This morning I turned on "The View" because Howard Dean was going to be on the program. Once again, like Hannity and Colmes, this is a show I would never watch otherwise. Of course, I knew that most likely he would not be on until the very end, but *just in case* the sun set in the east today instead of in the west as usual, I had the show on from the beginning.
Before one of the breaks, they announced that Howard will be coming up later in the show. You'll *never* guess what clip they showed (but without the sound) when they said his name.
At the beginning of the program, the women (bios here) were discussing Bush's statement accepting responsibility, and this one *very* young looking woman kept standing up for Bush. She reminded me of what I read about Britney Spears saying that Bush is our president and we should stand by him, or some such tripe. Anyway, I looked her up, and found out that her name is Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Here's the scoop on her:
In November 2003, Elisabeth Hasselbeck was selected out of hundreds of contenders to permanently fill the fifth co-host chair on ABC's The View. Defining her own voice among co-hosts Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones Reynolds and Joy Behar was a challenge she didn't take lightly. Quick to express her conservative views, Mrs. Hasselbeck has proven herself not only as a strong young woman, but someone who won't let her voice be compromised, making her the perfect addition to the show.
She is formally known to television audiences as a participant on the wildly popular second edition of Survivor: The Australian Outback. While competing in Australia, Mrs. Hasselbeck used her competitive drive and survival skills to outwit her way to the final four.
In August 2004, Mrs. Hasselbeck spoke at the Republican National Convention, where she delivered a heartfelt speech that emphasized her continued effort in support of Breast Cancer prevention and research. In recent years she has worked with the the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Making Memories Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, The World Scholar-Athlete Games and the Knowledge Now Organization.
Very different sort of venue for Howard. I do think it's a good move--being heard by different kinds of audiences. This sort of show is kind of painful for me to watch, but I realize that not everyone gets their current events from The Daily Show.
At the beginning of the segment, Barbara Walters remarked that Howard Dean has criticized the Bush administration's negligence in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and while some people say it's good that the Democrats are speaking up, others say that they are taking advantage of a tragedy.
Howard: "Well, it is a tragedy. A lot of the reason it's a tragedy is that the federal government didn't know what it was doing, and that's a huge problem. I think the truth is, folks are still hurting, and instead of arguing about why the federal government didn't get their act together, we need to fix it. That's what needs to happen.
The government in this country is in big trouble, but the public is fantastic. There are enormous numbers of Americans in both parties working their rear ends off to make sure these people get properly clothed and properly fed and get some housing, and that's what we need to focus on right now."
Barbara asked if the Democrats could have done it better, and Howard responded that James Lee Witt, FEMA director under Clinton, was the best. He mentions how FEMA came through when he was governor of Vermont, during some of the 7 or 8 states of emergency Vermont experienced during his tenure.
Meredith interjected that none of those disasters were anything like this, and Howard responded "Yes, but if you're on the ball, you're on the ball, and you're *there*. People are always upset when they're losing their homes and their jobs and their lives, obviously--the question is, what are you doing about it? You do not wait four days."
Joy asked what about the responsibility of the local government, and Howard answered, "There's certainly enough blame to go around. And I hate to say this, but that really was a Rove inspired thing to go attack the local people. This business about the school buses--the school buses were controlled by the school board, not the mayor. You can't blame the mayor."
Elizabeth, the show's pet Republican, insisted that it was in the evacuation plan that the school buses were to be used. That was their "free ride out of there" and the local officials "didn't make a move". Howard and Elizabeth went back and forth about this for a bit, and then Howard said:
"You can argue about who's at fault. The problem is that Americans were really undone by such a failure of their government to act and get those people safe." Howard then asked why does Bill Frist want to cut the estate tax when we could use that 750 billion dollars to fix the Gulf Coast and fix the schools in this country, so we can compete again. We've made the wrong choices for the past 5 years, and now we're paying the price for it."
Meredith then changed the topic, and asked Howard Dean how he decided to go for the job of DNC chair, remarking that he hadn't wanted the job initially. It's a thankless job, because when the party wins you don't get the credit, but when the party loses you get blamed.
