After some disarray on how to handle their out-of-control party chairman, leading Democrats have finally arrived at a strategy to unite behind Howard Dean and his overactive mouth. They now blame the right-wing elements within the media for overreacting to his statements for reporting Dean's comments:

The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate yesterday blamed "the right wing" and elements of the press "in service to it" for repeating Howard Dean's remarks about Republicans and inflating them out of proportion.

"I think we all understand what's happening with you all," said Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin, in remarks echoing Hillary Rodham Clinton's blaming a "vast right-wing conspiracy" for her husband's legal-ethical woes.

"The right wing has got the agenda moving. Fox [News Channel] and everybody's got the agenda. It's all about Howard Dean. You've bought into it," Mr. Durbin said.

"You can't let up on it. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

Other party leaders quickly followed suit. Harry Reid said that no one has avoided misspeaking in public, not even RNC chair and Dean counterpart Ken Mehlman, implying that the press somehow covers up for Mehlman where it reports everything that Dean says. Barbara Boxer claims his remarks were taken out of context, telling the media that they want "some kind of a controversy, so they don't give the message of Howard Dean ... We all know that the other side is bound and determined to hurt Howard Dean and destroy him, as they usually do with leaders of our party."

No, you have not inadvertently surfed to Scrappleface.

When was the last time you heard Democrats complaining about their party leaders getting too much press coverage for their speeches? It isn't as if this happened once and the press keeps bringing the same misstatement to their attention. As James Lakely notes, these comments come from almost every major speech Howard Dean gives -- and since those speeches are given in representation of the Democratic Party, they do equate to news. The press also covers Mehlman's speeches, but Mehlman doesn't allow stupid, divisive, and bigoted remarks to fly out of his mouth like spittle from a madman.

Durbin, Reid, and Boxer are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves for blaming the messenger rather than Howard Dean himself for Dean's hate-filled bile. How can these possibly be improved by context?

Mr. Dean, who took over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee four months ago, has caused a stir with a string of public statements that he "hates the Republican Party and everything it stands for" and that its members are "liars," "evil," "corrupt" and "brain-dead." ...

In February, he told the Congressional Black Caucus that the Republican Party "couldn't get this many people of color in a single room" unless "they had the hotel staff in here." And on Monday told a gathering of California journalists that the Republican "party is basically a white, Christian party," a remark he defended on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday morning.

And let's not forget the recent comment that Republicans have never had to do an honest day's work in their lives. I'm sure that message works very well among the Al Franken fringe of the party, and if that's where the Democrats want to focus their efforts, then they've picked the right DNC chair. Dean epitomizes the transition of the Democrats into a party based on hate and the capture of the leadership by the radical Left that forms the base of Dean's support.

Unfortunately, the elected Democratic leadership has chosen to abdicate to these haters and blame everyone but themselves for the problems it causes. When senior Democrats come fresh out of a strategy meeting and blame Republicans for what comes out of their DNC chair's mouth, they're only a short walk from Moonbat Land, where some already suspect that Dean may be working under orders from Karl Rove. If this is all that Democrats have to offer, they will be a minority party for a generation or more.

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» DNC Chair Dean Makes Ass of Party, Self: Bush to Blame? from The Waterglass
Captain Ed points us to the words of Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin: The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate yesterday blamed "the right wing" and elements of the press "in service to it" for repeating Howard Dean's remarks about... [Read More]

Tracked on June 10, 2005 7:39 AM

» Howard Dean's Ilusion from Secure Liberty
Illusion. One of the definitions from Websters Online is: perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature. And there we have Howard Dean, as representative of the Deomcratic Party. The fa... [Read More]

Tracked on June 10, 2005 2:51 PM

» Rehabilitating Chairman How from Hard Starboard
I speculated recently that at least one possible reason behind the seemingly uncontrollably incendiary partisan rhetoric of DNC Chairman Howie Dean was that he was serving as a triangulation point off of which for other elected Democrats to contrast ... [Read More]

Tracked on June 19, 2005 12:53 AM