BLITZER: Do you think they should be out by the end of the year, like Congressman John Murtha, Senator Kerry, Senator Feingold? They say get them all out by the end of this year.
DEAN: Look, ...the bottom line is the president doesn't have a plan and the Democrats believe that we should be heading in another direction, which is what the American people believe.
BLITZER: Here's what Karl Rove said last week in Manchester, New Hampshire. He said, "Like too many Democrats, it strikes me they are ready to give the green light to go to war. But when it gets tough, they fall back on that old party's platform of cutting and running. They may be with you for the first few bullets, but they won't be there for the last tough battles."
DEAN: I thought Jack Murtha, who's a 37-year-old decorated Marine, had the best retort. Karl Rove is sitting in his air conditioned office on his big fat you-know-what, and he's never served. George Bush has never served abroad. Dick Cheney's never served abroad. Don Rumsfeld's never served abroad.
Republicans are great at sending other peoples' kids to war, but not so good at following up. You know, it's not good enough to just be tough. You've got to be tough and smart. Here we are. North Korea is in the process of firing a missile, a test missile. George Bush has been in office for 5 1/2 years, has done nothing about that.
We've got 200,000 brave troops pinned down in Iraq. You can't trust the president to defend America, not because they don't want to defend America, because they're not smart enough to defend America.
BLITZER: But they point out that things appear to be moving in the right direction in Iraq right now. In fact, earlier today, Dick Cheney [said] ...the U.S. is winning, and it's just a matter of getting the job done.
DEAN: First of all, Vice President Cheney has no credibility in this matter. Second of all, we have two of our brave soldiers that have been kidnapped by the insurgents, who are still in captivity right now.
We know these guys got us in under false pretenses. The truth is, Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11.
The fact of the matter is that you can't trust the Republicans to defend the country, again, not because they don't want to, but they are not smart enough to listen to the military and listen to people who have served, like Jack Murtha.
BLITZER: How worried are that Karl Rove will now be able to focus all of his attention on getting Republicans elected in November?
DEAN: Look, the president -- Karl Rove keep -- keeps repeating the same old tired stuff: Democrats are weak. Democrats are disorganized. Sometimes, he gets columnists to believe it.
If you want more of the same, vote for Karl Rove's party. If you want real change, support the Democrats.
BLITZER: The -- some of your strategy, as the chairman of the Democratic Party, is under criticism from some Democrats, for example, the effort to reach out to all 50 states.
DEAN: We need to -- we need to be everywhere.
The only way they are going to -- going to beat us is if we beat ourselves. And we are not going to do that. We are aggressive. We are going to tough. And we are going to be -- in terms of defense, we are going to be tough, just as tough as the Republicans, but we are going to be much smarter than the Republicans, in terms of protecting our troops with adequate armed -- armor, with adequate equipment.
You won't see Democrats simply doing photo-ops in Baghdad. You will see us really supporting our troops and our veterans when they come home.
BLITZER: Governor Dean, thanks very much for joining us.
DEAN: Hey, thanks, Wolf.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/...