Reply #7: I was a Deanie, too. When Kerry was running, I had many

[lindashaw]

reservations about the way he would dance around his war vote. I had always thought he was a decent man, but when we all saw the forthrightness of Dean, it made everything else look cloudy.

The decision to go with Kerry was made far up in the Democratic National crypts. Personally, I don't think we could ever have any influence when it gets that high up.

I agree with you. As much as I respected Dean -- my non-political husband went to Iowa -- I don't think he would have lasted even as long as Kerry.

There simply aren't enough people of that wonderful, rich integrity in politics anymore. We see what happens to people who go to Washington, hoping to do the right thing, hoping to survive. Principled people don't survive. But Kerry somehow learned how to survive, and he couldn't un-learn it. We paid a price for that "un-learning."

Don't mind me. I'm so deeply distressed at what's happening in this country, I have no words to comfort anyone.