You know we are in trouble when NewsMax is more accurate than CNN. Okay you can ignore the last part
Howard Dean's Real Enemies
Christopher Ruddy
Monday, Jan. 26, 2004
Howard Dean still doesn't know what hit him.
He looks punch-drunk. He was just hit by a two-by-four and has not yet recovered.
OK, his rant concession speech in Des Moines was just that - a rant.
It was over the top, unpresidential; Dean agrees to that. It was not so bad as to disqualify him from the presidency, however.
Let us also remember that Dean made the rant after the results of Iowa had been posted.
By then Dean already had been demolished by the Democratic hit machine.
more...
The relentless attacks, all timed for the weeks before Iowa, had the desired effect. Dean came in a weak third place just days after it was predicted that he would win the Iowa Caucuses.
The rant was an accidental gift from Dean to his enemies in the Democratic establishment, who wanted to make roadkill of him.
Clearly, the Democratic establishment led by DNC chief Terry McAuliffe has used the party apparatus, shamefully, to torpedo one of the contenders in what should have been an open race for primary voters to decide.
The McAuliffe wing has had a full under-the-radar-screen campaign against Dean in operation for some time.
They have claimed that Dean was just too liberal to be the nominee and could not offer George Bush a real challenge this November.
This is hilarious in view of the fact that Sen. John Kerry now has the lead. Kerry is even more liberal that Dean, who governed as a relative moderate in Vermont.
As NewsMax.com has reported, Kerry is such an ultra-liberal that his congressional voting record is even more liberal than that of Dennis Kucinich.
The American Conservative Union gives Kerry a lifetime rating of just 6 percent.
Compare that with Kucinich's 19 percent. Even New York Sen. Hillary Clinton scored an ACU rating of 13 percent.
Howard Dean's real crime is not that he is too liberal or can't win in November. His crime is that he is not part of the inside-the-Beltway gang headed by McAuliffe. He owes them nothing and they cannot control him.
Dean certainly hurt himself with his rant.
But Dean's rant wasn't as bad as some of Ted Kennedy's screeches from the floor of the Senate - some of his recent over-the-top speeches accused the president of being a liar - or his recent obnoxious behavior during the president's State of the Union address.
Why does Sen. Kennedy get away with such actions while Howard Dean takes a licking?
Meanwhile, John Kerry, Sen. Kennedy's partner from Massachusetts, is being anointed with the nomination.
After such treatment, I think Dean and his followers should think long and hard about supporting the Democratic nominee come Election Day.
And Democratic and independent voters in New Hampshire come Tuesday should vote for the most able and qualified person: Joe Lieberman.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/24/160216.shtml