Rep. Smith attacks DEAN

[wabeewoman]

Smith is an leader in the DLC and voted FOR the war in Iraq in spite of thousands of letters from his consituents (he later sent a mealy mouthed letter justifying it).



Dean's attacks hurting party, Smith claims
LES BLUMENTHAL; The News Tribune

WASHINGTON - Congressmen don't normally get involved in presidential politics this early, but Rep. Adam Smith of Tacoma says former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and his activist supporters are threatening to tear the Democratic Party apart and ensure the re-election of President Bush.

"I don't think it cuts in our favor if the electorate sees a frothing-at-the-mouth Democratic Party," Smith said.


Both in an interview and a guest column in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Smith said Dean has used "shameless opportunism" and "wedge politics" to divide the Democratic Party and fashion a message that could keep Bush in the White House and leave Republicans in control of Congress.


Smith said Dean has emerged as the leader for the Democratic presidential nomination by vilifying his opponents as "cockroaches" and denouncing their politics as "Bush lite."

http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/4331229p-4340279c.html

[unfrigginreal]

1. "Smith is an leader in the DLC and voted FOR the war in Iraq "

Another cockroach speaking out.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

15. Nice. Keep it up.

Dean's supporters do us no service by repeating his trash talk.
Oh and,
too bad Dean signed the civil union law in the dark, like a .....

[unfrigginreal]

23. Is the bill signing ceremony that important to you?

Since he didn't french kiss a drag queen, then he didn't really mean it? I'll take every positive piece of legislation towards gays regardless of "shove it in your opponents face" ceremonies.

As for the "trash talk", I'm sorry that Dean didn't just let the others moan about the cockroach comment. It would have drawn more support rather than alienating existing support.

[mandyky]

61. Did you hear Dean's comments about the hogs in IA?

He was walking out to the pen to check out the 600 pound hogs the farmer had and he dead panned this one - "I can see the media coverage now - Dean talking to lobbyists". I belly laughed for a few minutes an instantly thought of the cockroach comment he'd made.

True story, but I didn't save the link - try the blog archives - it was no more than 2 weeks ago.

[mbali]

60. Is every criticism of Dean

an attack?

Just wondering.

[mzmolly]

2. Uhm, is Smith concerned about the attacks 'against' Dean?

Or. does his concern end at that point?

[blm]

6. Did anyone care that Dean threw the first twenty punches?

.

[Egnever]

19. You mean this one?

"What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the president's unilateral war on Iraq," he said in the speech's opening line.

The audience applauded. Dean began ticking off other examples of where he said the party had knuckled under to Bush -- on the tax cut, health care, education reform.

"What I want to know is why our folks are voting for the president's No Child Left Behind bill that leaves every child behind, every teacher behind, every school board behind, and every property taxpayer behind," he yelled.

The audience, many of them now standing, cheered louder. To be sure, some of the cheers were coming from college students smartly recruited by the Dean campaign to make noise for him. But many of the DNC delegates were just as excited.

"I'm Howard Dean and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," he said.


I cared! Hell I cheered!

[blm]

53. Except the Dems weren't supporting unilateral war,

and none of the candidates supported Bush's taxcuts even though Dean has told audiences that they did.

Why did Dean do that speech as a fighting populist when he governed as a compromising centrist, more guilty of aligning with the GOP over the last 11 years than ANY of the other candidates? Because he HAD to disguise himself. Bottom line: Dean misrepresented himself and the others.

[w4rma]

56. "I think he might be a good president," Smith said.

…
In the end, if Dean should win the nomination, Smith said he would support him and campaign for him.

"I think he might be a good president," Smith said. But if he wins the nomination, Smith said, he will need people like Kerry, Lieberman, Gephardt and Edwards to beat Bush.



IMHO, you need to remember Smith's words about needing others, blm.

[blm]

57. Then Dean and many of his supporters shouldn't have been such

vitriolic jerks when they attacked candidates falsely so many months ago.

Don't lecture me when the houses here are made out of the thinnest glass.

[blm]

3. His statement reflects something internal polls show.

Dean brings down the ticket in more congressional districts than any other top tier candidate. Of course they care.

[StephNW4Clark]

4. Disclosure: Smith is a Kerry (or Edwards?) endorser (I think)

[w13rd0]

7. That would mean that he was lying...

...when he said he doesn't get involved this early, wouldn't it?

