Dean's response to being called "Gingrich" by Gephardt.

[poskonig]

"I consider Dick Gephardt -- a man I campaigned for 16 years ago -- a friend of mine. But I am deeply saddened that he has chosen to resort to the politics of the past by engaging in name-calling, guilt by association and scare tactics.

"It is a sad day for Dick Gephardt when he compares any Democratic candidate running for President to Newt Gingrich and his divisive policies. No Democrat in the presidential race bears any resemblance to Newt Gingrich on any major issue. And for Dick Gephardt to suggest otherwise is simply beyond the pale.

"It is the politics of the past, and attacks like these, that have caused so many people to opt out of the political process. My campaign is about bringing those people back in, by offering a positive vision of the future, real solutions to America's problems, and by restoring a politics of meaning and a sense of community in political discourse."

[CentristDemocrat]

1. How is Dean like Gingrich? Dean = raise taxes/Gingrich = lower taxes

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CentristDemocrat]

3. 'twas flame bait

[_Wayne_]

4. Dean doesn't want to raise taxes

Dean wants to eliminate Bush's tax cuts. That's not "raising taxes." It's making things fair again.

[SweetZombieJesus]

7. Dean wants to restore services that Bush cut, not raise taxes

Bush's tax cuts were nothing of the sort. They were SERVICE cuts.

[w4rma]

10. They were more than service cuts. They were tax shifts for the wealthy.

Bush's tax shifts caused local taxes all around the country to go up. Bush's tax shifts left unfunded federal mandates all over the country for locals to pay for.

[coralrf]

9. Thats not true...

Your claim that Dean is a "Raise Taxes Guy" is pure unsubstantiated GOP bullshit. There is no reason for such a claim that can be considered honest. Dean, a guy I am not pulling for, is a decent and entirely truthful man. If he sees a tax increase is what is needed for America he will have the COURAGE to do it..unlike GOP cowards that jeopardize America's future for a few bullshit political kudos.

News Flash my man: If you want a banana you go to the store and YOU PAY FOR IT. If you want a cruise missile YOU PAY FOR IT. If you want schools, police, a White House with a jerk in it, roads, bridges, armies, NASA, scientific research or a Department of Homeland Bureaucracy YOU PAY FOR IT. If you want Bush to have his 90 billion dollar slush fund YOU PAY FOR IT. YOU pay for it because it is YOU that wants it. Dean will not let YOU put it on a credit card and send the bill to my kid in 15 years. I admire him for that.

Fuck the GOP cowardice that crops up on this board. How can you not despise the lying fucking chickenshit draft dodging, over weight, small dicked, closeted Repuckes that stealth post on this board.

Personally I would not cry if someone dropped a fucking cluster bomb on your prick fake frat boy. Maybe I might experience the same euphoria that the GOP chickenhawks do when they see such things happen to innocents on CNN.

[Cha]

12. Don't pull out those tired rovian talking points....Dean doesn't want

to "raise taxes" and you know it.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eileen from OH]

6. I didn't see

where Gephardt did this. . .link, please?

eileen from OH

[goforit]

8. DEAN.....What a wonderful response!...A breadth of fresh air!!!

You go Dean!!!

God Bless ya!!!

[Mel]

11. i'm out of the loop on this one

when did Gephardt do this? Are you pulling our leg or did Dick really say this?

Even if I don't support Dean I think that's 'crazy talk' below the belt don't you think?
I do.

[TennesseeWalker]

13. Doesn't hurt for swing voters to hear he's to the right on financials...

Might be smart strategy if the party wants to actually run Dean against the unelected fraud. Dean gets painted as a mean old conservative, and Joe Sixpack doesn't think that he's too far left to govern the country.

Pretty smart strategy. :)

[Adjoran]

14. It's pretty obvious

that Gephardt is reacting to his free-falling numbers in IO, SC, and nationally. He has to either give his campaign a quick kick in the pants or he's going to be out early. Same story with Lieberman. Both of them appear to be losing support to Dean, so going negative on Dean is the logical move. It did get both of them some headlines.

For Dean, the charges made by Lieberman and Gephardt aren't nearly as big a problem as his statement that Hamas "...are soldiers in that war." He should worry about clearing the air on that, and ignore the squeals of falling rivals.

[Laxness]

16. Dean's "soldier" remark was clipped by Fox

The quote in context was:

Asked if he would oppose the Israeli policy of selectively killing leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, Dean said, "I think no one likes to see violence of any kind."

But he also said that "there is a war going on in the Middle East, and members of Hamas are soldiers in that war, and, therefore, it seems to me that they are going to be casualties if they are going to make war."

I don't know if I agree with Dean's advocacy of assassinating Hamas leaders, something that makes me somewhat uncomfortable, despite my loathing of Hamas, but it's clear he wasn't praising Hamas.

[Cha]

18. Then once again something was taken out of context and used

to suit their own agenda.

I'm glad I'm backin' a fighter who is standing up for himself and for me!

[newyawker99]

19. Hi Laxness!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Adjoran]

15. Sorry, forgot to include a link

to the story. Gephardt said it in Des Moines:

"Howard Dean actually agreed with the Gingrich Republicans," Gephardt told a union audience.

"It was in this period when Gingrich said Republicans wouldn't immediately kill Medicare. Instead, they would let it wither on the vine," Gephardt said. "And it was also during this time that Howard Dean, as chairman of the National Governors Association, was supporting Republican efforts to scale back Medicare."


The whole ABC story is here: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030912_1340.html

[spooky3]

17. as I understood it, Dean supported making

Medicare more like the managed care programs most Americans who are covered at work are in, and using the cost savings to cover prescription drugs. This is NOTHING like what Gingrich supported, and Gephardt surely knows the difference.