Speaking out in September 2003.

[madfloridian]

I want honesty from my party. I want it recognized that people have been talking about a lot of issues for a long time. I don't want those whom I admire, but who have not been taking sides yet, criticizing those who have been on the front lines for the party.

Others should feel free to join in with outspoken statements. All I want is fairness.

From Sept. 8 2003 on the campaign trail...

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the early front-runner for the Democratic
nomination, called Bush's remarks "nothing short of outrageous."

"In 15 minutes, he attempted to make up for 15 months of misleading the
American people and 15 weeks of mismanaging the reconstruction," he said.

In his speech, Bush called Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism
and said foreign terrorists were to blame for recent violence there. But
Dean said the security vacuum caused by the war itself is to blame for that
situation.

"The president has created a much more dangerous situation in Iraq," Dean
said. "The president has created Iraq to be the front line of terrorism."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/bush.reax/index.html

[madfloridian]

1. How many thought of Iraq as an "experiment"?

I know that some did, but I preferred to think way back in the back of my mind that our Democrats did not think so.

From Meet the Press on Sunday this week.

"But what’s done is done and I, I, I still think it’s important to recognize that if this Iraq experiment could be made to work now, it would be better than if it can’t. No one knows yet whether it can."

And I am terribly afraid that Colin Powell's "omelet" is not going to succeed.

"MR. CLINTON: I did. No, I—here’s what I believe: I think it’s fine to get rid of Saddam and I think it’s fine to try to build a multi-party democracy. I, I spoke to President Talabani today. I think the Kurds are doing pretty well as it is. What I believe was an error was for us to unilaterally invade before the United Nations had finished its inspections. Because we said the reason the Congress was asked to vote to approve this was to give teeth to the U.N. inspections and then to use the authority to invade if he flunked the inspections. I’m glad he’s gone, but I think we have to realize every time you’re someplace, you’re not someplace else; every dollar you spend here, you don’t spend it there. So—but we are where we are now, and since we have broken this egg, as General Powell used to say, we got to try and make an omelet. I think that, that whether this succeeds or fails now depends more on Iraqis than Americans."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14907031/page/2/

I doubt we will ever leave Iraq. Too many Democrats and Republicans have vested interests in this "experiment."

I just called my congressman's office, and I said the Republicans would be remembered as the party of torture and the party who lied us to war.

It made the aide furious. She sort of tried to say that Democrats would accept torture as well.

SO...that sort of ends the debate right there. She's right, you know.

[madfloridian]

2. Speaking out about terror alerts in August 2004

BLITZER: And I want to immediately get your reaction to both of these developing stories. First, the decision by the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, to increase the threat level here in Washington, D.C., from yellow to orange, from elevated to high. What do you make of this?

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..."

http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/Dean_Interview_CNN_LateEdition_Aug1_2004.htm

[madfloridian]

3. A retort to another Bush speech...

From 2005:

A clip of the attacks by Karl Rove. And Cheney's personal attacks. A lot of Democrats have been fighting the battle, I just happen to keep track of this one.

"In an exclusive wide-ranging interview with MSNBC-TV's Chris Matthews, DNC Chairman Howard Dean reacts to President Bush's primetime address and the war in Iraq. Dean tells Matthews, "The president made a huge blunder in defending the United States. And I think ultimately the American people have figured that out, and he's going to be accountable for that."

...."DEAN: Sure. I think the president made a terrible, terrible mistake in getting us into Iraq. And now we really have a big problem on our hands. We have a security problem that we
didn't have before.

Now the president's trying to make this into a war on terrorism. It is a war on terrorism in the sense that there's certainly international terrorists in Iraq. The point is, there weren't any to speak of before we got there. The president made a big error in judgment, and he's now
trying to combine what's going on in Iraq with the war on terrorism."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8409377/

And people here should not assume who is working hard for the party and who is not.

Our party really is in a weird spot right now. There is no one set leader with a clear mandate, and there are many views.

I think I am angrier at the Democratic strategists who go on the air and fail to give good Democrats their due, maybe that is who I am most upset with.