[DemBones DemBones]

69. No, it would not mean he was lying, but that you misread.

Smith didn't say anything about not getting involved this early.

The reporter said congressmen don't usually get involved this early.

Later in the article, the reporter said Smith is one of the few congressmen to have endorsed a candidate (Kerry) this early.

[AP]

13. Smith's ADA voting record is 85%

http://www.adaction.org/HouseVR2002.htm

Which is exactly the average for the House Democrats in 2002.

http://adaction.org/VRStats2002.htm

As far as being liberal, he's exactly in the middle, which, I believe, is farther left that Dean claims to be.

[blm]

16. He hasn't endorsed anyone yet.

.

[SahaleArm]

27. Wife is the head of Kerry's WA State campaign.

Adam Smith's wife.

[w13rd0]

5. Is there a reason...

...I should care what this bloke says?

No, didn't think so.

[LuminousX]

8. Shame

Dean only said those congress people who held up prescription drug benefits would scurry like cockroaches... I don't beleive any of his opponents have held up prescription drug benefit legislation...


Smith sounds like he would fit right in with certain people here at DU. So eager to become a victim of Dean's campaign. I've never seen so many people jump in front of a bus at once in my entire life. For what cause? Just to be able to say Dean is mean? This is the type of leadership one would expect from lemmings.

[TennesseeWalker]

9. The more they complain about this, the worse it makes us look.

"Frothing at the mouth". I think they're trying to ensure a Democratic loss. Even if they get a centrist, DLC candidate in the primary, they're ensuring the eventual loss of the nominee because Mom and Pop think we're ALL "frothing at the mouth". *sigh*

Is there no hope?

[AP]

I totally agree with Smith.

When Dean told black voters that he was the only one talking to white audiences about their concerns, I was stunned. Not only was it a lie, but it was the sort of thing that you say to ensure that, if you don't get nominated, black voters will have less enthusiasm for the person who does get nominated.

[el_gato]

12. you would being a blair apologist

new democrats won't be happy until they have destroyed the party

[AP]

14. Blair is more liberal than Dean, by the way.

Blair would never go to the Cato Inst and beg them to like him.

[blm]

17. Dean didn't "beg" at the CATO Institute. He was being himself.

A GOP aligning centrist with a Libertarian's instinct for deregulating industry. That's how he governed for 11 years, but, so many believe his election year populist rhetoric.

[AP]

21. Exactly. He was being a libertarian. Yuck.

[RogueTrooper]

24. No he he not

Tony Blair is not more liberal than Dean.

[SahaleArm]

28. On what planet is Dean more Liberal than Blair?

The British political system is to the left of the US; their conservatives are our moderates. Let me guess the Iraq war defines liberalism.

[AP]

31. The British political system is VERY conservative. Psst. It's a monarchy.

And Blair has been undoing the institutions in the UK which have, over the past 100 years, prevented every other "liberal" PM from getting reelected to a second term.

Thatcher-Major was every bit as RW as Reagan-Bush. Blair was very much like Clinton...the triumph of a more liberalizing counter to what went before it. Gore should have won, but evil triumphed. Blair is holding the liberal line until the US can kick the coup leaders out of office.

[SahaleArm]

36. I'd say they are Imperialistic liberals.

They've installed traffic cameras everywhere and banned all handguns; maybe they want to become a totalitarian state. Although Britain may be moving right they are still left of the US political spectrum in terms of social and economic issues.

[AP]

39. Britain is moving gradually to the left, from the right.

There's no middle class in the UK, or, at least, there wasn't a middle class until now.

NO country without a middle class can be liberal. Being liberal is about spreading wealthy and political power to the vast wealthy middle class.

Bush, in the US, to counter liberalism, is trying to saddle the middle class with such unbelievable debt, and tax burden, that they'll be nothing more than wage slaves for the rich.

In the UK, Blair is creating record employment, and raising wages, and putting a lot of wealth and power in the hands of a nascent middle class. However, because the working class has been so battered over the years in the UK, he's had to start there. It's the bottom two quintiles which have seen the biggest improvements since 97. All quintiles are improving. However the bottom two have done the best.

That, my friends, is liberalism. And that's what the Tories hate the most.

