"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
Howard Dean, just four days into his job as Democratic National chairman, called Wednesday for New York's state Republican chairman to apologize or resign over remarks linking Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.
Calling Stephen Minarik's comments "offensive," the former Vermont governor said, "The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination."
Minarik touched off a firestorm on Monday by saying that in electing Dean as national party chairman on Saturday "the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean."
Stewart is a New York City lawyer convicted last week of helping terrorists by smuggling messages from one of her imprisoned clients, a radical Egyptian sheik, to his terrorist disciples on the outside. Boxer is a liberal senator from California.
"The Democratic Party doesn't have anything to do with Lynne Stewart," Pataki said Tuesday. "Obviously, she was found guilty of a heinous criminal act and that is not something within the realm of appropriate political discourse in New York state."
"I'm pleased that Governor Pataki publicly rebuked Mr. Minarik for his offensive comments," Dean said in a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee. "I agree with Governor Pataki and my fellow New York Democrats that Mr. Minarik was completely out of line."
"But this is not settled. Mr. Minarik has shown neither regret nor remorse for what he said," Dean added, calling on other New York and national Republican leaders to "follow Governor Pataki's lead and rebuke Minarik."
Jimmy Carter isn't just misguided or ill-informed. He's on the other side.