Dean's new theme song-- "You and me (Okay, maybe just me) against the world": Helen Reddy comes out of retirement to object

Howie has taken his whining to a new level.

“I’m going after everybody because I’m tired of being the pin cushion here,” Dean said Monday.
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The comments and the ad marked a shift in strategy for Dean, who had been behaving like a front-runner and attempting to shrug off the daily barbs from his rivals. He told reporters last week that he would remain above the fray.

“I think the way to deal with that is not to go back at them because I think that’s what voters don’t like,” Dean said Jan. 6 in Iowa. “I think the best way to deal with it is to rise above them and that’s what I intend to do.”

Well, that strategy lasted almost a week.

He also started running a new TV ad in Iowa about their positions on the war. Before stating “Howard Dean has a different view,” an announcer says in the ad: “Where did the Washington Democrats stand on the war? Dick Gephardt wrote the resolution to authorize war. John Kerry and John Edwards both voted for the war. Then Dick Gephardt voted to spend another $87 billion on Iraq.”

Actually, he's recycling his own negativity and deceptions. From November 21, 2003:


DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 21 - The political ad war on Iowa television airwaves will reach a crescendo this weekend. Earlier this week, Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean launched an air assault on his rival, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt for voting to support $87 billion in funds to sustain the Iraq operation. On Saturday, Gephardt will open fire on Iowa stations with a counter-blast, accusing Dean of contradicting himself on the $87 billion.

It is really not fair to expect Dean to keep up with all of his contradictions. Perhaps he could ask each of the 3,500 ground troops in Iowa to just remember one each.

A little refresher from November:

On Saturday, Gephardt begins airing a new television ad that says, “Howard Dean’s attacking Dick Gephardt for a position Dean took himself.”

The ad included an excerpt from a Sept. 25 debate aired on CNBC in which NBC anchorman Brian Williams asked Dean, “Is that an up or down, yes or no, on the $87 billion per se?”

Dean replied, “On the 87 billion dollars for Iraq? We have no choice, but it has to be financed by getting rid of all the president’s tax cuts.”

The ad also has footage of Dean from an Oct. 19 Iowa television appearance in which he said, “I don’t think this Iraq disagreement frankly rises to the level of a big campaign issue and I don’t, I don’t intend to make whether you voted for it or against the supplemental appropriation a campaign issue.”

Gephardt says in the ad, “leadership is about making tough decisions and sticking with them.”
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When reporters first questioned Dean about the pending vote on the $87 billion in early September, he avoided answering.

“I’m not in Congress,” he told reporters on Sept. 8. “That’s not a decision that I make. … I’ll tell you what I’m going to do but I’m not going to tell you how I face an issue that is not of my making. This was created by Congress because they didn’t stand up to the president when they should have.”

Boy, that's straight talki, ain't it? If Dean's the real deal, Bush founded Mensa.