MR. RUSSERT: Let me stay on your rhetoric. January, I mentioned that "I hate the Republicans, what they stand for, good and evil, we are the good." In March, you said, "Republicans are brain dead." You mentioned you're a physician—and this is April. "[Dean] did draw howls of laughter by mimicking a drug-snorting Rush Limbaugh. `I'm not very dignified,' Dean said."
DR. DEAN: [With a smile] Well, that's true. A lot of people have accused me of not being dignified. [Including yourself.]
MR. RUSSERT: But is it appropriate for a physician to mock somebody who has gone into therapy and the abuse for drug addiction?
DR. DEAN: [Admire the spin and hypocrisy in this answer.] Here's the point I was trying – as most of these things are taken by the Republicans, spun around Washington saying this in a one sentence, which I generally had said. [Huh?] But then they're sort of manipulated around, saying this is the kind of thing he said. [Huh?] The Rush Limbaugh comment was one that I made about Rush Limbaugh [really?], and I also said something about Bill O'Reilly [name-dropper]. The problem is not that these folks have problems. They do, and they have problems in the case of a drug addiction. [O’Reilly?] That's a medical problem. And I respect those who clearly, in my profession, who are trying to overcome their problems. [Only those in your profession? Physicians or politicians (professions to which neither Rush Limbaugh nor Bill O’Reilly belong)?]
The problem is it is galling to Democrats, 48 percent of us who did not support the president, it is galling to be lectured to about moral values by folks who have their own problems. [So you model moral values by making fun of their clinical problems?] Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party. [H.D., 5/22/05: “But the thing that really bothered me the most is the insinuation that the president continues to make to this day that (sic, Saddam Hussein) had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. (Bush) was asked once directly about it and said, ‘No, I don't have that evidence.’ "] We get lectured by people all day long about moral values by people who have their own moral shortcomings. [Like class?] I don't think we ought to give a whole lot of lectures to people. [What’s a filibuster?] I think the Bible says something to the effect that be careful when you talk about the shortcomings of somebody else when you haven't removed the moat from your own eye. [Huh?] And I don't think we ought to be lectured to by Republicans who have got all these problems themselves. [Congratulations, Mr. Dean. You lost me.]
Rush Limbaugh has made a career of belittling other people and making jokes about President Clinton, about Mrs. Clinton and others. [Their policies and ideas or their physical impediments? I bet Rush made not a single joke about Clinton’s bypass surgery.] I don't think he's in any position to do that, nor do I think Bill O'Reilly is in a position to abuse families of survivors of 9/11, given his own ethical shortcomings. [Are the DNC and Air America Radio in a position to mock-assassinate the president for a laugh? Is it ethical, Mr. Dean, to still not condemn that action by the media outlet which your organization actually funds?] Everybody has ethical shortcomings. We ought not to lecture [filibuster] each other about our ethical shortcomings. [Weren’t Democrats supposed to be the party of free speech, diversity of opinion and equal opportunity? Besides, Mr. Dean, Limbaugh and O’Reilly are media personalities – not political leaders. BIG difference.]
MR. RUSSERT: But should you jump in the fray and be mocking those kind of people?
DR. DEAN: I will use whatever position I have in order to root out hypocrisy. [Apparently, except for your own.] I'm not going to be lectured [filibustered] as a Democrat – we've got some pretty strong moral values in my party [i.e., defending terrorists, U.S. military-bashing, fighting for abortion rights, changing the definition of words and statutes to achieve secular- and gay agenda objectives, etc.] and maybe we ought to do a better job standing up and fighting for them. [Before you kept wanting to sit down, now you want to stand up. Politics sounds like good exercise!]
Our moral values, in contradiction to the Republicans', is we don't think kids [unless they’re helpless victims of brain trauma] ought to go to bed hungry at night. [OK, so you just accused Republicans of valuing the starvation of children.] Our moral values say that people who work hard all their lives ought to be able to retire with dignity. [AKA, Republicans value American workers retiring undignified.] Our moral values say that we ought to have a strong, free public education system so that we can level the playing field. [AKA, Republicans, despite No-Child-Left-Behind (a merit-based education system), value poor and expensive education.] Our moral values say that what's going on in Indian country [respectful term] in this country right now in terms of health care and education is a disgrace, and for the president of the United States to cut back on health-care services all over America is wrong. [AKA, Republicans hate Indians and want all Americans to suffer bad or no health care.]
[H.D., 5/22/05: “Look, we're not going to stoop to the kind of divisiveness that the Republicans are doing.”]
Democrats have strong moral values. Frankly, my moral values are offended by some of the things I hear on programs like "Rush Limbaugh" [then why do you listen to it?], and we don't have to put up with that. [So how’s Air America doing?] Our problem in this party is we didn't stand up early enough and fight back against folks like that who thought they were going to push us around and bully us, and we're not going to do it anymore. [Sounds like you’re sacrificing reason and sincerity just to sound extra tough.]
No comments:
Post a Comment