What Dean actually said to Wolf Blitzer yesterday

I heard the "and out comes Tom Ridge" soundbite this morning so I looked it up. Dean hits the nail on the head here but unfortuneately all anyone will hear is the short sound bite and how nuts he is. Cokie Roberts was on NPR this morning saying that other Dems had backed away from Dean's statements (which she paraphrased) uh Cokie yeah you still have a little on your chin....no up a little yeah you got it

ON EDIT-see at the very bottom too

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/01/le.00.html

HOWARD DEAN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF VERMONT: It's hard to know what to make. None of us outside the administration have access to the intelligence, which led to this determination.

I am concerned that every time something happens that's not good for President Bush he plays this trump card, which is terrorism. His whole campaign is based on the notion that "I can keep you safe, therefore at times of difficulty for America stick with me," and then out comes Tom Ridge.

It's just impossible to know how much of this is real and how much of this is politics, and I suspect there's some of both in it.

BLITZER: Well, when you say that, that's a very serious allegation, that the federal government, Tom Ridge, the president of the United States, may be playing politics with the whole issue of fear and terror threat levels. And I want you to explain specifically, so there's no confusion, what you mean by that.

DEAN: What I mean by that is the president himself has played politics with it. The president is basing his political campaign for re-election on the notion that he ought to be re-elected because terrorism is a danger, and his case to the American people is, "I'm the only person who can get us through this." So of course this is politics.

The question is, do I believe this is being fabricated? No, of course I don't believe that. But I do think that there is politics in this, and the question is, how much is politics and how much is a real threat?

I have no doubt there's a real threat here, but I also -- this is a long history of orange to yellow, yellow to orange, orange to yellow without a lot of explanation.

I find that the warnings -- watch out for somebody walking into buildings, watch out for somebody driving cars, watch out for somebody driving a truck -- that's not very helpful in New York City. It would be very helpful if the federal government would be much more specific about exactly what they'd like to us watch out for as they're raising all these levels.

BLITZER: But isn't it important that if there are serious indicators of a threat out there, that the federal government at least notify those who may be in harm's way to be a little bit more vigilant?

DEAN: Yes, it is very important. And one of the things about this warning, which is different than the previous many, many, many that the Bush administration has given us is they've given us specific cities and specific targets.

The usual pattern of the Bush administration is just come out and tell everybody, "We have chatter, we have chatter, watch out, watch out," and that is totally unhelpful. This at least confines it to a geographic area, and I think that's an improvement.

I think, frankly, that this is an area which I think John Kerry would handle much differently. I think John Kerry would probably wait until he knew exactly what the situation was.

He's also said that he would hire more special forces people, and that's going to be the key to stopping this. We need to stop these people in their own lands, not when they get to ours.

BLITZER: Governor Dean, you were governor of Vermont when Tom Ridge was governor of Pennsylvania. You clearly know him. Is he the kind of man who would play politics with this kind of sensitive subject?

DEAN: Look, I like Tom Ridge. And I knew George Bush, and I like George Bush.

The president himself has said he is playing politics with this. The president himself has said that he ought to be re-elected because of the terrible terrorist danger. I don't see what's the big deal about this. I mean, it's obvious politics has something to do with this.

BLITZER: Well, as I said before, that's a very serious charge that you're making against the president.

DEAN: I don't think it's a serious charge. It's something the president himself has acknowledged.

BLITZER: Well, when you say he's acknowledged, he says this is not...

DEAN: The president's campaign is based on...

BLITZER: Well, let me just say, he says that what he's doing is trying to protect the American people when he and his intelligence community, law enforcement community sense there are threats out there.

DEAN: I have no doubt that the president is trying to protect the American people. That's his job. And I think that's a good thing. I think that's good. That's what he should be doing.

However, when you're going to run on inspiring fear in American people, that's politics.

