Bob Graham was a threat early on, but his campaign hasn't gotten off the ground, and...

If you did not recognize this woman, you would not a alone. She is Howard Dean's wife Judy, and she is "coming out" into the primary season, accompanied by puff-pieces like the one below from AP: Judy Dean, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, sits in her medical office in Shelburne, Vt., Feb. 6, 2003, where she is an internist in private practice. If her husband wins the presidency, America's next first lady could be a doctor tending to her patients while her husband tends the country. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, file) Howard Dean's wife is...

Flood the Zone Fridays, brought to you by Karl Rove Posted by Ezra Klein George W. Bush has a new website up, and upon seeing it, you have to admit -- this is a campaign that "gets" the web. Their website consolidates many of the tools that the Democratic challengers and their supporters have been experimenting with, and they are well implemented. Particularly impressive is their Action Center, which has one the the coolest, most useful tools I've ever seen: If you scroll about halfway down the page, you'll see a field where you can input your zip code...