Dean Vows To "Use Terri Schiavo"

[The Ressurrected One]

Howard Dean said yesterday that the Democrats would use Terri Schiavo as a weapon against the Republicans in 2006 and 2008, according to The Los Angeles Times:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Friday that his party would wield the Terri Schiavo case against Republicans in the 2006 and 2008 elections, but for now needed to stay focused battling President Bush on Social Security.

"We're going to use Terri Schiavo later on," Dean said...

"This is going to be an issue in 2006, and it's going to be an issue in 2008," Dean told about 200 people at a gay rights group's breakfast in West Hollywood, "because we're going to have an ad with a picture of Tom DeLay saying, 'Do you want this guy to decide whether you die or not? Or is that going to be up to your loved ones?' "

Dean, a practicing physician until he became governor of Vermont in 1991, added: "The issue is: Are we going to live in a theocracy where the highest powers tell us what to do? Or are we going to be allowed to consult our own high powers when we make very difficult decisions?"

Dean's characterization of the issues involved in the Schiavo case is of course twisted beyond all recognition. But his comments bring two thoughts to mind. First, I very seriously doubt that the Schiavo case will be an issue either in 2006 or in 2008. Second, why is it it that when a minor Republican staffer wrote that the Schiavo case was a "great political issue," it was a scandal that was reported in every newspaper in America, whereas, when the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says, "We're going to use Terri Schiavo" in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the response is a yawn? I'm sure there must be a reason why Dean's comment is different, but offhand I can't think what it is.

Dean has a unique ability to put his foot in his mouth, from which the Republicans will continue to reap benefits as long as Dean holds his present position.

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!

[Bandit2981]

First, I very seriously doubt that the Schiavo case will be an issue either in 2006 or in 2008.

i agree

Second, why is it it that when a minor Republican staffer wrote that the Schiavo case was a "great political issue," it was a scandal that was reported in every newspaper in America, whereas, when the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says, "We're going to use Terri Schiavo" in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the response is a yawn?

good question, im not sure...both parties trying to use her for political gain is disgraceful. dean should never have said such a thing. i think the schiavo thing is already so played out, the media doesnt see much interest, er, profits coming from running another scandal story about the case.

[The Ressurrected One]

...both parties trying to use her for political gain...

Junior staffer vs. head of DNC. Yeah...no difference.

[Bandit2981]

you're trying to frame the debate around the person involved, not the actions of the parties. the memo was passed around congress to other republicans, the staffer didnt just write the memo and someone found it lying around his office, it was in full circulation.

[Shelly]

Yeah...let's not let this poor woman rest in peace.

First, I very seriously doubt that the Schiavo case will be an issue either in 2006 or in 2008

Ditto

[The Ressurrected One]

you're trying to frame the debate around the person involved, not the actions of the parties. the memo was passed around congress to other republicans, the staffer didnt just write the memo and someone found it lying around his office, it was in full circulation.

So? It didn't originate at the top of the party and there's no reason to believe the Republicans were going to follow the advice in the memo. Most were distancing themselves from the outset.

Dean IS the top of the Democratic Party.

[Nbadan]

So? It didn't originate at the top of the party and there's no reason to believe the Republicans were going to follow the advice in the memo. Most were distancing themselves from the outset.

Dean IS the top of the Democratic Party.

Go try and tell the DLC that. I bet they would have a few 'choice' words for you. The Terry Schiavo case is clearly a wedge issue that the mostly tepid Democrats won. No two ways about it. The Republican leadership under Delay, Frist and our own junior senator John Cornyn self-imploded. It was incredible, but I digress. These right to lifers aren't going to loosen their claws on this administration's huevos just cause they got stabbed in the back in the Schiavo case. Not when they have Judges to sacrifice for their cause. It's almost like, no it is a match made in . They will be there in 2006 and 2008.

[Zombie Terri Schiavo]

Yeah...let's not let this poor woman rest in peace.



Ditto

How can I rest on an empty belly?

[The Ressurrected One]

Go try and tell the DLC that. I bet they would have a few 'choice' words for you. The Terry Schiavo case is clearly a wedge issue that the mostly tepid Democrats won. No two ways about it. The Republican leadership under Delay, Frist and our own junior senator John Cornyn self-imploded. It was incredible, but I digress. These right to lifers aren't going to loosen their claws on this administration's huevos just cause they got stabbed in the back in the Schiavo case. Not when they have Judges to sacrifice for their cause. It's almost like, no it is a match made in . They will be there in 2006 and 2008.

You're delusional...it was a flash in the pan story over which some Conservatives had trouble deciding between heart, head, and pocket. Democrats only "won" the issue because they have no such scruples over which to be torn.

Fact remains, a minor staffer of a junior (freshman) Senator produced a memo that would have gone nowhere except for the Democrat who received it and a fawning liberal press. On the other hand, you have the head of the DNC promising to make it a political issue one and three years hence.

Where's the outrage?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Hey give the democrats credit, this is the closest they've come to having a platform on anything in the last 16 years...

[NameDropper]

Democrats just don't put their candidate up on a platform and declare him the second coming.

[The Ressurrected One]

Democrats just don't put their candidate up on a platform and declare him the second coming.

No, they do that to the other party's candidate.

[Mr Hanky]

Dem?....... Rep?....... WTF does it matter? this country is going .

[The Ressurrected One]

Dem?....... Rep?....... WTF does it matter? this country is going .

Yeah! Get out while you can!!!

[Nbadan]

[The Ressurrected One]

To think...someone spent time coming up with that. What a lonely, lonely person that must be.

[mookie2001]

how can you blame him
its a perfect example of how big brother is getting into every aspect of peoples lifes