Dean: From ABC News Dean campaign reporter Reena Singh:
There doesn't seem to be a cure for the Governor's terminal bout of can't-control-what-comes-out-of-my-mouth-itis.
Like a boy who kept getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, the Governor bashfully acknowledged throughout the weekend that he doesn't always say the right thing. This, of course, was immediately followed by saying the wrong thing. Latest case in point being the Iraq comment over which the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post were buzzing about yesterday. Strategically speaking, the blanket excuse is a brilliant way to diffuse the self-destructive statements, which spill out of Howard Dean's mouth regularly.
A senior adviser finally lost the stiff upper lip and admitted the Iowa loss was a big setback and that the Governor had not expected such a large gap. One staff member blamed it on Gephardt's not being able to make threshold at several precincts. The Gephardt unviables then went to other camps while the Kucinich people rallied behind Edwards. The Governor himself criticized the Edwards campaign for playing dirty citing the document listing unsavory arguments against other candidates as proof.
Speaking of dirty tricks, the New Hampshire staff claims some of their supporters have received robo calls or harassing calls claiming to originate from the Dean campaign. The campaign has not taped any of these calls. One of the recipients, who asked not to be identified, is a woman from Berlin who says she received a call at 7:15 am on January 24 from someone identifying themselves as a Dean worker. At first the male caller told the woman a "dirty Irish joke," and when she asked the man not to call her again, he replied, "I'll call you anytime I want." After hanging up, the woman said the man dialed back and left "strange noises sounding like flagellation" (sorry, gentle readers) on her answering machine. |
