Statement on the Libby Indictment and Fitzgerald Investigation

To: National Desk

Contact: Karen Finney of the Democratic National Committee Press Office, 202-863-8148; Web: http://www.democrats.org

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald today indicted Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on two counts of perjury, two counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. Libby was known to have been part of a group of White House officials that included Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and Press Secretary Scott McClellan who were charged with selling the Bush Administration's rationale for the Iraq war to the American people.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement:

"This is a sad day for America.

"Beyond the evidence that the White House manipulated the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, a group of senior White House officials not only orchestrated efforts to smear a critic of the war, but worked to cover up this smear campaign. In so doing, they ignored the rule of law, endangering our national security and the brave men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our nation's security. I. Lewis Libby was a part of this internal White House group.

"This is not only an abuse of power, it is an un-American abuse of the public trust. As Americans, we must hold ourselves and our leaders to a higher standard. We cannot fear dissent. We cannot fear the truth. And we cannot tolerate those who do.

"More importantly, we can't ignore the glaring questions this case has raised about the rationale the Bush Administration used to send us to war in Iraq, a war that continues. American soldiers are still in harms way. Over 2,000 brave Americans have lost their lives, thousands of American soldiers have been wounded, and thousands of American families have made the ultimate sacrifice. Still, the President has no plan and no exit strategy. And still he hasn't answered the question, what are we doing in Iraq and when can our troops come home?

"President Bush faces a serious test of leadership; will he keep his pledge to hold his Administration to high ethical standards and give the American people what they deserve, and will he answer to the American people for these serious missteps?"

---

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

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Paul Krugman "gets it"

NY Times-registration required


The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe."

Those words tell us what the selection of Mr. Dean means. It doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.

It was always absurd to call Mr. Dean a left-winger. Just ask the real left-wingers. During his presidential campaign, an article in the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch denounced him as a "Clintonesque Republicrat," someone who, as governor, tried "to balance the budget, even though Vermont is a state in which a balanced budget is not required."

Even on Iraq, many moderates, including moderate Republicans, quietly shared Mr. Dean's misgivings - which have been fully vindicated - about the march to war.

But Mr. Dean, of course, wasn't quiet. He frankly questioned the Bush administration's motives and honesty at a time when most Democrats believed that the prudent thing was to play along with the war party.

We'll never know whether Democrats would have done better over the past four years if they had taken a stronger stand against the right. But it's clear that the time for that sort of caution is past.

For one thing, there's no more room for illusions. In 2001 it was possible for some Democrats to convince themselves that President Bush's tax cuts were consistent with an agenda that was only moderately conservative. In 2002 it was possible for some Democrats to convince themselves that the push for war with Iraq was really about eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

But in 2005 it takes an act of willful blindness not to see that the Bush plan for Social Security is intended, in essence, to dismantle the most important achievement of the New Deal. The Republicans themselves say so: the push for privatization is following the playbook laid out in a 1983 Cato Journal article titled "A 'Leninist' Strategy," and in a White House memo declaring that "for the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win - and in doing so, we can help transform the political and philosophical landscape of the country."

By refusing to be bullied into false bipartisanship on Social Security, Democrats have already scored a significant tactical victory. Just two months ago, TV pundits were ridiculing Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, for denying that Social Security faces a crisis, and for rejecting outright the idea of diverting payroll taxes into private accounts. But now the Bush administration itself has dropped the crisis language, and admitted that private accounts would do nothing to improve the system's finances.

By standing firm against Mr. Bush's attempt to stampede the country into dismantling its most important social insurance program, Democrats like Mr. Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin and Barbara Boxer have, at a minimum, broken the administration's momentum, and quite possibly doomed its plan. The more time the news media spend examining the details of privatization, the worse it looks. And those Democrats have also given their party a demonstration of what it means to be an effective opposition.

