"Picky, picky, picky!" That's Dean's answer when his opponents say he has changed his story. Of course, if the Bushies change their story, the Dems holler, "Lies, lies, lies!
washingtonpost.com
Dean Jabs At Rivals, Says No to Kerry Debate
Former Vt. Governor Calls Attacks 'Nitpicky'
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 15, 2003; Page A08
DES MOINES, Sept. 14 -- "There's a fine distinction," said former Vermont governor Howard Dean, "between shooting from the hip, which I'm well noted for, and speaking from the heart, which I'm also well noted for. Sometimes I have trouble telling the difference."
Dean was slouched in a chair in the family room of a supporter's home here on Saturday afternoon. It was the end of a week in which he became a punching bag for many of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Other Democrats accused Dean of being naïve on foreign policy, a soul mate of former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in the Medicare budgetary battles of the mid-1990s, changing his views on trade, and arrogant in saying he is the only white candidate in the nomination battle to talk regularly about racial issues. And today, one of those critics, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), challenged Dean to a series of one-on-one debates to air their differences. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, rejected the proposal, calling it "presumptuous."
Dean was dismissive toward the attacks, calling them "silly" and "nitpicky." He argued they will strengthen his candidacy, not weaken it. "That's what you have to go through," he said. "If I'm going to go up against George Bush, I'm going to get much worse from [White House senior adviser] Karl Rove than I am from these guys."
One of the sharpest criticisms came from Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), who said that in 1995, Dean, then chairman of the National Governors Association, had sided with the Republican position in trying to restrain the growth of Medicare at a time when President Bill Clinton and congressional Democrats were opposing the Republicans. .
Dean said he couldn't remember who was on which side of the Medicare fight, but he said he and other governors were only trying to reduce the federal budget deficit, not destroy Medicare. "We were constantly talking about how to get the deficit under control, which the Democrats in Congress turned out to have no interest in doing," he said.
He also questioned how his rivals dared challenge him on health care. "I think it's ludicrous for any Democrat to attack me on health care," Dean said. "I'm actually the only person [running] who's ever delivered it, ever."
Dean objected to being compared to a Republican like Gingrich, saying their motives on Medicare were entirely different.When he turned to the Middle East, however, he compared two of his opponents, Kerry and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), to Bush, saying "they divide by fear."
"They really have tried to frighten the pro-Israel committee into thinking that I will not be sufficiently committed to the defense of Israel," he added. "That's just plain, flat-out, not true."
Dean was criticized by his rivals for saying the United States should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for using the word "soldiers," rather than terrorists, to describe members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. Dean said that in labeling Hamas members as soldiers, he was justifying the Israeli policy of assassinating Hamas leaders. Calling for evenhandedness in the Middle East, he said, was his way of saying that the United States needs to win the trust of both sides to bring about a peace agreement, and was not intended to advocate abandoning Israel in some way.
His critics were engaging in a classic Washington insiders' game, Dean said, adding, "In general the flap over the Israeli stuff was a great lesson for me, because that really was about code words that I never have to deal with in a place like Vermont."
Washington-based candidates, he said, often speak in "gobbledygook" that is carefully parsed by policy experts. "When I say something, people understand what I'm talking about," he said. "Interest groups get very upset because I may use a code word that I shouldn't have used because it means something to that interest group."
When a reporter suggested that his critics were calling him naïve, he replied, "I actually think that's also a silly argument because the most important thing that you have to have in foreign affairs is judgment." He said that Kerry has claimed he was misled by Bush before the Iraq war, adding, "I could see through that [Bush's intentions]."
On his statement that he is the lone white candidate talking about race, Dean gave little ground, even after Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who also talks frequently about race, called him on it at a debate last week. Dean's view was that other white candidates don't talk about race in the way he does. "I still think I probably am the only one and I'm very willing to have you contradict me," he said.
The candidate said the criticism won't force him to change much. "I concede that I would be better off -- well I wouldn't necessarily be better off, I would be less controversial, if I didn't make absolute statements." But he said he also "would be less appealing." "As we get into this I have to find balance," Dean said, "but if I become too much like a Washington politician, then I am a Washington politician. Why not let somebody else do this?"
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