Daily Howler - July 1, 2005

NEW WORDS FROM JOHN HARRIS! In an age of slime and hoaxing, John Harris types a new set of words // link // print // previous // next //

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2005

DEAN MAKES A MESSAGE: Howard Dean made the occasional misstep on Wednesday night’s Hardball. For example, it takes a clumsy spokesman to say the following:

DEAN (6/29/05): There are terrible foreign terrorists over there. They have been drawn to Iraq, where they were not there before because we put our troops there. So, you could debate the wisdom of that.

The other people that are creating the mayhem on the streets of Baghdad are people who are fighting for their country. There are local people who disagree with their occupation.

Aarrgh. No one’s perfect, but only Dean would describe those bomb-throwing Baathists as “people who are fighting for their country.” Whatever the gentleman’s strengths may be, one thing is clear—he’s not slick.