Howie The Hawk: 'You Can't Stay Out Of These Things'

March 23rd, 2011 9:11 AM

Call him Howie "The Hawk" Dean . . .

Last evening we detailed Cenk Uygur's hypocrisy in supporting military action in Libya.  This morning brings news of another liberal nouveau-hawk: Howard Dean.   The man who was a scream away from winning the 2004 Dem presidential nomination based on his opposition to the Iraq war suddenly supports a muscular foreign policy.  On Morning Joe, Dean told Joe Klein (who is surprisingly skeptical about President Obama's Libya policy):


"I don't think you stay out of these things. You can't if you're the most powerful country in the world . . . You have to take chances."


View video after the jump.



Watch the video and consider how having a Dem in the White House has apparently turned Howard from dove to hawk.

 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Howard Dean, what's your response to the president's actions in Libya?

HOWARD DEAN: I think he's done the right thing. It's easy to criticize in hindsight.
 

And later, clashing with Klein.


DEAN: When somebody comes in and has a revolution you don't get to say, as the United States of America, when they have their elections.

JOE KLEIN: All the more reason for us to stay out of them.

DEAN: I don't think you stay out of these things. You can't if you're the most powerful country in the world . . . You have to take chances.

KLEIN: That's not what you were saying in 2003!

DEAN: That's because we were lied to about what we were doing . . . we were lied to about the WMD.

KLEIN:  We had the same situation as we do now, which is insufficent information.