Dean's Latest Faux Puax- Page 3

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/10/04 at 10:04am

This is not an attack on Howard Dean. The end of this story made me laugh so hard I fell off my chair. I think I was laughing with him...from the New Yorker...

A rare candid—and quite grim—Dean family snapshot appeared on page 1 of the August 6th edition of the Burlington Free Press last summer. It captured Howard and Judy Dean and their seventeen-year-old son, Paul, as they arrived, the previous day, for an appointment in Costello Courthouse, in downtown Burlington. They had gone there to meet with a staff member of a court diversion program for youthful offenders—the youthful offense in question being Paul’s participation several weeks earlier in the burglary of beer, champagne, and other spirits, worth a total of $549.88, from a storage shed at the Burlington Country Club, one of those indiscretions that tend not to delight Mom and Dad even when Dad isn’t running for President. One mitigating circumstance—that Paul had not actually burgled but merely driven the car that transported four of his pals and the hooch from the scene of the crime—was deemed moot by the authorities. His misfeasance earned him many hours of community service, something to add (or perhaps not) to his résumé, along with his sterling high-school transcript and superb hockey skills.

Shortly after Paul’s arrest, Dean officially kicked off his Presidential campaign. By far the most unscripted, and least comfortable, moment of that day occurred when Dean was asked how he planned to win over the same Democratic Party leaders he’d been criticizing for months. Once they really get to know me, he said, they’ll come around. Then he quipped a quip he immediately wished he hadn’t: “It is a bit of a club down there. The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and what I’m doing is breaking into the country club.” He winced and added, “That was an incredibly unfortunate phrase,” then turned to an aide and asked, “Why do I say these things?”

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/10/04 at 11:03am

I love that story.