Dean in CA: ""The Bush people rely on us to be chicken to talk about the tough issues."

[madfloridian]

Way to go, Howard Dean. Keep challenging our party to speak up. It is hard because they just go after us, but if we don't stand up we will never get our country straightened out.

Dean calls for proactive and fearless strategy

PICO RIVERA - A more proactive and fearless strategy is what's needed to propel Democrats to victory in 2008, Democratic National Committee Chairman and former presidential candidate Howard Dean told local Democratic party members at an intimate meeting Saturday.

...""The problem with the Democrats is that we run away from controversial issues," he said, "and that turned out to be a big mistake."

"What I want to know is what you think about the stuff that worries them, that's confusing them, and that gets them passionate," Dean added. "The Bush people rely on us to be chicken to talk about the tough issues."

He knows there's a price to pay for speaking out. But if we don't, we lose.

"There is a price to be paid for candor"...Howard Dean 2004

[rodeodance]

1. HE IS RIGHT.

[blm]

2. Many bigname Dems and Dem lawmakers stayed mostly quiet from 2001-2006

and let all lesser known Democrats and media figures take all the hits for opposing BushInc.


Seriously - a perfect example was Tora Bora and when Kerry, Dean and Clark called for Rumsfeld to be fired, and NO bigname Democrats would back up that call, and instead sided with Bush in keeping Rumsfeld on.

[madfloridian]

6. That's one reason I am so angry....the silence.

In fact one Democratic group was pushing for the war, knew it was about empire and power. They remained silent. I put less blame on those in Congress than I do on the former president and the group he founded, the DLC...and his wife had to know as well that Iraq was not an immediate threat.

It is like it overrides everything now in my mind. And they say we will stay, which implies permanent bases which in turn inflames the situation.

[ellisonz]

8. "Silence is betrayal." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And I don't mean it like that....(hint: recent church speech)

RIP

:patriot:

[Morgana LaFey]

12. Silence condones. nt

[blm]

14. And from 2002-2005, their silence on serious matters BETRAYED fellow Democrats

who DID speak out in opposition to Bush.

The Clintons stayed closer to Bush's decisionmaking on terror and Iraq than they did to Kerry's positioning, though they knew full well that Kerry was a LONGTIME expert in that arena.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. Yes.

Did you think I was somehow disagreeing with anything that was said?

I wasn't.

[blm]

16. Nope - I was just taking the opportunity to add to the point of the thread. ;)

.

[Cha]

3. It seems like that's been the

way in a lot of cases. Good on Dean for getting out there and bringing that to light. More Dems need to be less timid.

I don't know if the dlc is timid on purpose cause they agree or what?

[ellisonz]

20. I don't see how being "timid" is necessarily a bad thing.

Donkey's are prized for their timidity, as such they're a great service to the economy of mankind, they are both honest and even tempered. Donkey's are deliberate. Haste makes waste.

The DLC is not timid, the DLC is aggressively authoritarian.

:dem: :kick:

[Cha]

22. THe dlcers are bush enablers

and yeah, very aggressive and shot full of self-inflated authority.

[madfloridian]

23. The DLCers are only aggressive toward left wing activists.

They are very pacifying toward Republicans.

[xchrom]

4. i gotta give dean props for this.

it's about authenticity -- people want leaders who put it out there -- speak from their gut -- ''the people'' do -- and they want to see that reflected.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. Here in the hinterlands,

Dean is dead-on.

[ellisonz]

7. I LIKE FACTS - DEAN IS SPOT ON - READ THIS

The end:

"The fact is, we didn't win the last election, George Bush lost it," warned Dean. "We only got hired because they wanted to get rid of the other guy. We're here on probation."

And we're going to win in 2008 God Help Us!:mad:

[Capn Sunshine]

9. And the status quo crowd that worked so hard to defeat him in '04

tries to spin this as "extremism"

We've got our work cut out for us, no doubt.

[cadmium]

10. We should count our lucky stars that

Dean got the party chairmanship. Democrats were so dispirited in 2004 and it looked like a thankless job.

[Kurovski]

11. K&R.(nt)

[LaPera]

13. Dean Is ALWAYS right on target!!

[MissMarple]

17. Thank you, Howard Dean, for saving us from DLC groupthink.

:applause:

[MODemocrat]

18. Democrats need to be Bully Stoppers

My Dad would tell my four brothers not to be a bully, but rather be a bully stopper; and boy they really
followed that advice throughout their lives. They didn't start trouble, but they certainly could end it.

Repubs are the "bullies" and will continue to be until the Democrats quit playing "nice" stop them in their tracks.!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :spank: :spank:

[Dr Fate]

19. Damn- Dean gets it 100% right yet again. I'm sure the DLC will disagree with him.

Something about dry powder or ropes to hang themselves with.

[sendero]

21. Dean's right as usual..

... when you hear Donald Trump giving a more hard-hitting, realistic and impassioned oration than any Dem senator or presidential candidate, you know something is wrong.

It's time to take the f#$%^#$% gloves off. How many people have to die before someone in our party grows a spine?

(Leahy, Waxman, and a tiny handful of others excluded of course :))

[Greyhound]

24. Once again the Chairman is leading from the front, where leaders

are supposed to be.

One of the rays of hope we still have.
:kick: & R

ETA; too l8 for the R:(