The New American System Of Justice
Jimmy Breslin - Newsday.com: January 4, 2004 (excerpts)

After Saddam's capture, there was a weekend of propaganda. We examined Saddam Hussein for scarlet fever in front of the world. The Pekingese of the Press raved about the government and its soldiers. Saddam is in the can. We are safer! On the day he was found, an American soldier was killed. After that, 10 more were killed in a week. We just lost four more on Friday. Bring 'em on, Bush the president says. Yes we will, Iraqis say.

The Homeland Security raised the alert to orange. Planes from other countries were canceled. Specific passengers were the dangers. There was a baby with a rattle that they thought could blow up America. All passengers went undetained and unnamed. If they knew who they are and we know who they are, who are we keeping it a secret from? The secret keepers could be the same speechwriters who wrote Bush's State of the Union speech last year about weapons of mass destruction. I make it 7-5 that they will use one of these planes as proof of success against terrorists.

On the other side of politics, Howard Dean, Democratic candidate for president, didn't think Saddam Hussein's capture made us any safer in America. The other politicians screamed that was un-American. It was John Kerry who said, How could Dean dare say that we were not safer now? Kerry is so sure we're safe that he mortgaged his house the other day to have the money to say Dean is a traitor. This is only before the first primary and Kerry goes for the roof over his head. He seems ready to go naked on these primaries.

Howard Dean then said that he was old-fashioned and he didn't think you could judge or punish Osama bin Laden until you had a trial and found him guilty. Suddenly, politicians and the news industry shouted, What are you talking about innocent until found guilty? How can this man Dean say that bin Laden deserves a trial? They said that this was a perfect illustration of Dean talking without thought. And completely un-American, too.

In 1945, they had the Nuremburg trials for Nazis who had killed tens and tens of millions, and had judges, witnesses, evidence and defense counsels. Just the other week, one of the Democratic candidates, Wesley Clark, testified in the Hague at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Yet Joseph Lieberman, who is a peripheral candidate now and thus a nasty little man, said that because he relies on the Constitution, Dean is a weakling who would melt in the face of George Bush.

John Kerry and Dick Gephardt were wildly opposed. Yet all Dean has to do in this big Des Moines debate today is ask each candidate, "Are you in favor of sentencing bin Laden before you have a trial?" [Complete Article].

 

DEAN and the WORLD
By Michael Hammerschlag - The Liberal Slant 1/4/04 (link may change - excerpts)

Dean's combative honesty is striking a deep chord in voters of all stripes, after being deluged by the blizzard of lies and Orwellian propaganda created by the Bush Administration. For 3 years, the Democrats have been getting steamrolled by Bush and the Republicans, often voluntarily. Only Dean addresses this sorry state. [Complete Article].

 

Howard Dean's Economic Policies
Economy Plans of Democrat Hopefuls - Reuters, January 4, 2004 (excerpts)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Following are brief outlines of the economic proposals offered by the leading U.S. Democratic presidential candidates:

FISCAL POLICY

Each candidate has proposed rolling back at least a portion of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts President Bush has signed into law. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean ... would repeal all the tax cuts won by Bush.... The candidates would seek further budget savings by closing corporate tax loopholes and cracking down on tax shelters. While most have said they would aim for reducing the budget deficit, they have offered numerous spending proposals, most notably on health care.

HEALTH CARE

[Dr. Dean] seeks to vastly expand health care coverage. His plan, estimated to cost $88 billion a year, would expand federal and state programs to provide health care coverage to everyone up to age 25 and lower-income adults. It would also allow higher-income adults to buy into a plan similar to the plan for federal employees, and provide tax credits.

JOB CREATION

Dean would provide $100 billion over two years to states and localities to be used for infrastructure investments and hiring and training related to homeland security.

TRADE

All the leading candidates say trade agreements should have labor and environmental standards.... Dean has also criticized NAFTA.

SOCIAL SECURITY

All candidates oppose privatization and oppose raising the retirement age. None has offered a specific plan for long-tern solvency. [Complete Article].

 

New Poll: Dean Closing in on Bush
WH2004: General

CNN/Time Poll conducted by Harris Interactive. Dec. 30, 2003-Jan. 1, 2004. N=604 likely voters nationwide. "Suppose the 2004 election for president were being held today and you had to choose between [see below], the Democrat, and George W. Bush, the Republican. For whom would you vote: [see below]?"


Date ------- Bush -------- Howard Dean ----- NotSure
01/04 ------- 51% ------------ 46% --------------- 3%

Past polls, "Among all registered voters":
11/03 ------- 52% ------------ 40% --------------- 8%
09/03 ------- 52% ------------ 42% --------------- 6%

 

Dean has plans to bring House under Democrats
STEPHEN SEITZ - The New Hampshire Union Leader - 03-Jan-04 (excerpts)

In response to a question by the Union Leader, Dean said a plan was in the works to bring the House of Representatives into Democratic control next November. Republicans currently control both houses of Congress.

"There is a plan to change 20 to 25 seats," the candidate said. "The House leadership will help select a number of swing seats. We plan to target those and help fund those races."

At his earlier campaign stop at town hall, Dean wasted no time lambasting President Bush, starting with recent scandals in the mutual fund industry.