In fact, by taking on Social Security, Mr. Bush gave the Democrats a chance to remember what they stand for, and why. Here's my favorite version, from another fighting moderate, Eliot Spitzer: "As President Bush embraces the ownership society and tries to claim that he is the one that is making it possible for the middle class to succeed and save and invest - well, I say to myself, no, that's not right; it is the Democratic Party historically that created the middle class."

For a while, Mr. Dean will be the public face of the Democrats, and the Republicans will try to portray him as the leftist he isn't. But Deanism isn't about turning to the left: it's about making a stand.

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Middle Class Hurt by Bush's Values

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
This is one in a series of weekly syndicated columns written by Governor Howard Dean.

Ever since the purveyors of conventional wisdom pronounced that the last election was about moral values, the beltway pundits have been endlessly engaged in trying to divine What It All Means. After all, President Bush presented himself as the embodiment of compassion and American values, and has told us that the election was his accountability moment—proof positive that the American people support his policy priorities.

The simple truth is, however, that it did not take an election to convince us that the American people are a deeply moral people. When we see children pool their pennies to help tsunami victims, or a community unite to pay for a neighbor's transplant operation—that is all the evidence of compassion we need.

With the State of the Union Address and the annual budget submission, President Bush will have his opportunity to unveil the most tangible statements of his priorities and values. These two documents are a distillation of hundreds of choices made and priorities ordered. It will be interesting to see what he chooses.

Because in the course of making thousands of decisions that impact the real lives of Americans, one decision that the President made has impacted virtually all others, and that was the decision to completely change the structure of our economy by dramatically shifting the tax burden from corporate interests and wealthiest individuals squarely onto the middle class. That decision has put our nation in a financial straightjacket for generations to come.

And now the President suggests that the deficits created by his policies must be reduced by cutting the domestic budget, while his tax policies remain off limits. But make no mistake—it is the middle class that will feel the impact of George Bush's economic restructuring the most. While corporations have historically been responsible for over 20% of the tax burden, today they are paying just over 7%. Combined with tax breaks for the wealthy, we are left with an economy in which the middle class is shouldering a staggering load of the burden.

Ironically, rather than funding the services most of us rely on; taxes paid by the middle class are going directly into the pockets of the wealthy in the form of tax breaks. And most working families have much more to contend with than taxes: many employers can no longer provide health insurance; our parents can no longer depend on nutritious meals delivered to their homes; Head Start cannot accommodate enough deserving children; and students know that the President's much-touted $100 increase per year in Pell Grants will not put college within their reach.

The President has made his choices, and no matter how drastic the change in circumstance—be it war or recession or his proclaimed "crisis?" in Social Security—he refuses to revisit those decisions. Yet—as need permeates the middle class and not just the destitute—it is hard to believe that the American people favor more corporate handouts and endless tax cuts. And whether they live in red states or blue states, whether they worship in churches or temples or not at all, Americans do not want to see their neighbors bankrupted by emergency medical care or watch military families barely scrape by on meager salaries augmented by food stamps. Fairness, after all, is a cornerstone American value.

So over the coming days, all Americans should be watching what the President does, not just what he says. Will we have more of the same—eloquent words masking a distorted economic system—or will the President at long last put his money where his mouth is? The stakes couldn't be higher.

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ASDC Endorses Howard Dean for DNC Chair

State Chairs' backing comes after thorough endorsement process

Today, the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) endorsed Gov. Howard Dean for Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair. Dean was endorsed after a thorough process, including 5 public forums around the country, written responses to the ASDC plan for the DNC, interviews with the candidates and a national vote by State Chairs and Vice Chairs held today by conference call.

"The state parties believe that we need fundamental change and reform at the DNC, and we have concluded that the best, most qualified candidate to reform the DNC is Howard Dean," said ASDC President Mark Brewer. "This is a great field of candidates and we are grateful to all of them. We urge all members of the DNC to vote for Howard Dean on February 12th."

