Interesting read: How Democrat fund-raiser scored Dean knockout

[wndycty]

How Democrat fund-raiser scored Dean knockout

February 19, 2004

BY LYNN SWEET WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

There is much to study in the rise and fall of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. A chapter in that story is the attack against the former Vermont governor bankrolled by a small group of anti-Dean Democrats, led by Democratic fund-raiser David Jones.
-snip-

Why: Dean's campaign accused the Jones fund of being a front for former candidate Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), who at one time was Dean's main Iowa rival, and the current front-runner Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Jones is most often identified as a former fund-raiser for Gephardt, but he has a string of Democratic clients, including former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). At least five of the individual donors and all the unions have ties to Gephardt; other donors have connections to Kerry and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who dropped out of the race Feb. 11.

Next: Friday is when the next reports come out, and Jones' will show he has replenished his kitty and is sitting on $270,000.
-end-

http://www.suntimes.com/output/sweet/cst-edt-sweet19.html

[meegbear]

1. Is it me ..

or are people trying to find reasons and excuses at every turn as to why Dean didn't do well?

Maybe other people just wanted another candidate? Maybe people don't see Dean the same way you do. Or maybe (gasp) they don't care for Dean the same way you don't care for the other candidates.

I know everybody at the meetup said they voted for Dean, but they were not the only people voting that day. I know that's a tin-foil hat, grassy knoll thought.

[Maddy McCall]

3. No, it's not only you...

It's painfully obvious that scapegoats are being found.

[farmbo]

5. Whoa...this kind of B*#!%!t is WAY out of bounds and needs to be brought..

...into the light of day. We need to know the origins of this sludge campaign because it was NOT RIGHT and BY GOD we're Democrats and I would like to think we stand for something higher than Nixonian dirty tricks. Like Bush's "whisper campaign" against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, this was an underhanded, secret maneuver which succeeded; but which ultimately reflects poorly on the candidates who engineered it.

I'm a grown up...I know that revealing the source of Jones' funding (Torricelli for one)will not bring Howard Dean back into the race. Life (and campaigns) ain't fair. But Damn it, transparency in campaign funding is an absolute "no brainer" for Democrats at least. It also just happens to be the LAW.

When Kerry supporters go on line to support this type of garbage...and make no mistake-- mocking Dean supporters for "sour grapes" is tantamount to supporting the gutter campaign itself... you do a disservice to party unity, and a service to gutter campaign tactics.

[Progress]

2. Since this isn't LBN...

...can you edit the headline to say DemocratIC? "Democrat" as an adjective is like fingernails on a blackboard to many of us. :)

[wndycty]

4. Even though its not late breaking news. . .

. . .I don't think its necessary to edit the title.