Dean speaks on fundraising and working with the congressional Dems....

[madfloridian]

on Morning Sedition today. I think these two aspects have been ignored or overlooked. He is very honest about both..

http://shadowbfa.blogspot.com/

Maron: So how are you doing with money, Dr. Dean? You guys have enough to facilitate this thing?

Dean: I think so. We just broke the record in terms of off-year fundraising, without any soft money, so I think we’re doing fine. You know, we’ve really done what we had to do. We’ve got people working right now in all 50 states. We’ve got a strong way of communicating with the American people that doesn’t depend on the mainstream media, including thanks to you at Air America. I think we’re in good shape. There’s always more you can do, and the big thing we want to do is get small donors to give the Democrats money. I want everybody to go to Democrats.org and get a Democracy Bond. That’s ten or twenty dollars a month off your credit card. We want to make the party dependent upon Americans and not just big interests. And so we are trying to raise a lot of small dollars, and if you’ll go to our web site Democrats.org, people can help!

Riley: Okay, Doctor, there was a problem at one point with some congressional Democrats and your leadership. Has that beef been resolved?

Dean: Oh, I think it has. We now have the House, the Senate, the governors and the mayors all working together on messaging and agenda, and that stuff has been resolved. I’m always going to be an outsider, so you know, there’s going to be some discomfort. But Harry Reid has been an enormous ally, I mean, he really tells it like it is. And a lot of the real catalyst in questioning whether the President has been truthful or not started when Harry Reid decided to shut down the Senate over the fact that Republicans had lied to him about whether they were going to do a congressional investigation to find out what happened at the beginning of the Iraq war. He’s a great partner. And Nancy Pelosi has really brought the House Democrats together. So I do think that things are heading in the right direction, and I think things are going well that way.

[AuntPatsy]

1. Shaking my head, why can't we have more air time?

I hear more from the Dems on this site than anyhwere else..:thumbsup:

[madfloridian]

3. I know what you mean.

I had to listen to the archived program, as I slept late. (Retired, and that is an option now.)

[snowbear]

2. Thanks for sharing that MadFloridian!

Governor Dean is both honest.. and a HARD worker!!

Kudos to the Doc!

[blm]

9. And I love how all the Dem candidates work together to unify the party

where they can and oppose BushInc.

Dean really is getting a handle on combatting the whole media lie about him being a radical leftist, too, and the lie about the fundraising going downhill. I think they learned by now that they have to stay one step ahead of the lying media.

[madfloridian]

4. Corrected link to the transcript.

http://shadowbfa.blogspot.com/2005/11/howard-dean-on-morning-sedition.html

[madfloridian]

5. Dear Governor Dean, guess what they are doing now.

I hope you have a tough hide because both sides are drawing their guns. I know the guns on the left have one specific motive, a third party. If you have success building the DNC from the grassroots you will have thwarted their plans for the Nader like 3rd party. Note Joshua Frank's new article.

And the right, I guess you would call it, are pulling out the ammo to be sure you understand that you must keep your outsider place. They are even calling up a video at C-Span from the Annenberg conference with David Jones telling how they brought you down...they had their goal and they did it. 2:57 and 3:20 minutes in. In Jones' own gleeful words.

http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=david+jones&image1.x=23&image1.y=6

So...hope you have a tough hide, Governor. Most decent politicians who care about our country do NOT have two segments of their own party out for their head. Plus you have the Republicans you speak out against not very fond of you either.

Last year we were on board with the party as you asked, donated and supported. Now the same group whom we worked with is putting us down. Not a good thing to do. Does not bode well for the future.

So actually it is a very good thing to be an outsider, Governor Dean. You can get a lot more done that way. Good luck. The harder that Joshua Frank and David Jones push their agendas of meaningless stuff....the more we wish you good luck.

In fact, it has gotten so bad that few can actually see that your mention of the Korb plan, and your support of Murtha's speaking out was a good plan. It brought a Republican into the mix and a hawkish Democrat as well. After all, it won't be our party who gets us out of a wrong-headed war...it will be their party. Ours only helped get us there.

[madfloridian]

6. This just keeps on. It is painful.

It is where we can not respond. I see no reason for this except to hurt other people. It makes me wonder why we bother to think we even have a party. Out for each others' throats.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=54145&mesg_id=54145

If I could post in there, I would say that people who supported Dean mostly supported Kerry also. Like us. Why is this going on? Why is it so ok to make fun of other people in the party like this? What is being gained?

[Mass]

8. Yes, that is a good example of how we continue to ask the old

questions. Just notice that the OP has been asked the question by somebody who says he/she is a Dean supporter. So ask yourself why the person asked the question in the first place.

It would be nice to have a party. May be we can all take our share of responsibility on this subject.

And BTW, Dean is doing a great job.

