"During the Democratic National Committee meeting last month, Dean drew loud applause when he said he was from "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." Since then, some have wondered why Dean failed to credit the politician who most often used that line -- the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a lawmaker who was proud of his liberal credentials.
Dean said Tuesday that he used to credit California State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Democrat who represents Santa Monica, with the line.
"I got a lot of e-mails from Wellstone's people," Dean said. "I'm not going to give it up. I admired Wellstone, though he's a bit more liberal than I am." - March 5, 2003
"We live in a liberal democracy. That's what we created in this country. It's in our constitution! We should be very clear on this... this country was founded on the principles of the Enlightenment. It was the idea that people could talk, have reasonable dialogue and discuss the issues. It wasn't founded on the idea that someone would get struck by a divine inspiration and know everything, right from wrong. People who founded this country had religion, they had strong beliefs, but they believed in reason, and dialogue, and civil discourse. We can't lose that in this country. We've got to get it back." - Gen. Wesley K. Clark, Bill Maher Show, September 4 2003