Is Howard Dean On Karl Rove's Payroll?

Once again, DNC Chairman Dean fires a couple of torpedoes into the hull of the S.S. Democrat by publicly saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong".

Here his party is trying to make Iraq THE issue for the mid-term elections and the same guy who said in December 2003 that the U.S. wasn't safer with Saddam Hussein out of power is now declaring defeat in Iraq.

But it doesn't stop there. He goes on:

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Dean says the Democrat position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.

Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.

"The White House wants us to have a permanent commitment to Iraq. This is an Iraqi problem. President Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein and that was a great thing, but that could have been done in a very different way. But now that we're there we need to figure out how to leave. 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and it's their country."

Dean also compared the controversy over pre-war intelligence to the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974.

Now you have to understand, Dean really does believe in all this nonsense and he's under the delusion that the majority of Americans believe it too. He's not about to back away from these comments.

So The RCP Blog asks the question: Does Dean speak for all Democrats?

Dean hit all the highlights: Comparison to Vietnam. Check. Call for immediate withdrawal. Check. Bush lied. Check. Comparison to Watergate. Check.

In all seriousness, Howard Dean is not some yahoo, he's the national voice of the Democratic party and his comments - saying Iraq is unwinnable and calling for the immediate withdrawal of 80,000 troops less than two weeks before Iraq goes to the polls - unquestionably furthers the perception that Democrats are the party of cut and run. This is a horrendous political mistake and it puts even more pressure on Democrats like Clinton, Biden, et al to respond to the question: Does Howard Dean speak for your party?

And Captain Ed notes that even the MSM is smart enough to realize that these statements are damaging to the Democrats.

The embarassment of Dean's military analysis would make clear that the Democrats have no business conducting foreign affairs and national security for the US in this age of Islamofascist terrorism. That's why the newspapers buried Dean's comments on their web sites. They had plenty of time to write their own copy, or at least to include the AP story in their print edition. However, the NYT and the Washington Post obviously hope that Dean's comments get quickly forgotten. (The Los Angeles Times doesn't bother to mention it at all, despite the longer lead time for their newspaper.)

Now from a political perspective, this is huge windfall for the GOP. And those of us who understand how important it is to national security that Democrats keep losing, should be elated. But the problem is that these comments are not a "gloomy" assessment of our efforts in Iraq. They are outright lies and distortions. And they send the WRONG message to the American people, to our military and to our enemy.

Reliapundit at The Astute Blogger brings it home in his post yesterday, aptly titled "Howard Dean Is A Misinformed, Lying Defeatist Traitor". If a Democrat "leader" like Dean can so negatively affect U.S. foreign policy when he's out of power, imagine the damage that he and his cohorts could do if they were actually IN power.

The only upside is that if they just keep it up, they won't be. As Reliapundit writes:

In any case, the more he opens his mouth the better. He's the best thing to happen to the GOP in YEARS! He's as wrong as McGovern and one of the crappiest communicators to come along in decades.

The biggest political thing he ever did on his own was LOSE IOWA - and he lost it BIGTIME - after holding a huge lead in the polls and in fundraising! Which proves that he is a loser and an ass. And therefore, Howie is the perfect leader for the Dems - whose mascot is an ass, and who always LOSE! Thank God!

Posted by: Gary at 10:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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