Dean on Fox responds to the Carville stuff. Replays on Fox News at 6:00 Eastern

[madfloridian]

The transcript is interesting. A few of the statements:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228923,00.html

He says Conservative and Liberal don't mean much right now, the country is in trouble.

DEAN: First of all, I think the words conservative and liberal are now meaningless. You have a conservative president who ran up the biggest budget deficit in the history of America. I don't know what those words mean anymore.

And about Iraq:

The vast majority of the American people believe the truth, which is that it was a mistake to get into Iraq in the first place. That the president does not believe, but we — everybody in America understands that we cannot stay — except possibly the president and Vice President Cheney, understands that we cannot stay in Iraq forever. We can't have a stay-the-course mentality. We need to get out of Iraq. The question is how we can do that. We hope to work with the president to bring our troops home.

Keeping 140,000 brave Americans in Iraq is not making America safer. It's very clear that it's not made America safer. And the American people just voted to say send some folks in there who are willing to be tough and smart about how we defend the country.

WALLACE: But cut our losses is what the message you get from this election is.

DEAN: Yeah, don't stay in Iraq. We're not going to put up with terrorism in Iraq or anyplace else, but we can't keep 140,000 brave Americans in Iraq indefinitely. Did not we learn this lesson in Vietnam?

And about Carville and Ford...I think if he and Harold Ford talked about it, then it was taken as a serious thing. These kind of attacks by gravy train strategists need to stop.

First of all, what do you make of this criticism, and do you have any intention of stepping down?

DEAN: I have to say I get a laugh out of that one. Here we have — let's leave the federal races aside, because the DCCC and the DSCC did do a wonderful job. But the truth is we got six additional governors. We got nine additional legislative chambers. New Hampshire now has a Democratic house and senate for the first time in a century.

We did great. And I think the time really has come now, now that we're in power, at least in the Congress, to pull together, to be unified. We've got a lot to do in the next two years. We've got to elect a Democratic president, and so...

WALLACE: Do you have any intention of stepping down?

DEAN: No. I talked to Harold last night, and he has no — he doesn't want the job. This is some kind of inside the Beltway silliness.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Thanks for sharing his. Good for Harold Ford, Jr. NT

NT

[otohara]

2. Thanks For Posting THis

won't be watching the rerun

[WinkyDink]

3. Dean is wrong; words mean EVERYTHING. The task is to point out

HYPOOCRISY and LIES---i.e., the MISUSE of words---not to denigrate words themselves.

Fascists are the ones who claim words have no meanings other than what they, the Fascists, say they have.

[cali]

4. The micro managing

that goes on here is hilarious.

[Cha]

18. It is

indeed!

[madfloridian]

5. Read again: "conservative" president running up huge deficit.

I think you read that wrong. He is no fascist, and that was not a thoughtful thing to say.

[Cha]

17. Yeah, Dean is Fascist but you

knew that all along, didn't you?

[Mabus]

19. I think he was

he points out that the word "conservative" now means "go for broke" and "liberal" is used as a way to put people down instead of the political ideology behind it. What I took from Dean's statement was, the GOP has perverted the language. They have talking points but no real agenda. They prefer personal attacks and labels over focusing on the issues and dialogue.

In other words, I think he was doing the same thing you are talking about. If he called them fascists it would be used against him. He'd not putting labels on them. He's pointing out what they are doing. Also, by not using the labels "conservative" and "liberal" it confuses Chris Wallace.

Look at it like this. There are a lot of people who think of themselves as conservatives but they can't relate to the spend, spend spend mentality that the GOP exhibited. If Dean had said that the Washington conservatives were fascists he would have wiped out a good portion of the support he helped build and that just won us so many seats in Congress.

[tsuki]

6. "Inside the Belway silliness."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[madfloridian]

7. I would like to say that Dean is more gracious that I am...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/602

[chaumont58]

8. "inside the Beltway silliness" is a good way to describe most of the....

crap that comes out of beltway talking head shows.
I wish I had a nickle for every pound of 'beltway silliness' that has emanated from the likes of Carville. I'd be eating good and driving good and living good.
Carville at one time had some sense. Now, he is just full of shit.

