Howard Dean on Randi Rhodes

Thanks Corinne for alerting me to this interview. I didn't catch the beginning of it, but I'm going to transcribe the part I did get. I've *really* been wanting to hear from Howard Dean these days. I hunted down the press release with his comments about Bill Frist's timing and priorities with regard to pushing for a vote on ending the estate tax today (Frist did cancel that vote) but if I hadn't gone looking for it I certainly would have missed that statement from Howard.

Howard: The guy that got the job who's running FEMA was the former director's roommate.

Randi mentions the Bush administration bringing back cronyism into the vernacular

Howard: That's the way the Bush administration works. It's incompetence from the top to the bottom, and they just can't get out of their own way. And it's not just this, it's Iraq, it's the economy, it's everything else. So, I think Americans have to take things into their own hands. We can't rely on the Federal government as long as we've got these guys running the place. And what we've got to do is we've got to support the Red Cross, we've got to thank the corporations--I've had my big battles with Walmart, but I think what they did was terrific, which was send water.

Thank God somebody had the brains to know that if you have thirsty people and babies dying of dehydration, they probably ought to have water! And if Walmart recognized that, then I say hats off to Walmart.

So, a lot of people are pulling together. Look, America is not a bad country because our leadership is bad. America is a good country with good people in it and we just need better leaders.

Randi says she agrees, but what do we do, how do we change it? (rant deleted because I'm lazy)...What the hell newspaper is Michael Chertoff reading?

Howard: This is actually the most blatant the lying has ever been. For Michael Brown, the head of FEMA to sit and talk to a television person and tell him that they were getting two warm meals a day in the Superdome was just astonishing.

Randi notes that "He didn't even know that they were at the convention center!"

Howard: They don't watch CNN, I guess--

Randi Interrupts and says we should get them a TV and let them watch it in a prison cell.

Howard: I say let's just ignore them and lets do good things for the people that were hurt

Randi lists all of the ways that people who have been trying to help have been trying to do good things but have been thwarted by Bush's bureaucrats. Notes that from FEMA's own web site it says "First responders urged not to respond". "Why? Because they wanted it to be a Democrat governor and a Democrat mayor who looked bad, and all these people could just die. ... This was revenge for Ms. Blanco. This was revenge for having a red state in the hands of a blue governor and a red state city in the hands of a blue mayor. This is unacceptable--this is too much politics for anybody's blood."

Howard say "goodness" or something I couldn't quite catch and Randi continues with "I'm serious. And where do they send these people? They send them to Houston which by the way is going to have a big boom now. A big boom in business!

Howard: Well, you know Houston's run by a Democratic governor too.

Randi: Who, Rick Perry?

Howard: No--I'm sorry--a Democratic *mayor*. I'm sorry--Bill White is the mayor of Houston. Well, look, I'm not quite as much of a conspiracy theorist, but I do think--

(Randi interrupts with more awful FEMA stories--"I think FEMA stands for Failure to Effectively Manage Anything now!")

Howard: Well, isn't that kind of the story of the Bush administration?

Randi: Well, it is. So what are we going to do? When are we going to get around to impeachment? How many do we have who will sign up for an impeachment inquiry now?

Howard: I don't think you have any Republicans who are willing to do anything like that.

Randi: I think you've got five that want to look into Downing Street. Why not just include this too?

Howard: Well, here's what I think. First of all I think right now we need to find out the extent of the Bush administration's incompetence and failure, who lied. The people who lied should be fired, although we know the president doesn't have the backbone to do that because Karl Rove has been working on the taxpayers' salary for quite some time *after* he revealed the identity of a CIA agent in a time of war. So we know the president didn't keep any of his word about that.

But I do think that these people who lied on television ought to be fired. Secondly, all we can do is work to politically replace the people who are doing this to our country.

Randi says she wants to put the president and vice president in a situation where we swear them in and they are connected to a lie detector. Dean laughs. Randi says, no seriously, the last time we had a big flood in New Orleans, in 1969, when we didn't have the kind of response capability we do now, what did we lose--500 people? Now we've lost at least 10,000 people.

Howard: To be honest I think we have to focus differently. I think we can beat up on Bush as this hopeless, hapless person. But people need to start understanding that this government isn't interested in the American people. That we have to do for ourselves. I think we have to focus on the positive. There are some really good things going on--none of them have anything to do with the federal government--but I think a lot of good things...

Randi: That is so sad--I mean, I've been crying all weekend and I just don't know what to do--

Howard: Look, it's an international embarrassment, it's a national embarrassment, but if you build your administration based on things that aren't true, eventually it catches up with you. We've got the war, we've got this disaster, we've got the economy-- Before this happened to us, it was announced that the average income for most working people--about 80% of them--went down about $1700 in the years this president has been in office. So this is not an administration that's going to do much for most Americans. But from a political point of view it's my job to get rid of Republicans, and we will, but the truth is, this is a real urgent situation for a lot of people in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, and I think we ought to focus on the positive things that one American can do for another, and leave the federal government out of it. Just try to get them out of our way so we can actually accomplish something.

We have for example 18 kids from the DNC who are going to go down Thursday after some training to help out. Now if every company in America did that, that would really make a difference in people's lives.

Randi: Howard, I gotta tell you something. (Goes into all the people who tried to help and none of it was allowed to be done. The President of Jefferson Parish said FEMA came in and cut off all of his communication lines. They are being proactive about this--

Howard: Is that true?

Randi:--which is murder. We have to stop this now. There are so many people who want to do so many things. Cindy Sheehan's group is in Covington, Kentucky collecting Enfamil, and they are not letting them in either. So unless we actually embarrass these Republicans, who now have to realize there's no coattails for the president--from the president--they will not go back to office in 2006 unless they actually start making some noise and start to sound like we do. And one of the things they can do is not confirm Mr. Roberts, because if the president has this kind of "clarity" in decision making, and he picked this guy Roberts, right there, that should disqualify him.

Howard: I don't think he should be confirmed, but for other reasons.

Randi: Well, that's good enough for me. He picked him, therefore we don't want him. And he *promotes* him during this weekend! He didn't even get the job yet and he's promoted to Chief Justice. What is that?

Howard: I don't know--I don't run the place. I tried--

Randi: I know you did. I wish you did. I really wish you did--I think there would be 9,999 people alive.

Howard: Well, I tell you one thing, we would have had help on the way long ago.

Randi: I know. Well, anything I can do, you let me know.

Howard: Thanks for having me on.

Randi: My pleasure.