This time a GOPer put his foot in his mouth — and talking about the Howard Dean scream doesn’t obscure the sleaziness of his implication…no matter what party you belong to (and we don’t belong to either).
ALBANY, N.Y. — Howard Dean, just four days into his job as Democratic National chairman, called Wednesday for New York’s state Republican chairman to apologize or resign over remarks linking Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.
Calling Stephen Minarik’s comments “offensive,” the former Vermont governor said, “The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination.”
Far from apologizing, Minarik issued a statement deriding the national chairman’s comments as “the latest `Dean Scream.
Sorry, in this case responsible REPUBLICANS should be screaming — for him to step down since there are many thoughtful Republicans who wouldn’t imply as Minarik did that when the Demmies elected Dean they “have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean.”
What’s the big deal about that?
Stewart is a New York City lawyer convicted last week of helping terrorists by smuggling messages from one of her imprisoned clients, a radical Egyptian sheik, to his terrorist disciples on the outside. Boxer is a liberal senator from California.
“The Democratic Party doesn’t have anything to do with Lynne Stewart,” Pataki said Tuesday. “Obviously, she was found guilty of a heinous criminal act and that is not something within the realm of appropriate political discourse in New York state.”
“I’m pleased that Governor Pataki publicly rebuked Mr. Minarik for his offensive comments,” Dean said in a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee. “I agree with Governor Pataki and my fellow New York Democrats that Mr. Minarik was completely out of line.”
It’s called a lack of class. The GOP deserves someone classier to head its party in New York. And joking about the Dean scream doesn’t negate the fact that in this case Dean — and New York’s Republican governor — are right.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.