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Dean on Jesus, balanced budgets
April 8, 2005
Dean on Jesus, balanced budgets
By JOHN BRUMMETT
Howard Dean called the other day and started talking about Jesus. Yes, that Howard Dean. Yes, that Jesus.
Dean is the doctor and former Vermont governor who now is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, having pretty much screamed himself out of the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
Along the campaign path he remarked that his favorite New Testament book was Job, which, actually, is in the Old Testament.
It was insinuated that Dean, like the Alan Alda character on "West Wing," wasn't all that much for churchgoing. The way to insinuate such a thing is to call a man "perhaps the most secular candidate for the presidency in modern times."
Dean was coming to my little Southern city to speak to the national association of state Democratic chairmen. He wanted to give me a little insight on what he would say, as much, that is, as you can impart in seven minutes over the cellular crackle on your way back from the Vatican Embassy where you'd signed the condolences book for the Pope.
This speech would offer the best early indication of what Dean had in mind for the Democrats.
"I'm going to tell them we're going to run in all 50 states, that the days of running in 18 states are over, and that we're going to help them in all races, down to the state and local level. I'm going to tell them we're going to build machines in their states with their own people, not with imported people. I'm going to tell them Democrats need not shy away from the values debate. I will tell them that the Democratic Party is going to have a national message, and it's not going to come from the top down but from them up. We're going to look at what we have in common, not what divides us. The people of Minnesota and Arkansas see a lot more things the same than they see differently."
He said he would give the state chairmen marching orders: Find out and articulate what the Democratic message is, or ought to be, in your state, and we'll synthesize all 50 and come up with one.
I wanted to go back to how the Democrats shouldn't shy away from the values debate. "We need to talk about Christian values and how they're Democratic values," Dean said. "Jesus taught to help the least among us. He spent his life reaching out to the disenfranchised. The Democratic Party is the party of that value, not the Republican Party."
Dean said that passing on debt to children was a Republican value that Democrats didn't share. He said that it's not a Democratic value to get in new ethics trouble every two or three days, which has been the rate lately for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
This is the man - Dean, I mean - who said with typical self-wounding that he wanted to be the Democratic presidential candidate who got votes from Southern guys with Confederate flags in their pickups.
"I'd say that differently now," he told me. "But I do think Democrats need to be the party to get white AND black votes, and I think we will be."
You can call him a cultural liberal if you must, but he calls it an oversimplification and says he gets rather tired of it.
"I was a governor who balanced eight budgets in a row, which is eight more than the Republicans, and I was a governor who was endorsed every year by the National Rifle Association."
Guns, Dean predicted, would never come up - either pro or con - in his 50-state survey of what the Democratic message should be.
"Guns aren't an issue," he said. "If Philadelphia wants gun control, fine. If Alabama doesn't, also fine."
So there you have the new Democratic Party, bloodied, but counterpunching. It's a familiar face, but the words are a little different and the inflection is starkly so.
Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com.
For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 link
Dean on Jesus, balanced budgets
By JOHN BRUMMETT
Howard Dean called the other day and started talking about Jesus. Yes, that Howard Dean. Yes, that Jesus.
Dean is the doctor and former Vermont governor who now is chairman of the Democratic National Committee, having pretty much screamed himself out of the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
Along the campaign path he remarked that his favorite New Testament book was Job, which, actually, is in the Old Testament.
It was insinuated that Dean, like the Alan Alda character on "West Wing," wasn't all that much for churchgoing. The way to insinuate such a thing is to call a man "perhaps the most secular candidate for the presidency in modern times."
Dean was coming to my little Southern city to speak to the national association of state Democratic chairmen. He wanted to give me a little insight on what he would say, as much, that is, as you can impart in seven minutes over the cellular crackle on your way back from the Vatican Embassy where you'd signed the condolences book for the Pope.
This speech would offer the best early indication of what Dean had in mind for the Democrats.
"I'm going to tell them we're going to run in all 50 states, that the days of running in 18 states are over, and that we're going to help them in all races, down to the state and local level. I'm going to tell them we're going to build machines in their states with their own people, not with imported people. I'm going to tell them Democrats need not shy away from the values debate. I will tell them that the Democratic Party is going to have a national message, and it's not going to come from the top down but from them up. We're going to look at what we have in common, not what divides us. The people of Minnesota and Arkansas see a lot more things the same than they see differently."
He said he would give the state chairmen marching orders: Find out and articulate what the Democratic message is, or ought to be, in your state, and we'll synthesize all 50 and come up with one.
I wanted to go back to how the Democrats shouldn't shy away from the values debate. "We need to talk about Christian values and how they're Democratic values," Dean said. "Jesus taught to help the least among us. He spent his life reaching out to the disenfranchised. The Democratic Party is the party of that value, not the Republican Party."
Dean said that passing on debt to children was a Republican value that Democrats didn't share. He said that it's not a Democratic value to get in new ethics trouble every two or three days, which has been the rate lately for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
This is the man - Dean, I mean - who said with typical self-wounding that he wanted to be the Democratic presidential candidate who got votes from Southern guys with Confederate flags in their pickups.
"I'd say that differently now," he told me. "But I do think Democrats need to be the party to get white AND black votes, and I think we will be."
You can call him a cultural liberal if you must, but he calls it an oversimplification and says he gets rather tired of it.
"I was a governor who balanced eight budgets in a row, which is eight more than the Republicans, and I was a governor who was endorsed every year by the National Rifle Association."
Guns, Dean predicted, would never come up - either pro or con - in his 50-state survey of what the Democratic message should be.
"Guns aren't an issue," he said. "If Philadelphia wants gun control, fine. If Alabama doesn't, also fine."
So there you have the new Democratic Party, bloodied, but counterpunching. It's a familiar face, but the words are a little different and the inflection is starkly so.
Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com.
For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005 link
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