Suitably Flip

A Barrel of Gaffes

Between Episode III and Howard Dean's appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press, this was bound to be a banner weekend for entertainment.  Neither one disappointed.

In addition to repeatedly referring to Saddam Hussein as Osama bin Laden, blaming his erroneous past statements on faulty interpretations by reporters, and casting off host Tim Russert's probings of other rhetorical irregularities as simple out-of-context quotations, Dean also found time to give us a couple of fresh glimpses into the marvelously splintered incongruity of the mind of the DNC chief.

At one point, Chairman Dean loosed this bit of spontaneous belligerence, in response to a question about the demographics of the Dean base (bold and excerpting mine):

DEAN: And I don't--you know, some of the other Christians would dare to say that I'm not a Christian...  Frankly, it's what gets my ire up.  I am sick of being told what I am and what I'm not by other people.  I'll tell you what I am.

The mini tirade was followed soon after by this exchange:

RUSSERT:  In your home state of Vermont, there's a vacancy for the United States Senate about to occur.  Bernie Sanders, the congressman from Vermont, wants to run for that seat.  He is a self-described avowed socialist.

DEAN:  Well, that's what he says.  He's really a populist.

RUSSERT:  But is there room in the Democratic Party for a socialist?

DEAN:  Well, first of all, he's not a socialist, really.

RUSSERT:  He...

DEAN:  He hasn't said that for a while.

RUSSERT:  Oh, he has a...  He wrote in his book Outsider in the House, "I am a Democratic socialist."

DEAN:  Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here.  And Bernie can call himself anything he wants.  He is basically a liberal Democrat.

Same day, same interview, same speaker:

DEAN:  Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party.

That's entertainment.

Ankle Biting Pundits and Captain's Quarters have plenty more on Dean's simultaneous disdain and penchant for hypocrisy.

Comments

A Barrel of Gaffes

Between Episode III and Howard Dean's appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press, this was bound to be a banner weekend for entertainment.  Neither one disappointed.

In addition to repeatedly referring to Saddam Hussein as Osama bin Laden, blaming his erroneous past statements on faulty interpretations by reporters, and casting off host Tim Russert's probings of other rhetorical irregularities as simple out-of-context quotations, Dean also found time to give us a couple of fresh glimpses into the marvelously splintered incongruity of the mind of the DNC chief.

At one point, Chairman Dean loosed this bit of spontaneous belligerence, in response to a question about the demographics of the Dean base (bold and excerpting mine):

DEAN: And I don't--you know, some of the other Christians would dare to say that I'm not a Christian...  Frankly, it's what gets my ire up.  I am sick of being told what I am and what I'm not by other people.  I'll tell you what I am.

The mini tirade was followed soon after by this exchange:

RUSSERT:  In your home state of Vermont, there's a vacancy for the United States Senate about to occur.  Bernie Sanders, the congressman from Vermont, wants to run for that seat.  He is a self-described avowed socialist.

DEAN:  Well, that's what he says.  He's really a populist.

RUSSERT:  But is there room in the Democratic Party for a socialist?

DEAN:  Well, first of all, he's not a socialist, really.

RUSSERT:  He...

DEAN:  He hasn't said that for a while.

RUSSERT:  Oh, he has a...  He wrote in his book Outsider in the House, "I am a Democratic socialist."

DEAN:  Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here.  And Bernie can call himself anything he wants.  He is basically a liberal Democrat.

Same day, same interview, same speaker:

DEAN:  Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party.

That's entertainment.

Ankle Biting Pundits and Captain's Quarters have plenty more on Dean's simultaneous disdain and penchant for hypocrisy.