And there's no way you can get out of accusations and discussions about the relationship between politics and protecting us against terrorism in an election year when the president of the United States is avowedly running his political re-election campaign on the notion that he can protect us better from terrorism than John Kerry can.

BLITZER: Let's move on.

DEAN: I happen to disagree with that. But the president himself made the choice to inject politics into the campaign on terrorism. That was his choice. He's now going to have to live with the consequences.

I love Howard Dean. He might be right, he might be wrong but he does say things that occur to a lot of us.

has anyone with a tape of the interview checked the transcript for accuracy? This transcript seems as accurate as I can remember from the interview but since we are, more and more, going to be dependent on transcripts for fast proof, how do we know that those won't be altered? Ah, the rancid smell of 1984.

Plus you have to subscribe to watch it anyway.

If you search back a few pages you can probably find her thread.

I was watching but not taping, so it looked ok but I wanted to be sure. I think we are going to have to check this stuff ourselves these days.

It appeared to be ok, but I will take time to go through it all today. I have no doubt we will have to do a lot of this in the future.

I know one thing. I watched it a 2nd time yesterday before the transcript came out. I was even more impressed than when it aired.

His words were carefully chosen. My first thought was it will take a while now, but what he said to Blitzer will resonate. They can run from and spin the truth, but they can not hide forever when the people really get mad.

ol' Leslie was breaking out in a cold sweat by *letting* that maniac Dean say such things on HIS show. :7


Good job, Howard! :thumbsup:

And I think he would have made a wonderful President for that.

pissed me off as he did yesterday. He was annoying as hell.

He's a true whore.

I thought Leslie was going to have apoplexy. He kept "daring" Dean to "take it back" calling it several times a "serious charge" as if he'd just said Bush was an alien from the planet Pluto or something.
Dean very calmly explained that the alerts were suspicious because no one could see the intelligence, the timing of the "lerts" was suspicious and that Bush made terror a political issue himself.

Dean said NOTHING that at least 50 million Americans suspect themselves.

Poor Leslie. I thought the veins in his neck would pop. No one is supposed to say that the emporer has no clothes.

it's called "de-programming for Americans"

or are you just being weird?

will make many wonder...

I adore him. I worship the ground he walks on. Does that mean I'm like the blind Bushistas???? :loveya:

Welcome to the club of Dean worshippers. LOL

:hi:

Which part of this doesn't Kerry agree with? I think I've heard him say that Bush politicized the war before but I could be wrong.

This is based on NYT reporters, but the quotes seem fair.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=532181.html

SNIP...In a campaign there are things you can control, and things you can't control," said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Kerry. "You have to spend as much time as humanly possible worrying about the things you can control. We don't sit around all day talking about what color the terror alert is."

Yet the issue has charged the atmosphere, influencing everything Bush and Kerry do these days, as was particularly clear at Kerry's nominating convention last week. It has also stirred renewed suggestions by some Democrats that the White House was manipulating terror alerts for Bush's political gain. They said the latest alert had been issued at the moment Kerry emerged from a convention that was described by Republicans and Democrats as a success.

"I am concerned that every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism," Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a former rival of Kerry for the Democratic nomination, told CNN.

"His whole campaign is based on the notion that 'I can keep you safe, therefore at times of difficulty for America stick with me,' and then out comes Tom Ridge," Dean added, referring to the homeland security secretary. "It's just impossible to know how much of this is real and how much of this is politics, and I suspect there's some of both in it."END SNIP

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2983041

SNIP..."Since Mr Ridge’s department was created, in the wake of the 2001 attacks, it has issued orange alerts several times but no signs subsequently emerged of any terrorist plots. This has raised suspicions that the Bush administration might be using the alerts as a political diversion. And, indeed, the latest warnings come just days after Mr Bush’s challenger, John Kerry, launched his election campaign at what was widely seen as a successful Democratic Party convention. After Sunday’s announcement, Howard Dean, a leading Democrat and former presidential contender, complained on CNN television that “every time something happens that’s not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism.”