Crooks, the unloved and other political musings

Perhaps you heard about the spat between Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Vice-President Dick Cheney.

First, Dean had the lack of grace to refer to the Republican Party as "pretty much a white, Christian party" and said many in the GOP "never made an honest living."

Even if the GOP is a white, Christian party (apparently it's increasingly popular with Hispanics), so what?

Are white Christians any less American than black Muslims or Hispanic atheists?

His comments echo the same obnoxious mentality, held by many conservatives, that people who live in the so-called Heartland ('red America') represent real American values and, by implication, anyone who lives on the east or west coasts ('blue America') represents fake American values.

Like it or not, a comfortable majority of Americans identify themselves as Christian. It's one thing not to pander to a certain group. It's one thing to say you object to the theocratic aims of a small group of extremists. But to go out of your way to insult the majority of the electorate isn't the smartest thing.

As for the assertion that many in the GOP have "never made an honest living," perhaps that's true. But probably no more true than it is of the Democrat Party.

Plus, the remark ignores the real point: a lot of people in the working class who DO make an honest living are increasingly being taken in by the Republican Party. Perhaps if Dean and others like him tried tried figuring out why, rather than wallowing in self-indulgent snideness, the country might be better off by having real opposition party.

It's true that the Democrats need to fight for their ideas. But first, they need to develop ideas to fight for. Something beyond 'Bush is Evil incarnate.'

No wonder I quit the party.

It's too bad because Dean was a great governor. And he was a great governor by being straight-forward yet pragmatic. A concrete result of this approach: universal health care for Vermont's kids (and the sky didn't even fall, but that's another essay). Now, he's just an ordinary partisan yap dog.

But if Dean's descent is sad, the vice-president's response was laughable. Cheney decided not just to match Dean in the juvenile name-calling department, but to top him.

Cheney said of Dean, "I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does."

At this point, it would be appropriate to insert an analogy involving pots and black kettles.

Now, the vice-president's mastery of facts is not rock solid. After all, he not only peddled such myths as Iraq tried to get uranium from Africa and conclusive CIA evidence of collaboration between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda and conclusive evidence that Iraq "did in fact have programs for weapons of mass destruction," he did so long after those myths were discredited even in official administration circles.

So perhaps it's not surprising that Cheney said of the former GOVERNOR Dean, "He's never won anything, as best I can tell."

Howard Dean was elected governor of Vermont five times, lieutenant governor three times and to the state's House of Representatives twice.

Five plus three plus two equals ten. Ten is not only more than eight (the number of times Cheney has been elected), it's significantly more than 'never.'