I am getting real tired of the pile on concerning Howard Dean. I have written Senators Biden and Edwards, sent out emails, posted here on Daily Kos and called my local paper numerous times in the past two weeks. The St Louis Post-Dispatch ran no less than THREE NEWS STORIES ON THE SAME DEAN QUOTES while the Downing Street memo has yet to be mentioned ONCE in the Post-Dispatch news section.
Then today, after a nice Sunday sleep in, I opened my Post-Dispatch editorial page to find an EVEN MORE INFURIATING editorial chastising Howard Dean yet again.
See it here: http://tinyurl.com/abmn2
ENOUGH ALREADY! The media needs to stop making news decisions based on the GOP spin machine and Democratic leaders need to get a backbone and STAND UP FOR THE CHAIRMAN OF THEIR PARTY!
Dear St Louis Post-Dispatch,
I am continually baffled by the myth of a "liberal main stream media," when a more appropriately labeled "lazy media" simply repeats Republican myths instead of investigating WHAT IS FACT AND WHAT IS FICTION. Even so, your editorial last Sunday chiding Howard Dean for wisecracks about Republicans hit a new low by actually CREATING THE FICTION TO SUPPORT THE GOP MYTH.
Dean's partially quoted, out of context attack about Republicans not making an honest living was specifically aimed at GOP leaders who clearly don't understand the hardships of working families when they made people stand in line for up to 10 hours just to vote last November. Your attempt at an analogous argument that Republicans would never get a pass for a fictitious remark about "Democratic welfare queens" is nonsensical and ridiculous. Not to mention ironic considering a forgotten quote from a Republican named Ronald Reagan who accused "welfare queens of driving Cadillacs," in racially charged rhetoric that was found to be factually baseless.
Then Dean says the obvious that the GOP is "pretty much a white, Christian party" and you scold him again with another irrational "what if" GOP remark about minorities that is again not comparative. If you had read Dean's full comment, you would know that he is talking about diversity and the indisputable fact that the Republican Party is far more monolithic than the Democratic Party. Didn't you see the recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll that found 82 percent of Republicans identify themselves as white Christians compared to 57 percent of Democrats? More important is Dean's point concerning the monolithic cultural priorities of the GOP that clearly favor a white fundamentalist Christian agenda compared to Democratic policies of equal rights under the law, personal privacy, responsibility and freedom.
Dean rightly blamed Republicans and the media for using fake outrage to divert attention from the serious real problems that are the substance of his speeches and interviews. Howard Dean may have establishment Washington Democrats nervous, but he plays very well to the rank and file Democratic populists out here in America starved for a fighting Democrat with the courage to go on the offense with the truth.
(my name)
Manchester, MO