Here is a statement from Dean's book on GWB.

[madfloridian]

He set this up nicely, if you will keep an open mind. Just read the paragraph, and think. I am posting this because people are so critical about Dean's saying he rather admired Bush 41. There seems to be a lack of understanding that he worked with GWB for several years as a governor. See how this paragraph is set up.

DEAN..."I hadn't started out a Bush basher. In fact, I'd been predisposed to like George Bush. I knew him personally and had dealt with him professionally when we were both governors. He'd always been charming and hospitable to me and my family, both in the Governor's Mansion in Texas and at the White House. He'd always been more than upright in the business dealings between our states, keeping his word when he had no legal obligation to do so. What I knew of his record in Texas bespoke a moderate man who was willing to put pragmatism before ideology, to raise taxes when necessary to equalize state education spending, and to take some heat from the right wing of his party for doing so. ("I hate those people," he'd once snarled at me when I ribbed him at a White House governors' gathering about some trouble he was having in Texas with the Christian Coalition.)"

Read it and think about what he said overall. Think: how do you think the last sentence will go over with Bush constituents. Yet it was given with a spoon full of sugar.

I am very strong on candidates speaking out, but I am not so critical that I realize there are times they must temper the message to get it out there.

[Nite Owl]

1. Another example of the two faces of *

Which one is telling us the truth?

[madfloridian]

3. Exactly his point as well.

Which one? You got it.

[Cheswick2.0]

2. Howard Dean is a very smart man

Every time I forget that he reminds me.

[Inland]

4. Well, the chrisitian coalition already knows Bush will screw their agenda

if given half a chance. That's why he is still trying to reassure them with the gay marriage amendment and having a christian pulpit at the Repub convention. He has to constantly reassure them that he is their willing and abject tool.

[tech3149]

5. Absolutely

During the Reagen years, the neo-con group that runs this admin were know as "The Crazies" GHWB was probably the strongest person in the admin. All historical documentation I've read shows that GWHB held the Religious Right and the neo-cons at bay and kept them from being too powerful. GWHB was smart enough to realize that "playing to the base" without throwing bones to the rabble can't sustain a long reign of power.

[madfloridian]

7. Falwell recently said they control the party now.

I can not find the post or the article, but he said basically the GOP needs them now...they have enough power within it.

[tech3149]

8. It was referenced here within the last week

I don't have any link and dont' follow those christian nut-cases. If you can't find it here, check buzzflash.com.

[slojim240]

6. The CC has always known they were "hated" by the real Republicans.

Problem is, they don't care. They are a huge voting block and they can strong-arm any conservative politician and threaten or bribe a liberal.
All they want to do is to be recognized as a strong voting block to get their way about a lot of their agenda. The Presidential candidate and President who can destroy by ignoring the agenda of the CC and AIPAC will go a long way toward putting this nation back on the correct, humane, and decent path that it was headed toward during the civil rights era through the Clinton administration when we believed that we were a part of the world and not the master of it.