Inside politics: I wonder what some Republican would say about Dean's intemperate remarks.
DeLay vs. Dean
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay yesterday condemned the comments of presidential candidate and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for saying "John Ashcroft is not a patriot."
"Howard Dean is a cruel and extremist demagogue," Mr. DeLay said in a statement.
During a campaign appearance in New Hampshire last weekend, Mr. Dean said Mr. Ashcroft "is not a patriot."
"John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy," he said, in a reference to the communist-hunting senator of the 1950s.
"John Ashcroft loves America more than Howard Dean could ever know." Mr. DeLay said. "John Ashcroft has sacrificed for his country, and devoted his life to serving it. He is as kind, generous, and patriotic a man as I've ever met. And Howard Dean is as ignorant on John Ashcroft as he is on national security."
The Texas Republican added: "Howard Dean's comments are an embarrassment to the democratic process and the Democrat Party. If this cruel, loudmouth extremist is the cream of the Democrat crop, next November's going to make the 1984 election look like a squeaker."
Mr. Dean's communications director, Tricia Enright, fired back, the Associated Press reports.
"The narrow ideological agenda of the DeLay-Ashcroft wing of the Republican Party threatens basic American freedoms that have been enshrined in the Constitution for over 200 years. Those policies are not only extreme, they are cruel," she said.
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