Defeating the Dean is mean meme

Another great article by Peter Freyne in Seven Days VT, which is unabshedly pro-Dean and has a nice long piece that covers a lot of ground. Mentions some absolutely fantastic soundbites:

“The enormous tax cuts are not only undercutting Medicaid and Social Security, Mr. President. The enormous tax cuts that you have passed are actually undercutting our ability to defend ourselves.”

“Prisons are the most expensive and least effective social-service intervention.”

“This president’s foreign policy is not consistent with our values.”

If you make me the Democratic nominee, I’ll make you proud to be Democrats again!”

well, I'm not a Democrat, but he'll make me proud to vote Democratic :)

But the best part is near the end, addressing the "Dean is mean" meme. The Kerry-kingmaking Boston Globe on Sunday took a page from the DLC playbook and printed a story by Yvonne Abraham (“Dean Not Very Civil — Some in Vt. Say.”) that supposedly proved that Dean was a meanie even back in VT. But take a good look at the Globe's sources:

Deanbasher #1 was none other than our favorite UVM political science professor Garrison Nelson. “Gary, Gary, Gary” and yours truly go way back. And anybody who knows Garrison knows he despises Howard Dean. Always has and always will.

Back in the early 1980s, when Dean was a nobody and Garrison was a somebody, Dean made the mistake of not kissing Garrison’s, uh, ring. Seeking his advice. Treating him like a political guru.

“Governor Dean has been one of the least civil people around,” said Nelson to the Globe. “Howard Dean is not a Vermonter. He’s from New York. He does not have a Vermont style, and he prides himself on that. He’s less civil than previous Vermont politicans.’’

Garrison must have Ho-Ho confused with Bernie Sanders, eh?

The next Vermonter to whack Dr. Dean was Skip Vallee, millionaire gasoline merchant and Vermont’s Republican national committeeman. Gaso-line Vallee told the Globe the 2000 governor’s race between Dean and his belle of the ball Ruth Dwyer was “the nastiest election cycle we ever saw.”

Yeah, it was, Skip, but the nastiness was all coming from your side, remember? Why do you think your gal is known as Ruthless Ruth?

Deanbasher 3 was none other than Ruthless Ruth herself.

“In the Vermont tradition, it used to be people would stand for election. People knew who you were,’’ Dwyer told the Globe. “Howard was from somewhere else; he came in and had a very professional organization.’’

Ruth, by the way, came in from Ohio and New York. The Globe failed to mention that the sweet lady’s harsh, right-wing views might have played a role in her two thumping defeats.

Perhaps the honchos at the Boston Globe think nobody in Vermont reads their fiction?

They probably think that the vast "elites" who form the backbone of Dean's grassroots support don't read it either. They're wrong.