Transcript from Dean/Woodruff today.....super interview.

madfloridian

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Wed Jan-12-05 06:05 PM
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Transcript from Dean/Woodruff today.....super interview.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/12/ip.01.html

A few pertinent snips:

SNIP.."I've been appalled by the conduct of some, although the Washington secretary of state is the great exception to this, but I've been appalled by the conduct of Republican secretaries of state, particularly in Florida and Ohio in the last couple election cycles where they actually participate in suppressing voter turnout and making sure, for example, that there are three voting machines in a precinct which is heavily Democratic, 10 voting machines in the one that's Republicans.

SNIP..."DEAN: Well, first of all I don't thing anything the matter with the word "liberal." We ought to get that straight right away.

Having said that I am a centrist. I'm in the center of where most of America is. I balance budgets. We haven't seen a balanced budget from a Republican, particularly in this administration, for a long time."

SNIP..."I speak my mind, and that is what I think Democrats have to do to win. I don't think Democrats need to jump around in the political spectrum to win. What we have to have is a clear message that stands for our values. Our values are more in tune with the values of the American people in general than the Republican values are. They focus on things like gay rights and abortion. We need to focus on things that most Americans care about: helping the least among us, strengthening education, health insurance, which is an enormous problem for most middle class Americans. That's how you win elections. "

SNIP..."I mean, there were reports during the campaign that they were salivating at the idea of your being the nominee of the party. Why wouldn't they salivate at the idea of your being the head of the party?

DEAN: Well, when they publicly salivate you always wonder what they always think -- what they think privately.

The truth is that only way to take on the Republicans is straight ahead and fight them and not become one of the Republicans. If we become -- Ted Kennedy said this today in one of the great speeches I think we've had for a long time. It is not the way to beat the Republican Party by becoming Republican."

SNIP..." Well, let me -- let me quote somebody you know well, and that is your former campaign manager, Joe Trippi. As I'm sure you know, he's weighed in for someone else, Simon Rosenberg of the New Democratic Network.

But Joe Trippi says of you, Howard Dean, he says, "We are muting one of the most progressive voices in the party, when we ought to be taking somebody who knows how to make the apparatus work, which Howard was not really that interested in."

DEAN: I'm not going to -- I'm not going to go after Joe Trippi. I have been very good about that.

This is not about Joe Trippi. The election is about the future of Democrats and the future of democracy. I know how to make grassroots work. We brought hundreds of thousands of people into this party, many of whom were not Democrats. We need those people in order to win. ..."