Howard: Because somebody's got to fix the party. We thought we were going to win by becoming Republicans--you can't do that. The key is, if you want to win, it's not so much what you believe, because there's going to be varation on that. It's whether you're willing to fight for what you believe. The Democrats had given up. We simply had not been willing to stand up and fight.
Barbara asked if the Democrats are willing to fight now and Howard responded, "I think we are."
Joy came back, "But you gave over the whole government!" She went on that now the whole government--the executive branch, the judiciary, and the legislative branch are all way to the right.
Howard stated that the problem is that we don't make our case--that, for example, he had opposed the war in Iraq, but not because he is against war in general, having supported the first Gulf War and the war in Afganistan. He opposed *this* war in Iraq because he didn't think Bush was telling the truth. He said that if he could figure out from Vermont that the president wasn't telling the truth, "surely the guys in Washington ought to be able to figure that out for themselves."
Joy said, "You don't believe he got the wrong information--you think he was *lying* about Weapons of Mass Destruction."
Howard: I think it was a combination of problems. He was getting the wrong information, but there were a lot of people in his administration who were asking for the wrong information on purpose. Because George Bush decided, according to his treasury secretary, in his first term, that he was going to go to war about three weeks after he got into office. That is in Paul O'Neill's book.
Mrs. Hasselbeck, not one to let her voice be compromised, piped in that people in both parties were convinced that the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. She then told Howard that while she disagrees with most of what he says, she admires his "passion" and "fire". But then, pulling out some note cards, she said that recently Howard Dean has receiving criticism and raising some eyebrows for comments he has made about Republicans. "You've been slamming them" she said, calling them "brain dead", saying they've "never made an honest living in their lives" and calling them a "white Christian party". She noted that even some in his own party have taken offense at these comments, and is he aware that he is turning off his own party.
Editorial comment here...RECENT? That's what she's got for RECENT? Ay-ay-ay!
Howard Dean: Well, first of all, the way this business works, some of what you said was taken out of context by the RNC and spread around. They love to play the victim. The truth is, there's nothing wrong with that--they are a white Christian party. I happen to be a white Christian--so what. The point is, they don't welcome and embrace diversity."
Elizabeth started to disagree with that, but Joy stepped in and asked about the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Was that racist neglect or class neglect or what?
Howard stated (again) that he does not believe that Bush is a racist, but that his policies disproportionately harm certain groups. Meredith that a lot of these people were poor before Bush was president, and that this is a problem every single one of us has to deal with and not specific to anything any president has done. Howard then described how 80% of Americans saw their incomes go down under Bush, and Bush's harmful policies like trying to get rid of Social Security and turn it over to the same people who brought us Enron. The president's policies hurt people--it's what you *do* not what you *say*.
The show's outspoken Republican, unable to take this any more, struck back: "What about No Child Left Behind? There's money being spent--I mean 21 billion dollars being spent on underprivileged education areas!"
That's what you've got? No Child Left Behind? I would have liked to see Howard address that, but Joy jumped in with, "But then why has poverty risen 17% under this president?" This format seems to involve a lot of interrupting, and a lot of comments not ever having a chance to be addressed.
Barbara mentioned that Bush was on television today and one of the questions was "how are you going to pay for all of this and would you consider raising taxes?" and of course Bush answered "no". Howard said that he's be happy just to get Bush to stop *cutting* taxes.
Asked what Democrats should put forth as a plan, Howard said we need to balance the budget, meaning we stop borrowing money for our children to pay for all these tax cuts and wars, and we need to provide health insurance to all our people so that we will no longer be the last industrialized country that has not done so.
The final question was about Dr. Judy Steinberg Dean, and her decision not to be very involved in campaigning during the 2004 primaries, and how important Howard thinks the spouse is. Barbara interjected that Laura Bush is a tremendous help to her husband, and Howard agreed "Oh, I think she is!" Howard Dean showed what I consider to be exemplary self control in stopping there, and not adding anything about Bush being a special case and needing more help than most grown men.
Howard said that everyone has to make such decisions form themselves. Judy's a great doctor, and he knew she'd be much happier if she continued being a doctor. Barbara noted that Judy had been criticized for that, and Howard responded that no matter what you do in politics, you're going to get criticized. One of the panelists said, "It's like being a parent!"
So, Howard said they decided to do whatever made Judy happy, because what made her happy made him happy. Awwww!
