Reply #113: Vermontian: "the shoot-first, apologize-later pattern has been prevalent" [View All]

[janekat]

http://www.tothebarricades.com/MT/MT/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=536

WASHINGTON -- Howard Dean's fire-breathing campaign rhetoric has inspired some party activists, but the inaccuracy of some remarks, as well as his characterizations of some rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, has prompted him to issue several apologies this year.

.....Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont political science professor who has watched Dean over two decades, said the shoot-first, apologize-later pattern has been prevalent throughout the former governor's political career.

''Howard's a pop-off. I've been the target of his pop-offs, too,'' Nelson said. ''He is a loner who keeps his own counsel. He also has a very short fuse.''

The professor linked the behavior to Dean's history as a doctor.

''That may seem like a non sequitur, but doctors do not get challenged. They live in the rarefied profession where they are not challenged. Lawyers get challenged. Professors get challenged. But Howard pops off when he gets challenged,'' Nelson said. ''At some point you run out of apologies.''