Posted on 05/10/2005 7:57:33 AM PDT by ForOurFuture
Breaking party lines, former Gov. Howard Dean said Monday he supports Rep. Bernard Sanders' bid for the U.S. Senate, saying the Independent makes a "strong candidate." "A victory for Bernie Sanders is a win for Democrats," Dean said in a telephone interview Monday.
Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., announced last month he would not seek re-election, clearing the way for what's expected to be a crowded race in fall 2006.
But Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, added that his support is not unconditional.
"We've got a few things to work out with Bernie," he said, adding, "Bernie's not a Democrat."
Dean, the outspoken former presidential candidate whose aspirations for the White House abruptly ended during the primary more than a year ago, refused to describe Sanders' shortcomings in the eyes of Democrats.
"I'd rather tell him in person," Dean said.
Sanders' practice of voting with House Democrats and his name recognition - bolstered by his position as the only U.S. representative in Vermont - makes him appealing to Democrats desperate to regain seats in every branch of government.
"Sanders is a strong candidate," Dean said.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders' chief of staff and campaign spokesman, said the congressman won't formally announce his candidacy until "much later this year."
But Weaver said Dean's support is natural in a political atmosphere dominated by conservative voices.
"I think Gov. Dean and Congressman Sanders share an interest in beating back a very aggressive reactionary agenda of President Bush and congressional Republicans," Weaver said. "We intend to win this seat and Bernie will be a strong voice against the Bush agenda."
Weaver said the campaign will lean heavily on Democratic volunteers and supporters, but also on groups not necessarily aligned with a political party. He mentioned working families, farmers, senior citizens and veterans.
"This is going to be in many ways a historic grass roots campaign for Vermont," Weaver said.
Jim Barnett, chairman of the state Republican committee, criticized the new alliance, saying it raises questions about whether "backroom deals" are being made between Dean and Sanders.
"This is exactly the kind of cynical politics that Bernie Sanders once said was corrupt," Barnett said.
Weaver, calling Barnett a "White House protégé" and a "Karl Rove character," said, "He can throw his bombs and we'll do our work for the people."
"Is there any hope that the GOP can wrest this seat from the grip of socialist moon-bats?"
It's not all bad news. When Bernard Sanders was previously in the House of Representatives for Vermont his Conservative Voting Index (that is, the percentage of times he voted with conservatives) was 33%. At that time Teddy Kennedy's was 21%, John Kerry's was 13%, and the late Patrick Moynihan, touted as that great moderate, was 18%.
Maybe to move Congress more toward the center we need to elect more socialists.
The "Take Back Vermont" movement that animated Ruth O'Dwyer's second gubernatorial run-at the height of the civil unions friction-could be built upon to elect the first real Republican in decades.
As much as the migration of liberal, Ben & Jerry's yuppie effluvia has contaminated that state's body politic-and Bernie Sanders, an emigre from Kings County, is a perfect illustration of this unhealthy phenomenon-I still think that with enough effort we might be able to finally reclaim the Evergreen State.
In brief:
General Secretary Dean announces formation of PFARF, the People's Front Against Republican Fascism, in solidarity with Comrade Sanders.
Democrats Against Fascist Tyranny happily joined this progressive Front.
Expect to see a lot of DAFT PFARFers on your TV screens next election cycle.
It is like good old days in Green Mountain State, no?
Okay.......yesterday Dean was not ready to endorse him, but today's article says he is...hm........that wouldn't be a flip-flop would it?
I KNOW you are not crazy, I have seen your posts and have respected them, so....
Are you convinced that the election of Sanders would NOT be the absolute worst thing for the Senate? I am sitting here listening to Schumer say that the reason that the judges should be filibustered is because HE represents 19 million voters, as opposed to other senators in states like Utah, who only represent a few million---which is exactly NOT the point of the Senate's voting system...
SO, if Bernie Sanders' vote is equal to say, Jeff Sessions, I get sick to my stomach...
I hope your diabolical scenario is correct, but I also hope that a GOP candidate can win, more.
Sanders will be the worst possible thing for Democrats. Since he caucuses with them, he'll be identified with them in the public mind. Since he isn't a party member, they'll have very little to control him with.
You are correct. His relations should move to Cuba where they can work in the sugar can fields. Britain is far to good for them.
Yes, if they like socialism so bloody much, they should starve on maggot infested rice like the people in North Korea do. There's socialism for them.
Regards, Ivan
The fact is that Vermont, much like Sweden, can survive generations of socialism before it starts to decay. You have a rural, homogeneous state in which social pressures outweigh government coersion. Cities magnify the pathologies of socialism and make them readily apparent.
You can't compare Senators to Representatives with those indices. There are different bills and different issues.
Sanders has been elected and reelected in Vermont, statewide for seven consecutive terms. He was mayor of Vermont's largest city before that.
Yes.... kind of like a ship out in a big storm in the ocean, and the ship has to much weight, and is listing to port, and Dean tells them to bank the ship even farther to port side, and the ship is about to capsize.
Then again this is Vermont, where "middle of the road" is defined as "somewhere between Ché Guevara and Josef Stalin."
Paradoxically, I think that New Hampshire is beginning to slip from the GOP's grasp, but even more importantly, veering away from liberatarian conservatism into the morass of Northeasten liberalism.
That's why I thought that former Gov. Benson's warm reception of the the "free-staters" was a wise political maneuver.
If the Republicans can engineer a ticket containing both him and Gov. Owens-another executive from a state that the libs are furiously besieging-then I don't think Hillary-or Edwards, or Bayh, or whomever-has a shot in hell of capturing the White House in '08.
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