I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Deaniac, a Dean supporter, or a Dean fan. I do, however, find this latest spate of anti-Dean hit pieces in the media disgusting. It started with the Dean draft nonsense, and then the unflattering piece about his wife, and now this spousal abuse nonsense, which just takes the cake.
There are enough reasons to be against Dean- but Clinton and Kerry and their goons need to cool it.
mark
It’s politics, John. Same thing happens every 4 years to both parties. The next big one to hit over the weekend (and the one that could really do damage to Dean) is the accusations that Dean people are cold-calling independents in New Hampshire telling them they cannot vote in the Democratic primary; unless they hint they are leaning Dean, then the callers say it is OK. True or not, it’s gonna get reported…
HH
I agree that ABC appears so committed to the Clintonoids or Clark or whoever, that they’ve used Schwarzenegger tactics on Dean. At the same time, imagine if any Republican running for president had: a) to be made to make MLK day a holiday in 2001; b) the same thing occur that ABC is reporting on. Two strikes, he’d be out, regardless of how unfair it might be.
M. Scott Eiland
If the spousal abuse story (and Dean’s connection to it) is true, it’s certainly no more trivial than the crap that NOW and their fellow travellers have tried to tar Republicans with in the past (Clinton, of course, was one of their anointed and thus exempt). The same goes for the draft story–the Dems slime patrol has been pushing the AWOL Bush story for years now: when you play in slime, your guy might get messy. I’d be glad to see stories like this disappear forever, but it’s nice to see the Democrats suffer from their own despicable conduct.
I agree the story about Dean’s wife is stupid–all it proves is that she’s not a Hillary in waiting. This is supposed to frighten people?
Ken Hahn
Consider this, could the media have set Dean up? They knew he couldn’t win, but could distract Bush. So promote him and raise expectations beyond any hope of fulfullment. Let him be seen as the front runner. Inflate his numbers. Then burst the bubble. Undercut him and cut into his support. Whatever he does in Iowa or New Hampshire, say it falls short of expectations. Destroy him with gentle disappointment.
I know this is all idiotic conspiracy theory but it’s fun. And though it’s complete BS, it’s no more BS than the poll analysis being delivered to your television.
Andrew Lazarus
The timing is wrong for Ken Hahn’s suggestion.
My thoughts: Dean is truly unpopular with the media, I think because he suggests they aren’t very fair (I know, a minority position here) and they aren’t very good. I also think that the pro-Bush bias in the news means whichever Dem is in front will get hacked. Remember when Kerry was in front, all that criticism of his hair style? Of his lack of knowledge of his Jewish ancestry??
With the possible exception of the drunk driving, we haven’t seen anything like this on Bush.
Beldar
The legitimate point of the Dean affidavit story is not that Dean supports wife-beaters, or doesn’t care about spousal abuse. Rather, my conclusion is that this was an instance of very bad judgment when Howard Dean was governor. Dean willingly assisted a lawyer for one of the litigants in using Gov. Dean’s name and position in what appears to be an attempt to exert improper influence in a pending family-law case. Sitting governors — you know, the ones who appoint judges to higher courts and so forth? — have no business vouching for the character of one spouse over another in a divorce case. That Dean turned out to be such a colossally bad judge of character to boot only makes the stink worse.