Pharyngula::Dean shows off superpowers, annihilates foes

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Sunday, January 08, 2006

Dean shows off superpowers, annihilates foes

PZ Myers • 47 Comments (last page)

Ah, what could have been. If only Howard Dean had been our nominee, rather than Kerry…I ♥ how plain spoken and uncompromising he is.

And I think, frankly, that Joe [Lieberman] is absolutely wrong, that it is incumbent on every American who is patriotic and cares about their country to stand up for what's right and not go along with the president, who is leading us in a wrong direction.

There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

Crooks and Liars has the video of part of the interview. The other striking thing is how pathetic and desperate Wolf Blitzer looks—he tries to spin the whole thing into the usual Republican talking points, and Dean just burns him to the ground with a glance of his laser-beam eyes.

Seeing the Forest makes similar points—Republicans are trying to turn this into a "Democrats do it too" issue, and while we've got some sleaze here and there, in this case it's straight up partisan corruption.

This corruption scandal is about people breaking existing laws. This is about Republican Congressmen and White House officials indicted for illegally taking bribes. They took payments in exchange for abusing their power, providing favors to cronies, and for using their power to block investigations and oversight.

Please, please, O Democrats: this is what we need, more straight-shooters and take-no-prisoners responses. Throw out the Lieberman and Biden wafflers, and get some more fiery liberals on the national stage. Maybe Dean is in the right place to push us in that direction…at least I hope so.

(via Atrios)

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Comments:

#56984: — 01/08 at 07:16 PM
Over the last several months and even past few years they're practically giving the democrats several seats in congress, and an excellent shot at president... I just hope they can cash in.

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"As with all of ID, the important thing is first to have the concept. Production can then follow as a matter of course.” -Dembski

#56985: BWJones — 01/08 at 07:37 PM
There needs to be more than us versus them. The ethics problem does not fall entirely along political affiliations as there have been corrupt Democrats throughout recent history as well. Don't get me wrong, those Republicans that are involved in this are absolutely wrong and I entirely agree with Howard Dean, but the black and white us versus them is no better than Bush's "You're either with us or against us" bullshit. I wish there were more choice of political party out there that would not be a wasted vote....

#56987: — 01/08 at 07:48 PM

and Dean just burns him to the ground with a glance of his laser-beam eyes

Shouldn't that be Dean Cain not Howard Dean:

#56989: Kate — 01/08 at 07:50 PM
Right on, PZ! I couldn't agree more.

By the way (I'm sure this has been said a million times, but) I love the words in your "submit the word you see below" thing to keep the spammers away. For some reason I get a lot of satisfaction typing ev bio words in there.

#56993: The Commissar — 01/08 at 08:13 PM
Well, Professor Myers, we finally agree on a matter of politics. I would have been delgihted with Dean as the Dem nominee.

#56994: — 01/08 at 08:14 PM
It's time the Democrats stopped being polite, civil, and accommodating with the crooks in power. Let these hypocrites and law-breakers have a taste of some of the medicine they were all too happy to dish out to Clinton for the lie he told about his inconsequential affair.

#56995: Jim Lippard — 01/08 at 08:23 PM
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) received $67,000 in donations from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff, which he's returned.

He hadn't met Abramoff.

"Aides conceded that the senator did advocate for programs pushed by Abramoff's clients around the time he was accepting tens of thousands of dollars from associates and clients of the lobbyist."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301582.html

#56998: — 01/08 at 09:46 PM
Some of us get to say ' I told you so '. How does a religious 'ethical' voter justify her votes for Bush and his compatriots in the House? I remember well those cries of 'at least he isnt that lying sleazeball Clinton'. Clinton lied, and did many things to make the world a better place. Bush lied, and keeps on lying, and ... the results are all around us. No way out of Iraq, 'reformed' Medicare that leaves people without needed care, attempts to trash Social Security, torture, corruption, bribery, incompetent administrators of crucial agencies, continually climbing deficits, religious intrusion in public institutions, and on and on it goes.

Dean told the truth and he was called crazy.

On a scale of 1-10; for ethical and principled leadership:

Dean 8
Kerry 6
Bush -6
Delay -666

The Republican Party may just get their just desserts next fall, but the damage will already be done. The Supreme Court will be set on a track to make peoples lives worse for years to come.

#56999: Fire Ant — 01/08 at 09:59 PM
Thanks for the "MST3K" moment, SEF........and we wonder why most folks are cynical about their politicians. And, as he left the courthouse, do you think Abramoff could've looked more like an extra from "The Untouchables" if he tried??

#57002: Alon Levy — 01/08 at 10:45 PM
And I think, frankly, that Joe [Lieberman] is absolutely wrong, that it is incumbent on every American who is patriotic and cares about their country to stand up for what's right and not go along with the president, who is leading us in a wrong direction.

I have a dream in which American politicians stop telling everybody that anyone who doesn't think or act as they do is unpatriotic. I have a dream in which they stop throwing around words that really mean "What I currently think" - freedom, justice, patriotism, and liberty all mean exactly that in American politics.

There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican.

That's not enough to exonerate the Democratic Party. No Republican had an election rigged for him by Richard J. Daley; does it mean Democrats rig elections more than Republicans do?

#57005: Heliologue — 01/08 at 11:49 PM
Blitzer just looked like a deer in the headlights. Dean finished speaking, there was a moment of silence as Blitzer stated wide-eyed into the camera, gave a heavy sigh, and said "Unfortunately, we have to leave it there..."

That was beautiful.

#57008: — 01/09 at 12:28 AM
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) received $67,000 in donations from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff, which he's returned.