[SahaleArm]

40. Thanks for the recap.

I guess my assumptions were mostly incorrect, I assumed Britain had a stronger middle class. How much of this is a result of Britain's imperialistic/monarchical past?

[AP]

43. It's a product of a 20th Century in which the Labour party never won...

...reelection.

When Tories are in control for a century, and Labour is in opposition for most of the time, you get a society with no middle class and which uses monarchy and nostalgia for the past as the opiate of the working class.

Unfortuately, every time Labour was in power, they acted like it was going to be the last time, and they went gung-ho until Tories were easily able to spin victory out of it.

For example, the Labour party abolished the death penalty, so the Tories ran on Labour being soft on crime.

Incidentally, in 1983, Labour had in their plank that they'd turn over the ownership of major corporations to the state. Not even union members and labourers thought that was a good idea. That was the year Blair got elected to parliament. He was one of the very few that year to win for Labour. The party suffered unbelievable losses. Blair saw that the party was months from disappearing forever, so he embarked on the project to turn Labour into a party which could actually deliver to the middle and working class. It took him 14 years to get elected. And now he's laying down the foundation for a real, liberal 21st century in Britain.

Liberal historians are going to look very kindly on him. (Did you know that most peopel on the far left hated FDR? Only now does the far-ish left realize his contribution to the destruction of fascism in America).

[SahaleArm]

46. Makes sense.

Was Blair and the Labor Party a driving force in EU acceptance by the UK? And do you see that continuing to where the EU gains more control over Britain, either politically or economically? Danes that I have spoke to in the past were tepid about giving up sovereignity to the EU.

[AP]

52. Even the tories couldn't avoid the obvious need to integrate with Europe

But Blair is really making the argument in a way the Tories didn't.

The Tories wanted the good economy that EU promises, but they didn't want to adopt the liberalising economic policies, especially the ones that limit a governments ability to subsidize certain industries (because that's one of the biggest promises the tories make to their supporters).

The EU is set up very smartly. I think people will start to realize the rewards it reaps. It'll also be harder for the RW to hijack it. I'm sure there will come a point when there's a danger of RW hijacking it, but, hopefully, it will have set up all the bulwarks against fascism before then (ie, wealthy, large middle classes).

[AP]

29. Oh, yes he is.

He's definitely more liberal than Dean.

[RogueTrooper]

44. Trust me

They are about the same politicaly but Tony Blair is not more liberal than Howard Dean. Certainly, the Labour Party do not view it thus. Wesley Clark is the favoured son of the Labour Party, if you are in any way interested.

Blair is probably a little more social authoritarian than Dean.

[AP]

48. Dean governed VT to the right of the way Blair governs the UK.

If Dean wins in 2004, he'll balance the budget on the backs of the middle class, which will be awful for the bottom three or four quintiles, just like it was when Hoover did the same thing.

He'd never achieve the growth in wealth and political power among the bottom three quintiles that Blair has achieved.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

50. "Dean will balance the budget on the backs of the middle class"

Exactly another reason why he won't win thanks to Rove.

[killbotfactory]

54. Yeah, the poor and middle class hate free healthcare for their children

fiscal responsibility, good schools, and a clean environment.

Dean: Demon in disguise?

[Rose Siding]

42. So does Zell Miller!

[killbotfactory]

10. Dean's "activist" kool-aid drinking mob will destroy the democratic party!

FEAR!



DOOM!



HORROR!



OBEY THE STATUS QUO!
OBEY THE STATUS QUO!
OBEY THE STATUS QUO!
OBEY THE STATUS QUO!
OBEY THE STATUS QUO!
OBEY THE STATUS QUO!

[caledesi]

11. I can't wait to email and tell him to keep talking and I'll keep donating

every time he opens his big mouth.

[SahaleArm]

25. This is the funniest thing.

I've only seen this from Dean supporters: 'Criticize Howie and I'll donate to his campign?'. Do you guys plan to use that against the Repugs too:)?

[killbotfactory]

26. Money talks.

Bullshit walks.

[blm]

32. Then Bush will win by that formula. $$$ talk.

Dean raises money BECAUSE he has bullshitted so many into believing he is a fighting populist, while his 11 year record is that of a compromising centrist with a Libertarian's view of deregulation.

[AP]

34. "throwing good money after bad" is the phrase that comes to mind...

...when I see that bat.