"I am honored that the ASDC has endorsed me. I want to thank the members from the various states and territories, the District of Columbia, and Democrats Abroad who participated in the vote. This is an important step for our campaign, but we will not stop working until the final vote is cast on February 12," said Dean. "Strengthening the state parties is a central part of our plan to make the Democratic Party competitive in every race, in every district, in every state and territory. If elected DNC Chair, we will make this vision a reality."

The state Democratic Chairs' and Vice Chairs' plan for reform at the DNC
includes:
— A focus on the grassroots
— A commitment to the DNC.fs diversity
— An escape from the consultant culture of Washington, D.C.
— Rebuilding, partnering and investing in state parties
— A 56 state and territorial strategy
— Accountability and transparency at the DNC

The DNC will elect its new Chair on February 12, 2005 in Washington, D.C. ASDC members constitute 112 of the 447 members of the DNC.

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From the Ground Up

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
This is one in a series of weekly syndicated columns written by Governor Howard Dean.

Over the past thirty years, Republicans have become the majority party in America by building a terrific grassroots organization. If we are to take our country back for ordinary working Americans, Democrats will have to match or exceed the Republicans ability to motivate voters.

Grassroots organization really has to be based on two way communication. In our Presidential campaign we started with no money, no base, but a great number of enthusiastic grassroots activists. We ceded decision making power to local folks and let them run things in their areas as they saw fit. This turns out to have been our single most important innovation, and it is the only one that wasn't copied by any of the other campaigns, either Democratic or Republican. Everything else, the small donor programs, the house parties, the interactive Web sites and organizing was used by others. The reason that the most important piece wasn't copied is because it requires a real change in thinking by people who run for office and their consultants, not just adopting new techniques or technology.

Letting go of central control is what gives voters real power. When I used the phrase "You have the power" during the campaign, I meant that by working together, Americans could overcome the forces of the right-wing and reassume their constitutional role in running the country. What I didn't understand was that "You have the power" was more than that. It didn't apply only to people's ability to change America, it also applied concretely to their ability to make every day decisions about how they would cause that change.

In our campaign, Americans without any previous political experience made decisions about when to leaflet, what to say in the leaflet, where to leaflet and how to organize. They organized and ran hundreds of organizations such as African-Americans for Dean, Latinos for Dean, Punx for Dean, Irish Americans for Dean, etc., which sprang not from a central "outreach" desk in Burlington, but spontaneously all over the country, finding each other on the Web, and creating a national organization from local ones

The idea of a decentralized campaign terrifies most politicians who have gotten used to putting out ideas and letting others respond. We discovered that the path to power, oddly enough, is to trust others with it.

The true mark of a modern campaign will be to listen to Americans and let them shape campaigns instead of simply allowing them to respond.

Our campaign was far from perfect, and we did not win. But our organization today is almost 600,000 strong that we know of, and there are more people in the organization today than there were on the day I dropped out of the presidential race. People still meet monthly in about 500 locations across America to talk about how to bring reform, and then they act on their plan locally.

I wish I could tell you that this was all because of my leadership and charisma; that is not so. The reform movement lives because it isn't mine. Our people know that they have the power in their own communities, linked across the country, to elect reform-minded people. They did exactly that on six months notice all across the country in places like Utah, Alabama, and Idaho, not just New York and Ohio.

If Democrats use this model, we will effectively leapfrog the Republicans, who despite their discipline and organization, are still a top-down, control and command organization.

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The Legacy of Dr. King

The Legacy of Dr. King

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.

On Monday, January 17th, we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Facing obstacles that would have deterred most of us, Dr. King fought tirelessly for what he believed in.

On the eve of the second inauguration of an Administration that has promoted the interests of the privileged few at the expense of most Americans, it is more critical than ever that we follow Dr. King's example.

Like Martin Luther King, Jr., we must also have the courage of our convictions. We must stand up and vigorously defend our beliefs. We must start framing the debate and setting the agenda. And we should not hesitate to call for reform—reform that will benefit all Americans, not just a privileged few.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/005814.html

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I'm Running

I'm Running

As I have traveled across our country, I have talked to thousands of people who are working for change in their own communities about the power of politics to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others. Every group I have spoken to, I encouraged them to stand up for what they believe and to get involved in the electoral process—because the only sure way to make difference is to step up and run for office yourself.

