For those of you who are really under the impression that Dean is being attacked for no reason, please allow me to refresh your memories. The other candidate have every right to go after Dean politically. I only wish they hadn't let him get away with it for so long to begin with.
First phone attack
Straight-talking Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is testing his attack message in Iowa. Political operatives say Dean's phone polling is probing for weaknesses in support for Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry and Rep. Dick Gephardt. For rookie pol Edwards, it's about experience. For Gephardt, it's his alliance with Bush on key issues. Questions about Kerry test Iowans' reaction to his vote backing the war in Iraq."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/archive/030512/12whisplead.php From a USA Today, 4/29-29/03
Campaigns spar over remarks about military
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
(full text at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-28-dem-words_x.htm)
WASHINGTON — The only Democratic presidential candidate to regularly whack his rivals got a taste of his own tactics Monday and didn't like it...
...Until now, the competition has been relatively harmonious, at least for public consumption, with the exception of Dean. His attacks on fellow Democrats have been so cutting that sometimes the Republican National Committee e-mails them to party members. "Gephardt Plan: 'Pie-In-The-Sky Radical Revamping' " was the headline on one last week, quoting Dean.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri have been Dean targets in recent weeks. But Dean has reserved his sharpest thrusts for Kerry, repeatedly accusing him of selling out Democratic principles. The two men are virtually tied for the lead in polls in New Hampshire, which holds the critically important first primary election...
... Dean's remarks underscore his off-the-cuff style. In March, he accused Edwards and Kerry of softening their support for the Iraq war when they spoke to a dovish California crowd. But in reality, both had referred to their support and gotten booed. Edwards was furious and received an apology from Dean. Kerry said he deserved one but didn't get it.
After Gephardt proposed last week to roll back President Bush's tax cuts to pay for a major expansion of health coverage, Dean blasted him for wanting to repeal "huge tax cuts" he said Gephardt had supported. But Gephardt led the fight against the tax cuts passed in 2001.
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