I just hope those people giving save a little money to give to the liberal who eventually gets nominated.

[SahaleArm]

37. No Fidelity Ralph will be calling then.

*nm*

[caledesi]

30. Yes, all the time. When the exterminator Delay was trashing

Dean, I emailed him and told him to "keep trashing because Dean will be cashing"...catchy phrase, huh?

As a matter of fact, we haven't heard too much from Delay on Dean lately, have we? Hmmmmmmm

[Demobrat]

65. Yes.

Why?

[quinnox]

18. Smith is right

And Levin also spoke out against Dean recently, seems he didn't appreciate being called a cockroach.

Don't tell me, now the Deanies will start saying how Levin is the enemy now too, oh boy.


Dean is going to be disappointed if he thinks he can run as him vs. the Democratic party, he won't win that way.

[killbotfactory]

20. Dean breaks all fundraising records, but he's "unelectable"

These congresspeople whine like spoiled children.

[AP]

22. Bush doubled up Gore, and he was barely electable.

[displacedvermoter]

33. 'Splain how Bush "doubled up" Gore

Considering Gore got 500,000 (or more) more popular votes than did Shrub, and won the electoral college (barring the great election theft)?

And what does this have to do with 2004?

[AP]

35. In money...Didn't Bush outraise Gore by at least 50%, maybe 100%

?

It has to do with using money as a measure of who's going to win.

[displacedvermoter]

38. Country Club Repugs are ALWAYS going to raise far more money

than Dems are, especially a corrupt crew like the Bushies. I agree, money is not a measure of who is going to win -- clearly Bush didn't "win" -- but Dean's fundraising would indicate strong organizational infrastructure that should, I think, clear away many of the concerns about Dean as a doomed candidate.

Bush is in his own time zone for fundraising, may be th eonly thing he is good at.

[Larkspur]

63. Bush is a squanderer and always has been

Dean has always been fiscally prudent and is much wiser on how and when he spends his money.

One of the reasons he has raised and continues to outpace his rivals in campaign contributions is because he uses his cash wisely and makes pin-pointed attack ads to maximize media attention and conserve cash. The best example is after the Cheney Challenge, DFA bought ad time in Austin, TX attacking Bush. The ad was aimed at energizing Texas Dems for the primary, not necessarily winning Texas in the general election. That was a tactically brilliant stroke by Joe Trippi because it made us small time contributors feel like we were helping attack the Monster from Crawford.

[AP]

64. Something that always rubs me the wrong way in politics is...

...a statment like this: "Dean has always been fiscally prudent and is much wiser on how and when he spends his money."

It verges so close to trying to rely on character where track record fails.

Dean grew up rich rich rich with tons of privilege, and his actions as governor reveal that he might not have forgotten how he grew up. So his campaign is trying to counter it with an carefully constructed image of frugality.

I hate when personality is a substitute for policy. The policy, to me, that matters, is that Dean doesn't seem so interested in progressive taxation (which is bad policy to have if you're trying to help the middle class) and he brought his Wall St cronies up to VT to help sell off assets and deregulate the energy industry. I don't care if he's cheap, personally, or not. But if he's not pursuing policies that help the middle class financially, but help his Wall St cronies, then no amount of personality is going to make those policies palatable.

[killbotfactory]

45. Dean is also tied or leading when Vs. Bush among the candidates

Unelectable?

Dean's the frontrunner who's breaking all records, building a huge grassroots movement, and is on top of the polls. He'll be able to compete with Bush based on manpower and fundraising, and people like him.

Unelectable?

Why is that, again?

[AP]

47. Uhm, that's the opposite of the truth. I've only seen ONE poll that has...

...Dean NOT coming in last or tied for last in head to head match-ups with Bush. (They usually only show the results for five Dems, but Dean NEVER comes in first in those match-ups).

[killbotfactory]

49. Then you don't pay attention

But maybe you'll get the message when Dean is inagurated for his second term as president.

[AP]

55. Actually, I pay close attention.

Do you want to search the archives, or shall I?

[Demobrat]

66. Dean's not electable because

all the good old boys down south driving pickup trucks with confederate flag decals and guns racks will never vote for him, because they already have good schools and health care for their kids.

[Mairead]

41. What a totally sad scunner he is.

Dean's a bad choice, but it's not for the reason that pillock is trying to sell.