[Debi]

10. Some know the truth, some try to ignore it.

"WASHINGTON -- Presidential rivals John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry have found a common foe to unite them: Howard Dean. In a rare alliance, the three campaigns are working to deny the fellow Democratic candidate an endorsement from the Service Employees International Union, the largest in the AFL-CIO with 1.6 million members.
"It's Dean or no one," said SEIU spokeswoman Sara Howard.

"That announcement prompted top aides to Edwards, Gephardt and Kerry to convene a conference call during which they discussed whether Dean's endorsement could be blocked."







http://capecodworks.typepad.com/home/2003/11/04/

[blm]

12. Didn't Dean work to block the endorsement to them? Yes. he campaigned

heavily to get that endorsement and used his followers to pressure them.

It felt out of bounds at the time, because endorsees usually spend years working to EARN that endorsement through their prolabor efforts and when Dean was governor he was known as probusiness and not so hot for labor issues.

It worked for Dean, but, it was no surprise that longtime prolabor guys like Gephardt and Kerry would feel outmaneuvered rather than outearned.

Kerry earned Iowa. He had strong ground support that was solidifying in Nov.2003. The media under-reported his ground support so they could continue to ignore his campaign.

Dean's support that the media kept inflating was actually slipping at that time, and Joe Trippi and Dean knew that because it was in their internal polling numbers for Iowa.

When the media turned to discredit Dean as the expected nominee, it only further erased his numbers at the same time Kerry and Edwards were gaining. The media must have known this by now.

It also wasn't helpful that Dean took Gephardt straight on in Iowa where he was well-liked and it didn't help that he had some clunker appearances and uneven performances in the debates then, either.

This revisionism to put all blame on one ad or one campaign or even rigged machines is just unrealistic. I still shrug my shoulders when I see the inevitable thread that the machines in Iowa were rigged. No one has yet explained how voting machines can be rigged for caucuses.

I'm with Dean and Kerry now....unify the party...grow the party...oppose BushInc and their culture of corruption.

[Debi]

17. I agree with most of your post

I don't believe that the one 527 ad sunk Dean, I think it was partly Dean's fault, partly Joe Trippis fault, and partly the help of the other campaigns along with the negative ads.

What was strange about the joining of the other campaigns was that it was no longer about which one of them won, but making sure Dean lost - that's kind of weird since I thought they all wanted to get the nomination.

And Gephardt wasn't very well liked (except by the UAW) in Iowa after the 2002 race. He earned his 4th place finish - he would have received it no matter who got 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Someone asked a question and I provided an answer, that's all my post was. Okay?

[blm]

18. No problem.

But, in fairness, the Dean campaig had been pretty ruthless towards the others but, now that I know more about it, I blame Trippi above any other player.

I also blame the media and both Kerry and Dean's camp for using the smallest differences in their actual Iraq stances to define the other as too far right or too far left when neither fit that description at all.

It certainly didn't help, and I believe that the only issues that should be put on the primary table are ones that move the party forward as a whole. And any distortion will end up hurting the overall goals.

[Debi]

19. Here's what gets me about 527s - anonymity

It was the timing of the Osama ads, no, not the ads so much as the timing of the group that put the ads out.

In negative ads, the campaign responsible for the ad is stated right on the ad - if people don't like the ad they get pissed at the candidate (campaign) that put it out. Dean/Kerry/Gephardt/Edwards should have been at each others throats. That's what a primary does, exposes the good and bad of a candidate. (at least that's what I think) But.....with an anonymous 527 attack ad (whose prompters won't be revealed until after the caucus) nobody knows who to be pissed at. Was this Kerry's doing? Gephardt? The republicans?

That's what made it dirtier, meaner and nastier than before. No accountability and continued anonymity (or at least delayed revelation). That some of the contributors were Gephardt/Kerry supporters just adds to the nastiness of the whole 527 scenario.

Your last statement is a nice sentiment - too bad in today's scorched earth politics it will never happen. :shrug:

[blm]

20. I'm a longtime advocate for public financing of campaigns.

Clean Elections is the ONLY way to go, in my book.

[Debi]

21. I agree

If there were a set amount in tax-payer dollars allotted to each campaign we would see so much less of the garbage. (And there would have to be SEVERE punishment, like disqualification from the race, for those who tried to work around the rules).

I think we would see many more candidates who have the brains but not the trust funds to run.

Definitely the way to go.

[LittleClarkie]

13. I support Dean. But I've had this presented to me more than once at Kos

about the ganging up of Kerry and the other candidates on some sort of ad campaign. Nothing to do with the union endorsement, just an accusation that Kerry did something underhanded and sneaky and never admitted it.

So I asked for a clarification, so that when someone over at Kos, where this happens alot to me, says something about 527s and ads, I know what was supposed to have happened. What exactly is so wrong with that?

Mostly I was referring to the guys I encounter over at Kos. I don't encounter it here all that much if at all.

And I wasn't talking about candidates working together AT ALL. That was to be expected.

