"Dean's Trooper" (Dean smear from ABC News)

[FredScuttle]

"Jan. 14 — In his presidential campaign, and as governor of Vermont before that, Howard Dean has taken a tough, zero-tolerance stand on domestic violence, accusing the Bush administration of not being committed to the issue. Yet Dean said he had no idea that one of the men closest to him was repeatedly abusing his wife.

Dennis Madore, the state trooper who headed Dean's security detail for nine years, was "a classic abuser," according to Jerry Diamond, a Dean supporter and former Vermont attorney general who was the lawyer for Madore's wife, Donna, when she filed for divorce in 1997.

"There were years of abuse in which she had been struck, had been pushed, shoved in front of the children, both physical and emotional abuse in front of the children," said Diamond. He said the abuse occurred both before and while Madore worked for Dean. Madore later admitted five separate instances of abuse."


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/dean_domestic_abuse_040114-1.html

I know Trippi went bezerk when this broke...does anyone think this nonsense has legs? I mean, the article all but insinuates that Dean knew about the abuse because his close friend who just happened to be the abuser's lawyer was made aware of the allegations!

edit: corrected the subject line

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. Dupe

Even once was too much for this shit.

[Jerseycoa]

4. I don't think this is the same one

This seems more detailed.

[Democrats unite]

2. ...

on edit: had a change of heart.

[OKNancy]

3. That's yesterdays smear

and no it has no legs. The Columbia Jounalism Review has a great new website all about media etc. I'll try to find the link and edit.

Here it is:
http://campaigndesk.org/

All campaigns should use this resource

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. I'm not supporting Dean, but these kind of attacks are just evil

There are many things to criticize Dean about - and this is not one of them. This is beyond the pale sensationalist slander.

[hellhathnofury]

6. Can I just say this

I hope ABC burns.

This is baseless.

[Jerseycoa]

7. Not the lawyer friend, another one

"But in 1997, Dean, by his own account, ignored a warning he received about Madore just a few days after he filed the affidavit.

In a phone call to his Burlington home on June 1, l997, Maggie Benson — a longtime Dean supporter and friend of Donna Madore — told the governor that Dennis Madore was an unfit parent and that Dean could damage himself politically by being involved.

According to Dean's handwritten notes on the call, he hung up on the supporter because he construed her tone to be threatening.

"She said she did not believe Dennis was a good father and I told her the conversation was inappropriate," Dean wrote.

After hanging up on Benson, Dean called the trooper's lawyer, White, who told him to write down his recollection of the conversation. There is no indication in the governor's notes that Benson specifically mentioned domestic violence."

[FredScuttle]

9. I was referencing this paragraph

"Court records show that Madore's lawyer, Phil White, also a close friend of Dean, was first made aware of the abuse allegations on March 7, 1997."

it's the "also a close friend of Dean" jab that I detest...as if Dean was going to outrageous lengths to defend an (alleged) abuser.

A pox on you, ABC News!

[clarknyc]

12. That doesn't change my opinion of this story.

It's still a smear.

[DrBB]

8. What unspeakably inane nonsense

Some guy he knows was a wife beater. Well that sucks for the guy's wife and family, but what in the sam hill does it have to do with Dean?

Got in himmel, is there anything too tenuous for these whores to make a story out of? Don't they have editors anymore?

[Cocoa]

15. ABC struggles mightily to answer this

I'm with you, I was asking "what's the point?" thru the whole thing.

They are implying that this episode somehow makes Dean "soft on domestic violence." Check out the stupid headline, and the story's stupid punchline about Dean's website.

ABC sucks. Koppel is in Iraq right now pretending to be looking hard at the situation there, but he concludes each night telling us what he told Kucinich, that we HAVE to stay there because of oil. :puke:

[LizW2]

10. Would you consider editing your subject line?

I'm not sure where "Wife Abuse Stunner" came from, but it is, in my opinion, misleading. The article contains nothing "stunning", really.

ABC's actual title is bad enough, but the "Stunner" title blatantly tries to make this more sensational than it is and could imply to the casual and uninformed reader that Dean was the abuser. I'm certain that was not your intent.

[FredScuttle]

13. Sorry about that

I had begun with the NY Post article (and accompanying hysterical headline), but found it on a (slightly) more reputable source.

[LizW2]

16. Thanks

So, the NY Post had the "Stunner" headline? Gag me. That's awful.

[John_H]

11. Everyone, Dean supporter or not, should relentlessly hound ABC and

every other media whore outlet which pulls this shit.

They're already starting folks--George Bush gets to destroy America with zero scrutiny and, according to the media, Democratic candidates are supposed to become intimately aware of the personal lives of their security details.

We've got to stop this now--because if it's still going on when the General election starts, we lose. it's that simple.

[Carni]

14. Shame on Dean...

Gee, if Dean he were like Herr bush and company he would have had all the goods on other people's marital problems (and certainly would have made it his biz to snoop into everyone's personal lives to know the scoop, via the whatever billion dollar... marriage act, faith based crap, that the little gestapo bush spouted off about today)

BUT Turning the sarcasm off...how in the hell does this reflect on Dean?

Did Dean beat HIS wife?

Unless Howard is is Miss Cleo... how on earth would he know about this and what has it to do with him?

And to clarify, Dean isn't my 1st nominee choice but this is just asinine dirty politics- if that is all Roves Co. can find then they had better hang it up!