I have seen so many different positions attributed to him. Here is the meaty stuff from his interview with Chris Matthews on Super Tuesday. It was pretty jumpy because Matthews kept interrupting and trying to jerk Dean around as he always does.
But there were several significant statements made.
Hardball transcript February 5First, Dean's statements about the credentials committee. Remember he is constantly being interrupted.
MATTHEWS: Now, your party has punished Michigan and the state of Florida, the parties in those two states, for moving up their primaries beyond what they were supposed to. Are you going to let the Clintons dictate and say that those delegates are going to count? Because Senator Clinton is saying that the Florida votes and the Michigan votes will count, despite the fact that her rivals didn‘t even file because they followed your rules in Michigan?
DEAN: Well, that‘s going to be up to the credentials committee, which will be actually elected by Democrats all over the country. So that decision will be made way down the road. But I think we ought to see what the voters say before we go that far down the road.
So as usual Chris Matthews misinterprets.
You said that Michigan shouldn‘t count and Florida shouldn‘t count, and now you‘re letting Hillary Clinton say they should.
Did you notice? That is NOT what he said. Again he is interrupted trying to make that point.
DEAN: No, what I said was that that‘s up to an elected committee of Democrats. I have 25 people on the committee. There are going to be about 160 or 155 on the committee that will be elected by Democrats all over the country. They‘ll make that decision much, much closer to the convention.
I thought that was pretty clear. Dean gets to pick 25 people and he explains how the others are chosen.
On Ed Schultz, I think today or yesterday, Donna Brazile was equally firm. She said Howard Dean had many people on his bench, and she was one of them.
Matthews asked if he would just pick a prez and VP. Dean explained some more, and then he said he'd given up watching TV during the primaries..I know the feeling.
DEAN: Well, if I were going to have a discussion like that, it probably wouldn‘t be on television. Those kinds of things—of course, those kinds of discussions go on, but this is not the time for those kinds of discussions. The voters have to speak first before people like me get involved and try to put together things like that. I mean, let‘s listen to the voters before we—you know, on television everybody handicaps everything. I‘ve sort of given up watching television in between these elections because people blab and blab and blab. But the fact is, the voters—it‘s the voters‘ turn.
Dean made one more statement I much appreicate...still being interrupted constantly.
DEAN: It‘s not the pundits‘ turn. It‘s not the pollsters‘ turn. This is the voters‘ turn. This last month-and-a-half and this next two or three months coming up, this is the voters‘ turn. It‘s time for us to shut up and listen to the voters, and that‘s what I‘m going to do.
I do not believe that so many primaries in so many states would actually be having a voice if steps had not been taken against MI and FL because they leapfrogged. The decision would have been made early on.
Unfortunately that power play by FL and MI will define his chairmanship while the voter turnout and the rebuilding of the state parties will be pushed off to the side.
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