And indeed, if someone catches me being a weenie about Kerry losing in 2008, and I start to sound like the people I encounter on Daily Kos who can't even let a diary about Kerry go by without crying about why they will never forgive him, and how Deaniacs (they apparently think they speak for Deaniacs) are justified in their hatred of Kerry and such, I'd like to be able to answer back, you know?

So that's why I asked about the issue. Why would that be a problem, I wonder.

[madfloridian]

22. I want to make one thing clear.

My husband and I considered ourselves Kerry supporters from March 2004 on. We donated, we worked hard for his campaign here in Florida. I want to make sure people understand that. I have not been one to attack at all.

So what constitutes a "Kerry supporter"? I don't know. Apparently I am NOT considered one, and apparently I never was.

I learn slowly, but I learn well. Very well, unfortunately. It just takes me longer as I so "politically naive."

I was talking to someone in DFA hq recently. We were trying to put our finger on why so many remain loyal to what came out of the Dean campaign. I think it boils down to the fact that we saw things clearly, just because we were not so jaded. I am proud of that fact.

I did consider myself a Kerry supporter last year. I cheered the campaign on. I am not considered one by others, apparently. Now I am not. Period.

[madfloridian]

24. I liked this interview, it was pretty honest.

I am also proud of being called politically naive so often.

See, most of the problems arise from making those of us who supported Dean sound like we are short of a full load. That is the source of a lot of problems. None of us should do that to each other. Here is part of a post I made earlier about how it might be good to be considered a little politically naive. This is partly why I so appreciated this interview of his on Morning Sedition. He can take his lumps as a politician, politicians are fair game. The trouble sometimes is that the supporters of various people get tagged unfairly.

I am especially proud when I am called politically naive, which happens often. You see, the fact that I started
supporting the campaign with a certain degree of naivete' was the best thing that
could have happened.

You see, naivete' gives one a clearer look at the whole dirty scene of
politics. Because I was naive then, I am no longer that way. I am tired, very tired, of
being talked about as though I were not as important, not as good a Democrat
because my husband and I and our friends became part of a very special
campaign.

Yes, it was all politics. Everybody does it. In fact, I think this "only
politics" stuff is in part why our guys and the innocent Iraqis are dying. It was
"only politics". But they are dead. And more are dying every day.

I have learned a whole lot since early 2003. Lots of us have. And we plan on
continuing to point out things that have been swept under rugs for far too
often.

[lostnfound]

25. Wow. That video was very interesting.

Just 20 individuals contributed money to that PAC.

Think it changed the course of history?
How'd that work out for them anyway? ;)

Wow.

[madfloridian]

26. Well, actually...

it worked out not very well. But it did help change the course of things. :hi:

[UDenver20]

7. I was, and remain....

....a Deaniac.

[JetCityLiberal]

11. "...because the country is more important than the party"

The man just gets it madfloridian, and he is talking about any house cleaning that might come to Democrats with reforms. I agree completely with that too. I have told several republicans in my time that their blind loyalty seems to be for a party, not the country.

He had me and still has me digging in my pockets, scratching around my checkbook after bills are paid, digging in the couch cushions, scouring parking lots for any cash I can come up with to give.

Great site. Great interview, keep it up Howard. Hope everyone reads that whole interview.

I would have never known about that blogspot without your efforts here madfloridian. I will be passing that link around.



:thumbsup: and thanks to you.

(the Vice President is Spiro Agnew comment about made me come off my chair, I loved it)

[madfloridian]

15. Yes, I loved that quote. Excerpt.

Riley:Now, you were talking earlier, Dr. Dean, about ethics, and we see that there's a lobbying nest involving Jack Abramoff that has touched a couple of Democrats. Is the party itself really ready to change the way Washington does business, even if it hurts the party in the short term?

Dean: They’d better be, because the country is more important than the party. I’ve had enough of ethics problems in Congress and we need really good legislation that will stop this. You know, the Republicans came in in ’94 and suggested they were going to clean up Washington, and of course they’ve made it even more corrupt than it was before. I want to fix this problem. We need some honesty in politics, and I know some people think that can never be achieved, and we’ll never get to it 100%, but what’s going on now is awful! We’ve never been at a time, that I ever know of, where the Republican leader in the Senate was under investigation, the Republican leader in the House is indicted, Karl Rove, who has security clearance, for God’s sake, after leaking wartime information! The President can’t tell the truth—I don’t think he even knows what the truth is any more—

Maron: And the Vice President’s under suspicion!

Dean: Well, the Vice President, you know who the Vice President is. Spiro Agnew! (In background, laughter and “Ooooooh!” from the Marks.)

[mzmolly]

14. Thanks MF! Dean is on the right track.

:toast:

We just broke the record in terms of off-year fundraising, without any soft money, so I think we’re doing fine.

Yes indeed - we are doing fine!

[bonito]

16. Kick, good post. n/t

[madfloridian]

23. A request from me that this thread be locked.

Since it refers to an archived thread.

[The Magistrate]

27. Locking

At the original poster's request.