Dean Is Now Ready to Sentence: Osama Deserves Death

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/26/politics1852EST0615.DTL

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean on Friday assailed the Bush administration for failing to set up a livestock tracking system he said could have averted the current mad cow scare and said he supports federal aid to help the American beef industry weather the storm.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Dean also said he wants Osama bin Laden to get the death penalty, seeking to minimize fallout from a New Hampshire newspaper story Friday in which he was quoted as saying the terror leader's guilt should not be prejudged.

"As a president, I would have to defend the process of the rule of law. But as an American, I want to make sure he gets the death penalty he deserves," Dean told the AP in a phone interview.

The former Vermont governor, who solidly leads the field of Democratic presidential candidates in both polls and money, said he was simply trying to state in The Concord Monitor interview that the process of trying bin Laden needs to be fair and credible.

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<<"As a president, I would have to defend the process of the rule of law. But as an American, I want to make sure he gets the death penalty he deserves," Dean told the AP in a phone interview.>>

edited to add the quote, I think he's clarifying his earlier comments.

what is the difference between 'changing your position' and 'flip-flopping'? Would this be termed a clarification instead? I really like Dean, and I though his statement on this was right before. Rule of law. But it freaks me out that he's out for the death penalty a few hours later. This statement makes no sense! Rule of law, but I want him to die! Argh.

On edit: I'm against the death penalty for everyone. I wanted McVeigh to spend the rest of his life in a very small room. Death is too easy an out for guys like this. I like the West Wing, and they had trhat special 9/11 episode. The Josh Liman character said kinda the same thing. No death penalty for terrorists. make them sit in their cell watching videos of the birthdays, Christmases and bar mitzvas of everyone they killed, and then someone gets to punch him in the face right before lights out each night. No lack of volunteers for that.

number of Americans disagree with the death penalty but are still in the minority and the candidates have not made a lot of noise about it.

Clark is Less pro-capital punishment than Dean for instance:
http://www.texasforclark.com/crime.htm

Excerpt from Arkansas Democrat-gazette
Clark lets positions be known By Paul Barton
October 6, 2003

On capital punishment, Clark told the crowd at the event, organized by the Arkansas Black Legislative Caucus, "I’m very uneasy about the death penalty." He called for "unpacking all those cases" to see if death sentences were wrongly applied.

Clark said he is concerned by mounting evidence that legal mistakes are often prevalent in capital sentences. But Clark said that he believes government should retain the right to apply the death penalty in clear and compelling cases. He cited the possible capture of Osama bin Laden as such a case.

cheers

i've just started watching west wing since the reruns stated on bravo.

i'm enjoying it.

he said as an american we need due process but id personally like to see him get the maximum penalty

Work to procecute the guy and get him a death sentence, through the law.

He separates the job from his opinion, extremely clearly.

Among those of us who still care about the Constitution, Osama is innocent until proven guilty in a criminal court of law.

Dean can't control what comes out of his mouth.

His lack of discipline is catching up to him at a fast pace.

ROFL

to a real democrat. It is possible you could be right.

They would prefer Clark to Dean, however.

as to what exactly a real democrat is. Do you define yourself as a real democrat as opposed to someone like me who supports Clark and isn't?

what a fuckin' joke.
Maybe Jesus came to him in his sleep
and imparted upon him this message of hate.
(I think not.)

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Due process / rule of law means innocent until proven guilty. Once proven guilty a sentence can be decided. It is the proper province of the courts (not the executive) to do this.

If due process is good enough for Milosevic then it is good enough for Bin Laden.

Dean supports the death penalty. I never had any doubt that Dean would sign a properly executed warrant for Bin Laden's execution. He never suggested otherwise.

LOL



What a thing to flip-flop on, too.

this hurts

at least for tonight? i mean cripes. this has gotta suck.

He's for due process now and was before :shrug:

I dont agree with the death penalty but if Osama is caught and found guilty I sure expect I'll be in the minority.

Still,there's no flip flop there :shrug:

Only an idiot can't see the difference.

One week it's this, next week it's that. blah

?

:thumbsup:

He is saying what he would do if entrusted with the legal authority and what he would do if he didn't have to follow due process.

Again, parse it however you want. Nothing I or anyone say will alter your opinion. You want this to be a negative against Dean, so thus, in your perception, it is a negative against Dean. There you go, no way to argue this point.

Dean pronounced sentence before the evidence presented.

Stalin had due process in his show trials. You have to have presumption of innocence in order for there to be justice at the end of the process. Anything less is a show trial.

Judge: "Okay, you murderer, How do you plead, innocent or guilty?..."

"As a president, I would have to defend the process of the rule of law. But as an American, I want to make sure he gets the death penalty he deserves," Dean told the AP in a phone interview.

because he is innocent until proven guilty--and THEN get the death penalty we KNOW he deserves!

Give me a friggin break.

I still haven't seen the evidence that Bin Laden was responsible for 9-11.

Large Payments clearly went from head Pakistani ISI (Intel)to Mohammad Atta days before 9/11.

Oooops... that's right. We don't want to show that evidence. That connection was in the US right before 9/11. Like hours before, I believe.

nice elaboration by the Doc.

It works for him. He says something provacative, gets everyone talking about him, and then explains what he really meant.

He feeds of controversy, it seems to make him stronger....