On day 2 of the Republicans are white Christians controversy, the allegedly progressive Washington Post has this story on Dean. A choice excerpt:
The press chorus then devolved into a cacophony of competing screams. (And Dean knows screams!) After several seconds, a booming voice cut through the noise. It belonged to Brian Wilson, a Fox News correspondent who was standing in the middle of the crowd. He asked Dean “if people are focused on the other things that you’ve said about hating Republicans, about Republicans being dishonest and then this latest comment about the Republican Party is full of white Christians. You say you hate Republicans — does that mean you also'’ hate white Christians?
It’s not exactly that this is a non-story. The story is that partisan hack pseudo-news outfits like Fox are able to keep stories like this alive. But they have to put serious torque on his remarks (e.g., the do you hate Christians bit) to keep it in the news cycle this long.
For the record, I’m no Deaniac. But you don’t have to be a true believer to appreciate that Dean brought the discussion of Iraq into the last election, when the other candidates were tentative at best. My impression is that Dems have erred on the side of caution too long, and that while I might have preferred that Dean had something like: “The president is being too strongly influenced by far right religious groups,” I also appreciate Dean’s candor.
Now move along. There’s real news going down.
More important than Dean’s ability to say what he’s feeling without vetting it through an extensive network of consultants (which admittedly does have some drawbacks) is his focus on building the party from the grassroots and not writing off states as lost to us forever. I think that approach is essential to a Democratic comeback.
—Keith • 11:04 am
Oh, and Americablog has the backstory on the interaction between Wilson and Leibovich (the author of the WaPo story).
—Keith • 11:14 am
I saw that story, but was concerned that it fit into the “a buddy of mine heard
that this guy who knows this other guy said [insert juicy quote here]” kind of
story.
Still, that reminds me. We should get someone from Americablog at DL.
—AltHippo • 12:03 pm
Yeah, you’re probably right about the gossip.
Know anyone who knows anyone at Americablog?
—Keith • 6:43 pm
I’ll see what I can do.
Meanwhile, we should offer a complimentary DL button to the first commenter
that breaks the string of comments between you and me.
On the other hand, we could forbid all other commenters, and just pontificate at random.
I’m fine with either one.
—alt hippo • 10:10 pm
Argh, there was still a problem with the moderation settings, so your comment got held (because you were making it without being logged in). I’ve fixed it now.
Hmm, I’d better post a blog entry about something.
—Keith • 10:37 pm
Just out of curiousity. Is there a stat function built into Wordpress?
It’s always good to know who’s reading.
—alt hippo • 11:53 pm
No, but I’m looking into adding something.
—Keith • 12:14 am, June 11
My mother just forwarded me a link to this “Dean Was Right” editorial. One point I’d meant to make above is that the problem is not just the media, it’s also the constant backstabbing by Democrats.
—Keith • 9:36 pm, June 11
Woo-hoo, I win a prize! (That is, if I’m not ruled ineligible by some obscure by-law of your articles of incorporation).
Anyway, Keith is right–the Democratic spokespeople are a big part of the problem. Not only do we have Donna Brazile, Joe Biden, etc. making stupid statements–how about this “David Axelrod” who is supposed to be a “democratic strategist” (don’t know why they didn’t capitalize “democratic”-I guess I should just be glad he’s not a “Democrat strategist”. (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/061205_ns_howard_dean.html)
He says, “They’re not going to come to the Democratic party if the chairman of the Democratic Party is out there gratuitously characterized all Republicans in a truly nasty way” — this is someone who is on our side? Give me a break. What in the world is “nasty” about calling people “White Christians” when they are? My goodness, that is just about as nasty as calling a lesbian a lesbian. If the Democrats don’t muzzle people like this, they will never win an election.
—Jill • 2:29 pm, June 13
Since I have control of the buttons, I’m awarding you the prize, Jill, but you have to show up at an event to claim it. Maybe we’ll see you at the pub crawl Saturday, if you can’t make it Thursday.
—Keith • 12:17 am, June 15