[mmonk]

51. The DLC has had it in for him

since his early successes. Not surprised.

[blm]

58. Dean was DLC. They are mad that he's pretending he's not.

Why would the DLC be against the most centrist candidate in the field?

Dean attacked them to pretend he wasn't one of them, when his record shows him to be one of the furthest right of the Democrats.

[Larkspur]

Well, if Dean's attacks get rid of bums like Smith, than that's great

for the Democratic Party. It's Dems like Smith that have been strangling the Democratic Party too long.

Time to prune the deadwood from the Party.

[polpilot]

74. Pro-war politicians ALWAYS swarm together. It's shameful.

Dean '04...

[KaraokeKarlton]

59. This is pretty funny seeing as Dean isn't the one doing the attacking

Dean made one general criticism of those who voted for the war. It's Kerry, Gephardt and leaders of the DLC that are trying to divide the party. I haven't heard Dean say anything even remotely close to the level of the crap coming from some of the others. The hypocrisy is unbelievable.

:eyes:

[DemBones DemBones]

67. Dean isn't the one doing the attacking?

ROTFL. That's a good one!

[Mairead]

70. What's funny is Dean's pretense that he was never in favor of the attack

That's what's 'funny'. That and his supporters' amusing pretence that today's story is the eternal story.

Dean's supporters rightly get all over Kerry about his trying to keep his cake and eat it too, but there's never a moment's admission that Dean is trying to rewrite history, or that Dean's and Kerry's positions at the time of the IWR were substantially indistinguishable.

[wabeewoman]

62. BTW Smith did endorse Kerry

"Smith is one of the few members of Congress to have endorsed a presidential candidate and one of only two Democrats from Washington state. Smith announced his support for John Kerry months ago and has campaigned for the Massachusetts senator in Iowa."

Not that there is anything wrong with that but my objection is he pretends to speak for the democratic party and tell us who we should elect. I was extremely angry at him when in spite of overwhelming mail and phone calls AGAINST the war from his district, he voted for it. And gave a bunch of crappy reasons that had been widely discredited. He wasn't alone in that but he did not listen to his consituents.

[DemBones DemBones]

68. It's always important to read the articles linked to . . .

Here are what I consider to be the most significant paragraphs:


Over the years, Smith has emerged as one of the leaders of the moderate Democratic faction in the House with strong ties to the centrist Democratic Leadership Conference.

But Smith said his comments were not driven by his links to the DLC, which has been highly critical of Dean.

Prior to his decision to run for president, Smith said, Dean was "Mr. DLC," supporting such moderate positions as a balanced budget. But Smith said Dean saw an opportunity to jump-start his presidential campaign by playing to party activists.

"They wanted someone to stand up to Bush and punch him in the eyes," Smith said. "He saw an opportunity and jumped. He's a totally different person."

Most DUers, I think, do not want a "Mr. DLC" as president. What guarantee is there that Dean wouldn't revert to type in office? He's overly concerned with budget balancing, having shown willingness to cut important entitlement programs to balance the budget. In discussing the federal budget he has advocated raising the Social Security retirement age and cutting Medicare. His views on justice are a bit bizarre as well. He wanted to turn down a large federal grant to help in the defense of mentally ill plaintiffs in Vermont. He has said he thinks defendants have too many rights, forgetting the principle of "innocent until guilty." Right after September 11, he said we might have to give up a lot of our rights to be protected. I'm sorry, but someone in public life who makes such weird pronouncements in public inspires no trust in me. He wants to be thought of as a rebel but there's a difference between a rebel and a loose cannon.

Zell Miller is a Democrat who has become a loose cannon and an embarrassment to the party. I'm afraid Howard Dean could go the same way. They're both men who go beyond confidence in their ideas to thinking they're right and everyone else is wrong. And Zell never bragged about vetoing legislation just to teach the legislature a lesson. It was Dean who did that and justified it by saying that they were "getting too big for their britches."

[Mairead]

71. "there's a difference between a rebel and a loose cannon"

Agreed. And there's also a difference between a real rebel and a faux one. And between evolving and being a weathervane.

[AP]

72. Yes, and Dean is a loose canon and a weathervane.

He had a decade to form his ideas about politics, and he changed them only when he decided to run for president as a Democrat.

[blm]

73. heh...well said.

.