Howard Dean Lies About His Brother

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode LXIII

Dr. Dean lied about his brother having been in the military, according to the Quad-City (Iowa) Times, today:

.... The candidates were asked to complete this sentence: My closest living relative in the armed services is...?

Dean's reply: "...my brother is a POW/MIA in Laos, but is almost certainly dead."

Dean's truthful answer provided an inaccurate response. His brother was never a member of the armed services.

In an interview Friday with the Times editorial board, Dean said he believed the question was meant to get at his personal understanding of the military.

That definitely was the intent of our question.

We wanted to know the intent of his answer.

Dean said he visited Vietnam with veterans and military personnel and participated in digs to unearth enlisted men's remains.

That experienced created a strong affinity for men and women in uniform....

The U.S. Department of Defense classified Charlie Dean as Missing in Action, meaning that he was among those officially sought by our government. He wasn't the only civilian with such a classification.

But he was a civilian, not a member of the armed services.

Charlie Dean's capture and death in Southeast Asia certainly shaped his brother's opinions about the American military.

Knowing that story tells us something about the candidate.

So does inaccurately implying a direct family connection to the armed services for the 72,000 Quad-Citians who received Sunday's newspaper.

Dr. Dean needs to get himself into the Internet age: lie to a little newspaper, and the rest of the known universe will find out about it. All the candidates had better learn right quick, too, that they aren't going to be able to continue positioning themselves differently to different audiences: any remarks quoted in the local paper or on the local TV or radio are almost immediately available anywhere else, everywhere else.

Yeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaa. :-)

The illustrious (of course, I jest) New York Times has deigned to take notice:

.... His answer to the newspaper's question, published on Dec. 14 as part of a regular feature on The Quad-City Times's editorial page in which the Democratic presidential candidates respond to questions intended to probe their persona, drew complaints from readers and a rebuke from the newspaper's editorial board on Sunday. The editorial was circulated to a handful of reporters on Monday by a rival campaign.

Dr. Dean was asked about his answer by a reporter after a town hall meeting here on a day when he took aim at President Bush for what he called a "callous" refusal to press Congress for an extension of unemployment benefits.

"The way I read the question was that they wanted to know if I knew anything about the armed services from a personal level," he said. "I don't think it was inaccurate or misleading if anybody knew what the history was, and I assumed that most people knew what the history was. Anybody who wanted to write about this could have looked through the 23-year history to see that I've always acknowledged my brother's a civilian, was a civilian."

Mark Ridolfi, editor of the paper's editorial page, noted that the question had specifically asked about the armed services and said of Dr. Dean's reply, "It certainly is not an accurate response."

Mr. Ridolfi said the question, one of 20 that the candidates answered in writing in August, was intended to get at candidates' personal connections to the military. "When you have a family member currently involved in the military," he said, "you think of things differently."

After hearing Dr. Dean's explanation during a meeting at the newspaper's office on Friday, Mr. Ridolfi ran an editorial in Sunday's editions describing Dr. Dean's original answer as "unusually revealing." ....

Unusually revealing? Only if you aren't paying attention to everything else he says, too.

(Thanks, Bryan.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 12/23/03 08:41:31 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Political.