Howard Dean On Meet The Press

The following are selected quotes from Howard Dean’s interview on yesterday’s NBC News’ Meet The Press. As you’ll see, Dean has taken hypocrisy and turned it into an art form. He has become so accustomed to speaking before partisan crowds, cheering his every utterance; he forgets there are people in NBC’s audience that are actually aware of the facts.

Dean’s so busy ripping Republicans in this interview, he fails to provide a single Democrat idea or policy to solve the problems he rails against. If we were Democrats we would be cringing every time this guy opens his mouth. Surely there must be someone that can better articulate Democrat positions and ideas than Howard Dean.

Dean believes he’s better qualified than voters to decide who should be in the congress; he knows those in need of a trial to determine guilt and those that are guilty beyond question; he knows a politician’s political philosophy better than the actual politician.

However, in the spirit of bipartisanship, there is one thing we can agree on with Dr, Dean. - Ultra liberal Democrats, Jon Corzine comes to mind, are in essence socialists.

Dr. Dean: But the thing that really bothered me the most, which the 9-11 Commission said also wasn't true, is the insinuation that the president continues to make to this day that Osama bin Laden had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. That is false. The 9-11 Commission, chaired by a Republican, said it was false.

Dr Dean: Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party. We get lectured by people all day long about moral values by people who have their own moral shortcomings. I don't think we ought to give a whole lot of lectures to people--I think the Bible says something to the effect that be careful when you talk about the shortcomings of somebody else when you haven't removed the moat from your own eye. And I don't think we ought to be lectured to by Republicans who have got all these problems themselves.

Mr. Russert: But should you jump in the fray and be mocking those kind of people?

Dr. Dean: I will use whatever position I have in order to root out hypocrisy.

Mr. Russert: But, Governor, you did on May 14 say something about Tom DeLay that raised a lot of eyebrows. Let's watch Howard Dean on Tom DeLay.

Dr. Dean: I think Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence down there courtesy of the Texas taxpayers.

Mr. Russert: "Serve his jail sentence"? He--what's he been convicted of?

Dr. Dean: He hasn't been convicted yet,…[Dean blathers on explaining Delay’s “crimes”]

Mr. Russert: You said in December of 2003 that we shouldn't prejudge Osama bin Laden. How can you sit here and have a different standard for Tom DeLay and prejudge him?

Dr. Dean: To be honest with you, Tim, I don't think I'm prejudging him. [Dean blathers on explaining Delay’s “crimes”]

Mr. Russert: But in order to have a civilized debate about these kinds of issues, a robust debate, can we be doing this to each other in the political process? Here's the Democratic National Committee Web site this morning. It is, in effect, a mug shot of Tom DeLay. You can see his height in the back with inches there, a serial number, 18821. Is that appropriate, a mug shot?

Dr. Dean: I don't think it's appropriate for Tom DeLay to be in Congress, Tim. I really don't. …. Look, we're not going to stoop to the kind of divisiveness that the Republicans, are doing and we're not going to stoop to the kind of abuse of power, but we are going to be tough as nails. This is a fight for the soul of America between the Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Russert: In your home state of Vermont, there's a vacancy for the United States Senate about to occur. Bernie Sanders, the congressman from Vermont, wants to run for that seat. He is a self- described avowed socialist.

Dr. Dean: Well, that's what he says. He's really a populist.

Mr. Russert: But is there room in the Democratic Party for a socialist?

Dr. Dean: Well, first of all, he's not a socialist, really.

Mr. Russert: He...

Dr. Dean: He hasn't said that for a while.

Mr. Russert: Oh, he has a--he wrote in his book: "Outside or in the House, I am a Democratic socialist."

Dr. Dean: Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here. And Bernie can call himself anything he wants. He is basically a liberal Democrat, and he is a Democrat that--he runs as an Independent because he doesn't like the structure and the money that gets involved. And he actually has, I think, some good points about campaign finance reform. The bottom line is that Bernie Sanders votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. And that is a candidate that we think...

Mr. Russert: So you'd support him?

Dr. Dean: We may very well end up supporting him. We need to work some things out because it's very important for us not to split the votes in some of the other offices as well.

Mr. Russert: In 1996 you said you would never have voted for Bernie Sanders. Instead, you opted in recent years to leave the ballot blank.