The Washington Post "Reliable Sources" gossip column led off in the upper left-hand corner on Monday with shocking comments from Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean "razzing his journalist hosts" at the Saturday night Gridiron Club dinner:
Fox News said, 'Stalin thought he was right when he did the same thing.' That was painful.... If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people at Fox News....
It's not the first item in the online version, perhaps because it's a quote, and not a written report. But it's definitely shocking, even from Howard Dean. Does he think that Roger Ailes has his own KGB, and maybe a Gulag in the basement?
The subject was how Dean suggested that if people don't want politicians to talk in sound bites, you could bar the press. (Nothing gets the press upset faster than the words "bar the press.") Here's the complete Dean quote as it appeared in the column by Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts:
"I was asked how we can get politicians to stop speaking in sound bites and level with people, and [responded] 'I suggest you bar the press.' Apparently, that didn't go over too well. . . . [National Press Club prez] Jerry Zremski asked, 'Has Dean read the First Amendment?' Well, Jerry, I have . . . and you can keep your guns. Fox News said, 'Stalin thought he was right when he did the same thing.' That was painful. . . . If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people at Fox News. . . . How is it that this dinner is called off the record? [A reporter] explained it to me this way: Off the record means you can't write about it for Sunday, you have to wait until Monday. . . . Seriously, though . . ." -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean razzing his journalist hosts at Saturday's Gridiron Club dinner. Ba-dum-bum.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Pot Meet Kettle
December 3, 2007 - 08:24 ET by MikeDIf Mr. Dean wants to talk about Stalinist tactics perhaps he
should look at his own party. After all the Democrats are the
ones who have disenfranchised the Michigan and Florida
Democrats by stripping them of their convention delegates.
Perhaps we should invite them to the republican convention
to show them that someone doesn't take them for granted.
Well, things look like we get 1/2 that deal
December 3, 2007 - 08:39 ET by sarcasmoTake a look.
... has left Florida Democrats angry and demoralized, when they should
be enthusiastic about their party's chances of retaking the White
House. The Republican National Committee slashed Florida's GOP
delegates by a less drastic, but still substantial, 50 percent.
Republican voters are angry but don't seem as bitter as the Democrats,
said MacManus, who recently observed both state party conventions.
Meanwhile, the GOP candidates continue to stump in the state. "That's
like rubbing salt in the wounds of the Democrats," MacManus said. "They
really feel they are in the driver's seat this year and it's their turn
to shine, and then the national party does this to them."
Both major parties are upset with their Florida subsidiaries for holding the primaries so-early so that they'll actually-matter.
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
[National Press Club prez]
December 3, 2007 - 09:17 ET by motherbelt[National Press Club prez] Jerry Zremski asked, 'Has Dean read the
First Amendment?' Well, Jerry, I have . . . and you can keep your guns.
I hope that was a joke: Howard Dean doesn't know what the first amendment is..HAHAHA.
That implies that he has no use for it.
it's definitely shocking, even from Howard Dean. Does he think that
Roger Ailes has his own KGB, and maybe a Gulag in the basement? -Tim Graham
The "Stalin" reference isn't shocking to me at all. Liberals love to throw around words like "Nazi" "Fuerher" "Brown Shirts" "Stalinist" for effect. They toss them around as casually as kids toss out "geek" "loser" and other epithets.
They have robbed those words of their horrible meaning.
Part 2
December 3, 2007 - 08:28 ET by MikeDOh, and now that I think of it. If I were a Republican
running for Prez. I would use the Democrats stripping
these states of delegates against the party. After all I
think it is up to the state people to decide when they
hold their primary. Not the national twits.
A COUPLE THINGS...
December 3, 2007 - 08:28 ET by danybhoyWell, well, well, the last time I saw Howard Dean was on the side of a milk carton. So FoxNewsChannel knows Stalinism? I sure they do, since the left would shut it down the way they will try to shut down talk radio when the they get the chance.
As for Dean, you sir, are a figurehead, you mean nothing. The people leading the DNC are Clinton Inc, the lefty blogs, & George Soros & Peter Lewis with their money. You were made chairman to make you feel important, but you really have no power, you don't matter. Mr. Dean, you should drop to your knees & thank God you never became President, you would have made Carter look good. The next time he's important will be the 1st.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
Komrad Howard Stalin
December 3, 2007 - 08:50 ET by Jack BauerActually some of us do know about Stalin's tactics. One of his most famous was to airbrush his former commie allies/later enemies out of history. Especially as he had them murdered. Not only dead, but now a non-person.
Leon Trotsky, being just one example of historical figure airbrushed out of photos of the Oktober Revolution.
Isn't it Howard Dean and the Democrats who are trying to airbrush Fox News out of the Presidential Debate, just like Stalin?
By refusing to hold their debates on one network, are they not, in effect, trying to airbrush away an entire demographic?
GOOD POINT...
December 3, 2007 - 17:47 ET by danybhoyJackBauer, Your point about the Dems with their attempt at revisionist history is a good one. They won't go on FoxNews, & I guess they figure that if they close their eyes & wish really hard, FoxNews will go away. If the chance to regulate FNC out of buisiness, they will do so, just like they will with talk radio with the "fairness doctrine".
I just hope that your example about the Dems trying to make Fox out like Leon Trotsky is strickly metaphorical, no ice picks please. That would be messy.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
another classic example from
December 3, 2007 - 10:07 ET by Free Thinkeranother classic example from the left of behaving in a deviant manner and then accusing your political opponents of being the ones who are behaving the way you really are. Unfortunately many in America don't pay attention to the facts and merely react to false statements like this one that are played up unchallenged in the msm.
Dean
December 3, 2007 - 10:24 ET by iveseenitallStatements like Dean's just reinforce what we know of Democrat "liberals". They are ignorant as hell and they are divisive. Really, when was the last time you heard rhetoric like this from the right? Do these immature left-wingers ever have anything intelligent to say? The guy's a national leader, for crying out loud. Scheeze!
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Doesn't this quote contain a typo?
December 3, 2007 - 11:36 ET by PShannonFox News said, 'Stalin thought he was right when he did the same thing.' That was painful.... If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people at Fox News....
Shouldn't it read, Howard Dean said ...?
Still screaming
December 3, 2007 - 12:01 ET by dboI think the actual quote was " If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people of Fox News and South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico and California and Texas ..."
Attribution
December 3, 2007 - 12:13 ET by PShannonThe quote was attributed to Fox News . . .
Shouldn't it be attributed to Howard Dean?
I don't have a question about the quote itself.
Circus act
December 3, 2007 - 13:45 ET by celatorDean probably missed his calling--a good circus act This is the only person around who can walk around with both feet in his mouth.
South Park had an episode
December 3, 2007 - 18:54 ET by fitzfongSouth Park had an episode called "The Biggest Douche in the Universe". The grand prize was awarded to John Edward (not, the ambulance chaser, John Edwards, who would be in with a shot of that title now, but the fortune teller). If they held a contest for Biggest Douche in the Universe now, it would go to Howard Dean. Easily.
AAARGH!
December 3, 2007 - 23:35 ET by nkviking75The wisdom of Howard Dean:
"I was asked how we can get politicians to stop speaking in sound bites and level with people, and [responded] 'I suggest you bar the press.' Apparently, that didn't go over too well."
Yeah, Howie, a lot of good it does for politicians to open up and be honest if only the people in the room at the time can hear it.
Dean's scream after the Iowa caucuses almost 4 years ago is the most intelligent thing I've ever heard from his mouth.
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.