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Politics : HOWARD DEAN -THE NEXT PRESIDENT? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elpolvo who wrote (819)	12/5/2003 6:03:43 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3079

AND THE WINNER IS.......... PEOPLE POWERED HOWARD! The Conservatives have decided Dean is da Man........ AND DEAN LAUNCHES "CLUB FOR TRUTH" TO CLUB REPUGS WITH.... In the 1956 Presidential election campaign, Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic Party candidate quipped: "As long as the Republicans keep lying about us, we'll keep telling the truth about them." * boston.com Conservative group's ad assails Dean By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff, 12/5/2003 In a political season that has already seen attack ads fly among Democratic presidential hopefuls, a new dimension was added yesterday when a conservative group began airing a television spot in battleground states singling out Democratic candidate Howard Dean for criticism. The group, Club for Growth, which raises money for Republican campaigns but is officially unaligned with the party, introduced the 30-second commercial in Iowa and New Hampshire. The ad lashes Dean's call for the rollback of President Bush's tax cuts. The ad marks the first time one of the nine Democratic presidential candidates has been attacked directly on the air by Republican supporters. It also signals that Republicans are interjecting themselves in the Democratic nomination process at a relatively early stage. The ad comes on the heels this week of Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie's pointed criticism of Dean in Vermont, where Dean served as governor for 11 years. "It's pretty rare to see one candidate picked on when there are nine viable candidates," said Joel Rivlin, the deputy director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rivlin added that the ad raised questions about whether Republicans were seeking to influence the Democratic choice for nominee. Dean, who among Democratic hopefuls has been particularly critical of Bush, responded quickly to the ad, with his campaign manager Joe Trippi saying it showed Republicans are "increasingly concerned by the grass-roots movement we have created." The Dean campaign also launched an ad of its own titled "Club for Truth," which was to begin airing today. In it, Dean links President Bush to the Club for Growth ad, saying, "He's hiding behind negative ads that falsely attack Howard Dean." A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, Heather Layman, sought to distance the president from the ad, saying, "We do not coordinate our ads with outside groups. <<>>LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!<<>>** If people want [our] message we have our own ads," referring to a commercial the committee began airing in Iowa and will soon introduce in New Hampshire touting President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism. Club for Growth president Stephen Moore said he had focused the ad on Dean because "Dean is clearly the one commanding all the press attention. He's the one with most economically illiterate message on taxes and we think those ideas are very economically dangerous." The ad will run for at least two weeks in Des Moines and in Manchester, N.H., at a cost of $100,000. Political observers noted that the ad carries a potentially double-barreled peril for Dean. For one thing, it seeks to cast him in a negative light, accusing him of saying he would "raise taxes on the average family." At the same time, it elevates him to front-runner, a label pundits have ascribed to him because of his lead in polls and his fund-raising success but one that Dean himself has sought to direct away for fear of peaking too early. The ad, though, could give Dean greater name exposure, a move favored by some Republicans who believe Bush's chances in November would be better against Dean, who is associated with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party for, among other things, signing a law that provides civil unions for gays and lesbians in Vermont. The Dean campaign seized on the ad as further justification for its decision to forgo federal matching funds, a move that freed the campaign from having to abide by spending caps, including the federal limit of $45 million during the primary season. "Are we fighting the primary or the general" election? Trippi asked in a conference call with reporters yesterday.