Though, as Dean pointed out, you can't exactly call the tribes "agents" of Abramoff. They were clients. Not exactly the same thing.

#57009: arensb — 01/09 at 12:54 AM
Quoth Howard Dean:

There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff

For those who missed it, Think Progress has a summary of the Abramoff scandal. And yes, the list of players includes three Democrats:

Byron Dorgan, as Dean mentioned, received money from Indian tribes. Tom Harkin received $22,000 from "Abramoff's partners and his clients" and used Abramoff's skybox for fundraising purposes, and was late in reimbursing him for it. Harry Reid received $66,000 "in Abramoff-related donations", and wrote a letter on behalf of the Coushatta Indians who were also Abramoff clients.

So Dean appears to be right. The "partners and clients" phrasing is smear-by-association: Abramoff stole from tribe X, which also gave money to politician Y; therefore, Y is in cahoots with Abramoff. As events unfold, it may turn out that some Democrats were involved (and should be punished to the extent of their guilt, same as Republicans), and there are a few gray areas, but so far, the statement "The Abramoff scandal is a Republican scandal" seems as incontrovertible as "ID is creationism".

#57010: — 01/09 at 01:52 AM
Abramoff is going to jail for defrauding the tribes. They're the victims. The recipients of contributions from the victims are hardly complicit in the fraud.

#57012: — 01/09 at 02:16 AM
Who Howard Dean?
(see my location for reason to Q. )

It won't do any good.

Hilary Clinton will be elected in2008, do 2 terms, then the christians will just "win" in 2016, arrange a Reichstag fire, suspend your constitution, and then it's "Handmaid's Tale" time .......

#57015: arensb — 01/09 at 04:00 AM
I like Tom Toles's Jan. 8 cartoon on the subject:

#57018: — 01/09 at 07:23 AM
As of now Howard Dean is officially the only national Democratic politician for whom I have any respect. I wish he could perform a spinal-column transplant on some of our pathetic wishy-washy members of Congress.

#57020: Paris — 01/09 at 07:58 AM
Speaking of Hilary Clinton, the NYT reported that her office was donating funds that were some how associated with the scandal; add that to the list of other Dems identified by earlier comments and Dean's straight-shot is missing the broad-side of the barn. Even acknowledging the distinction between taking money from Abramoff and taking money from his clients, claiming that only Republicans are part of the problem is misleading. The whole lobbying system as it actually functions is sleezy and problematic and some people got caught this time, but I'm not sure the political party of the participants has a whole lot to do with it.

That said, Dean appears to be the only Democrat with backbone, so its fine by me if his rhetoric gets ahead of him occasionally.

#57021: — 01/09 at 08:02 AM
If you really think Abramoff was funneling money to Democrats, I believe you need to Google "K Street Project" and get a clue as to what the Abramoff / DeLay machine was all about.

#57027: Alon Levy — 01/09 at 09:01 AM
That said, Dean appears to be the only Democrat with backbone, so its fine by me if his rhetoric gets ahead of him occasionally.

Remind me, what is his position on trade, again?

#57028: Alon Levy — 01/09 at 09:03 AM
Oh, and I forgot: every politician who said "we need to create high-paying jobs and keep them away from China" needs to be treated with the same respect mainstream Americans treat those who say "we need to keep good jobs away from niggers."

#57029: — 01/09 at 09:12 AM
I admittedly part company with many Democrats in that I strongly favor free trade, whose benefits I frankly think they don't fully understand. Nevertheless, if you really think advocacy of keeping jobs here rather than seeing them migrate to a foreign country, is logically or ethically equivalent to advocating keeping them away from a particular ethnic group within the country, you're cognitively in about the same shape as Ariel Sharon is in right now. More likely, you're just randomly bullshitting.

#57031: — 01/09 at 09:23 AM
Free trade has many positives, but the complex regulatory treaties passed in recent decades called free trade agreements aren't. Of course, the US government has a long history of misleadingly named laws, such as the Patriot Act and Clean Skies. Many of the "free trade" agreements, especially in the area of copyrights and patents, are precisely the opposite of what they claim, greatly expanding existing monopolies by pushing the US's pro-DRM copyright maximilist position on other nations.

#57032: — 01/09 at 09:26 AM

add that to the list of other Dems identified by earlier comments and Dean's straight-shot is missing the broad-side of the barn.

That is what bothers me about the approach Dean takes. I very much agree it's an attractive attitude and we probably do need it--but it tends to come at a price. Making such bold, absolutist statements almost always glosses over some minor details. No matter how insignificant they are, they can still be exploited to make the speaker look foolish or dishonest. You don't need more than this to establish Republican talking points. I guess my complaint is just that I'd like Dean to do a tiny bit more research, so he could append at the end of his statment "I think a few Democrats had contributions from some of Abramoff's victims."

Also, I believe I've heard on Chicago-area news that Durbin is returning a (very small) contribution that he thinks is Abramoff-related.

#57033: — 01/09 at 09:40 AM
"Dean's approach" has the singular advantage of being the truth, rrt. And Dean DID say he had gone over the FEC reports to make sure. Getting a contribution (paltry compared to what they gave Republicans) from an Indian tribe that had been an Abramoff client is NOT AT ALL the same thing as getting money FROM ABRAMOFF. That really shouldn't be hard to understand! (Dean certainly had no trouble making it clear on CNN.) And anyone who comprehnds the purpose and methods of the DeLay machine will immediately understand that it's completely implausible that Abramoff would have been involved in channeling money to Democrats.

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Sunday, January 08, 2006

Dean shows off superpowers, annihilates foes

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