[Individualist]

9. Hear, hear! Beltway silliness: BS

[SouthernBelle82]

12. I think so too

I think him electing Bill Clinton got him a big head. Clinton did a lot of the work from my understanding of the campaign and Carville took a lot of the credit. It has made his head big. Plus he has his own personal agenda and all that. I read not too long ago that Hillary hired him.

[madfloridian]

10. Ha Ha what Mr. Matalin's wife Mary said in December...

From December 8, 2005

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/08/sitroom.01.html

"DEAN: We believe that talking about the president's failed strategy in Iraq is not unpatriotic. It may undercut the president, but it does not undercut our troops. We're going to save their lives, and we're going to learn from the experience in Vietnam and not wait for five years with promises made for political reasons here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: If anything, Howard Dean has been very consistent over the past few years, including when he was running for president.

MATALIN: Howard Dean is in some form of denial. Let me make a New Year's prediction for you, Wolf. The Democrats are going to have to dump him as a party chairman. He can't do the two things a party chairman is required to do, which is to raise money or get the message out.

When you look at a country that has gone from tyranny to sovereignty, to a transitional government, to a constitution, and next week is going to have the first self-determined elected government in the region, that is progress. He can be in denial, but who doesn't have a plan, doesn't have a policy, is the Democratic Party. And he's certainly not helping the Democratic Party, who are back-pedaling from their chairman faster than a (INAUDIBLE).


You and your hubby, Mr. Matalin, can kiss my you know what.

:rofl:

[Mabus]

20. the wit and witticism of Mr. Matalin

:rofl: What an idiot.

We ought to have a thread in the research forum about Mr. Matalin.

We could list all the good things he's done for us lately. :sarcasm:

[Cha]

21. That's exactly why I said on

another thread, another day that carville said that about Dean because "his wifey told him to"..and I didn't even remember this stuff that mary matlin was spewing last year!

[madfloridian]

25. You were right...

and hadn't even heard this one. You just knew...LOL

[Cha]

26. Just a

Wild(they're sooo obvious) educated guess.

[Beelzebud]

24. That pretty much sums it up.

[Diane R]

11. An unfair fight. Carville has an ego, Dean has brains.

I don't think most of us have stopped to really notice how smart Howard Dean is. He not only engineered a brilliant strategy for the '04 election, but he knows all the right moves to push back on Carville's power grab.

I don't think Carville has a clue how strong and determined the 'net Progressives have grown. Dean understands the value of all the people sitting behind these computers.

[davidwparker]

13. That power grab attempt made me move getting Dean's Democracy

bonds of the "to do" list into action supporting Dean. From another post here, I am contributing $20.06 per month.

[The Count]

14. Gravy train strategists - was this Dean's? Cuz I like it!

[buddysmellgood]

15. I was drawn to that too. Gravy-train strategist. That will sink them.

[madfloridian]

16. Actually that is a term I got from this book:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/93

Crashing the Gate.

[LittleClarkie]

22. Harold Ford gets a cookie. Cookie count is still zero though.

Carville can kiss my grits.

[Beelzebud]

23. Yeah, lets let one of the few Dems that lost, run the DNC...

Are these beltway insiders that fucking stupid?

Oh wait. It's James Carville. His wife probably made him say that.

[Warren Stupidity]

27. Summary: Carville irrelevant beltway buffon

I think Dean sums it up correctly and gives Carville all the serious attention he deserves.

[madfloridian]

28. I think it is about to that point.

And I used to think Carville was funny.

[Stardust]

29. Carville's gotta go as a Dem spokesman. How can we effect that?

[chill_wind]

30. Very glad to see and read this. Carville, you're a has-been. K&R. nt

[farmboxer]

31. Dean deserves a lot of credit. He made a big difference

in the election.

I have to than Dr. Dean for making this difference and hope he will remain the chair for a very long time. We need him in 2008 bigtime!!!!!!!