Dr. Dean and Newt Gingrich

Oh, that wacky Dr. Dean!

What a pleasure it is to have him at the helm of the Democratic Party!

On Saturday, DNC Chairman Howard Dean was the keynote speaker at the annual fundraising dinner for the Maine Democratic Party at the Lewiston Armory.

LEWISTON -- The Bush White House is the most corrupt administration in U.S. history since President Warren G. Harding's, said Howard Dean during his first visit to Maine as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

..."The first thing we're going to do is we're going to have ethics come back to Washington again."

..."I'm tired of the ayatollahs of the right wing," Dean said. "We're fighting for freedom in Iraq. We're going to fight for freedom in America."

Maybe it’s just me, but I think that’s a tad over the top. I would think, I would hope, that levelheaded Dems would cringe at Dean’s "ayatollahs of the right wing" slam.

Although on TV this morning Dean reiterated much of what he said yesterday in Maine, he softened his rhetoric just a bit for the wider audience.

This morning on This Week, Dean gave a glimpse into the Dems' plan to defeat Republicans in the 2006 elections and beyond.

The strategy is based on the revolution that Newt Gingrich orchestrated in 1994, when the Dems lost control of the House of Representatives.

Dean intends to run the 2006 Congressional elections on a national level. Essentially, he wants Dem candidates across the country to run on the same platform.

Although Dean mentioned issues such as health care and education, his primary focus is "honesty in government." Those are his key words. He believes that if Dems formulate a unified strategy and get on board with the "honesty in government" plan, they can defeat Republicans.

I imagine that Dean and the Dems realized that the oft-repeated "culture of corruption" phrase was too negative for a national audience, although it plays well with their base. So, to be more appealing to the masses, Dean changed that to "honesty in government," as if that would make any difference.

In the end, the Dems are hoping to regain national control by plugging away with their politics of personal destruction methods, rather than offering the American people anything of substance.

Dean doesn’t plan to construct a vision for America like Gingrich and his fellow conservatives did in 1994. He has no specifics. His hopes rest on indictments of White House staff and Tom DeLay.

In contrast, the Contract with America laid out the details of a plan that would be followed if Republicans were to gain control of the House including:

The Fiscal Responsibility Act
The Taking Back Our Streets Act
The Personal Responsibility Act
The American Dream Restoration Act
The National Security Restoration Act
The "Common Sense" Legal Reform Act
The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act
The Citizen Legislature Act

Dr. Dean doesn’t seem to understand that if he wants to utilize the Gingrich model, he has to have something much more concrete than "honesty in government" to present to voters.

Furthermore, the Dems aren’t exactly lily white when it comes to being honest with the American people. It would be very easy for Republicans to turn Dean’s “honesty in government” plan against them.

It would be a cakewalk. Yes, a cakewalk.

Do Dems really want to dredge up integrity issues?

That’s not a good idea.

Also, the belief that Dems would be able to run a “Bush lied” campaign would demand that they wipe out all of those on the record statements by Dems agreeing with the administrations’ assertions about Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

The placement of the apostrophe above is critical here. ADMINSTRATIONS, as in the Clinton and Bush administrations, used the same intelligence. The overwhelming majority of Dems signed on to the claims made by BOTH administrations.

If Bush was dishonest with the Americans people regarding Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, then so was Clinton and all of the Dems that echoed Clinton’s lines. Therefore, there is no way that the Dems can run away from their support to take out Saddam Hussein. In order to claim that they were deceived by Neo-con hawks, they have to admit to being deceived by Clinton.

Well, actually, they don’t have to admit to that reality.

THE DEMS CAN CONTINUE TO BE DISHONEST.

I suspect that they will.

In the course of the George Stephanopolous interview, Dean said that Dems had a good chance to reconnect with Americans since Dems had almost won the last (2004) election, and they did win the one (2000) before that. Apparently, Steph agreed with his statement. He made no effort at all to correct or question Dean’s comment.

It will be very interesting, as well as amusing, to see Dems try to stage an orchestrated campaign based on honesty.

Speaking of putting lipstick on a pig….