"I have said that capitalism without rules is like hockey without a referee," Dean said. "Unfortunately, as we have been learning in almost daily revelations, some of the people who were entrusted with protecting the security of Americans' savings were exploiting their power for personal gain while the authorities were asleep at the wheel. We need to restore balance to our system so that unchecked corporate power is not allowed to run roughshod over ordinary people. This President routinely appoints people from industry after industry to oversee their industry." [Complete Article]

 

The Dean Difference: Toughness.
"Howard Dean's fighting spirit has more in common with Harry Truman than George McGovern." - Tough Guys by Robert Kuttner - The American Prospect, December 19, 2003. (excerpts)

New Hampshire TV spots -- organized by associates of Dick Gephardt and John Kerry -- began warning that Americans live in "a new, dangerous world," in which "Howard Dean cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy." Dean, unrepentant, declared in his latest foreign policy address, that "the capture of Saddam has not made America safer." He just might be right.

Three other Democratic candidates then excoriated Dean. The conservative National Review's current cover shows Dean in full cry, with the headline, "Please Nominate This Man." Dean remains the odds-on Democratic nominee. But can he possibly win in November?

Dean has already achieved something revolutionary. Grasping the potential of the Internet as a tool of mobilization and money-raising, his campaign has been self-confident enough to let supporters organize their own web activities and meet-ups, even as the candidate and his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, are clearly in charge.

This trust in volunteers, combined with Dean's principled opposition to Bush's foreign adventures, has energized an ever-growing base to open hearts and wallets. The Democratic Party has craved this grass-roots energy since, well, since George McGovern. And there's the rub. Dean could certainly galvanize 45 percent of the electorate -- guaranteeing radical Republican dominance for a generation.

But is Dean just another McGovern? One difference: Dean generates excitement not just as a energizer of volunteers or war critic, but because he is tough. Recent losing Democratic nominees were diverse ideologically, from center-right (Carter, '80) to moderate liberal (Gore, '00) to liberal (Mondale, '84; Dukakis, '88) to left-liberal (McGovern, '72.) But all these losers had common trait: softness. Despite intermittently brave rhetoric, not one came across, first and foremost, as a fighter. Dean does, like Harry Truman and John Kennedy. [Complete Article.]

 

Dean a Resounding Winner in 'Money Primary'
Other Democrats can't match his annual fundraising total of $40 million.
Wesley Clark is a distant second in the fourth quarter.
By Nick Anderson, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2004.

WASHINGTON - With more than $40 million now raised in his run for the White House, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean posted a resounding victory Wednesday in the yearlong dash for cash among Democratic presidential candidates, cementing his status as the contender to beat in the race.

For all the importance of the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary, some analysts say the results of the "money primary" in the year before a presidential election are an even better guide to who will become the nominee. Since 1980, no major-party candidate who led in donations received by Jan. 1 of an election year has failed to clinch the nomination. [Complete Article].

 

Dean: Decisions involve diagnosis, intuition
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: HOWARD DEAN
By Howard Dean, The Boston Globe 1/1/2004
(Wonder what the Globe took out where they put . . . instead?)

Dean was asked how he makes decisions. His wife, also a doctor, had once said he approaches decisions like a physician.

"THAT'S FAIR, that's very fair. I mean, she's been with me a long time, and she's a very smart woman, so I'm sure that's exactly how it works. I mean, the two of us are different in that she, oddly enough, proceeds more logically from spot to spot to spot, and I tend to be more intuitive . . . appearing to bypass things, which gets me in a little trouble on the campaign trail because I often shorthand things and don't explain them fully. . . But that doesn't mean the thought doesn't get done." [Complete Article]

 

Dean Focuses on Jobs, Health Care in S.C.
State's Feb. 3 Primary Could Prove Crucial (excerpts)
By Ceci Connolly Washington Post - December 31, 2003; Page A03

GEORGETOWN, S.C., Dec. 30 -- Howard Dean took a detour Tuesday from the cold winds of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he is leading in most polls, to this balmy state that barely knows him but will have a major influence on his presidential prospects.

Focused largely on jobs, education and health care, Dean sketched out his case for how a northeastern liberal can win in the more conservative, heavily black South. Coming just days after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the Feb. 3 contests here and in six other states are likely to trim the nine-candidate Democratic field - if not outright establish the nominee.

"We are not going to beat George Bush by being ashamed of being Democrats," Dean told about 300 people at a midday rally here. "I want more than anything to bring South Carolina back to its proud tradition of voting Democrat year after year after year." [Complete Article]

 

Dean turns tables on Bush
"President Bush's campaign has settled on a plan to run against Howard Dean that would portray Dean as reckless...." (see: Bush advisers plan 2004 run with eye on discrediting Dean, Adam Nagourney and Richard W. Stevenson, NEW YORK TIMES Dec. 26, 2003).

Now Dean is turning the tables according to this report: Dean Labels Bush "Reckless" by Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, December 30, 2003 (excerpts)

From Iraq to homeland security to public health, President Bush's "reckless" habit of placing "ideology over facts" has resulted in "the most dangerous administration in my lifetime," Democrat Howard Dean charged over the past two days.

"National security and economic security are the touchstones of the election," he said in the interview after a rally Monday in Green Bay, Wis. "I think the president has been fairly reckless in just about every area I can think of."

Dean accused Bush of taking "enormous risks" by refusing to negotiate with North Korea, permitting "warlords" to control much of Afghanistan and failing to address the most serious threats to homeland security.

"We've made progress" on strengthening defenses at home, he said. "The problem is, on the things that are enormously important to us we have apparently made no progress. That is the ultimate nightmare of the so-called dirty bomb or a terrorist nuclear attack on the United States."

In Midwest campaign stops and an interview, the former Vermont governor said developments both abroad and at home give credence to his assertion two weeks ago that the United States is "no safer" with the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "If we are safer, how come we lost 10 more troops and raised the safety alert" to the orange level, Dean said Sunday night in Ankeny, Iowa. [Complete Article].