Today, I'm announcing my candidacy for the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Party needs a vibrant, forward-thinking, long-term presence in every single state and we must be willing to contest every race at every level. We will only win when we show up and fight for the issues important to all of us.

Another integral part of our strategy must be cultivating the party's grassroots. Our long term success depends on all of us taking an active role in our party and in the political process, by volunteering, going door to door and taking the Democratic message into every community, and by organizing at the local level. After all, new ideas and new leaders don't come from consultants; they come from communities.

As important as organization is, it alone can no longer win us elections. Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform—reforming America's financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy. The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side.s like to run for national office.

With your help, this past election season, Democracy for America, already started creating the kind of organization the Democratic Party can be. This past election cycle, we endorsed over 100 candidates at all levels of government—from school board to U.S. Senate. We contributed almost a million dollars to nearly 750 candidates around the country and raised millions of dollars for many more candidates.

Together, we helped elect a Democratic governor in Montana, a Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah and an African American woman to the bench in Alabama. Fifteen of the candidates we endorsed had never run for office before—and won.

I also have experience building and managing a local party organization. My career started as Democratic Party chair in Chittenden County, Vermont. I then ran successful campaigns: for state legislature, lieutenant governor and then governor. In my 11-year tenure as governor, I balanced the state's budget every year.

I served as chair of both the National Governors' Association and the Democratic Governors' Association (DGA). And as chair of the DGA, I helped recruit nearly 20 governors that won—even in states like Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi.

All of these experiences have only reaffirmed what I know to be true. There is only one party that speaks to the hopes and dreams of all Americans. It is the party you have already given so much to. It is the Democratic Party.

We can win elections only by standing up for what we believe.

Thank you and I look forward to listening to your concerns in the weeks ahead.

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The Emerging European Influence

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
This is one in a series of weekly syndicated columns written by Governor Howard Dean.

Amid the wreckage of President Bush's foreign policy, the United States is at its lowest popularity in decades in every corner of the globe. America's dominance on the foreign stage was prominent four years ago, but now Europe is beginning to emerge as the champion of Western values, as it becomes less politically dependent on America.

Since President Bush alienated most of our traditional European allies over the Iraq War, there are signs that the European community is finally getting serious about its future and its responsibility.

The European Union has rewritten its Constitution to make decision making easier, never an easy task with twenty-five member states. France, Britain and Germany recently negotiated a deal with Iran to halt their nuclear program. We are right to be skeptical about whether such an agreement will be honored by the Iranians, but the attempt at least postpones the siren songs of the Neoconservatives who want to do in Iran what President Bush did in Iraq.

The Euro is at an all time high against the dollar, since the members of the European Union are actually trying to keep their budgets in balance. They are not always successful, but making the effort promotes investment. Claiming that deficits are irrelevant, as the American Republicans do, is not only delusional, but it harms the value of the dollar, and ultimately our strength as a nation.

Europeans are also taking a bold lead in an effort to forgive massive amounts of third world debt. Should they be successful, they will significantly reduce the drag on economic development in places like Latin America and Africa—therefore opening the door for trade and investment from European countries.

Perhaps the most courageous development that the emerging European Union has undertaken is the new willingness to consider Turkey as a member. This is unpopular in most European countries among voters, yet the European Union leadership gets high marks for realizing that the long term future of Western values may well depend on true economic integration with Muslim nations that are still attracted to Western democratic ideals.

I know these steps are small and somewhat shaky, but they are incredibly important. Europe is beginning to assert its leadership and independence, filling the vacuum left by America's unrealistic and occasionally petulant foreign policy. In the long run, a strong, independent Europe can pick up the leadership role abandoned by President Bush. And, a strong, independent Europe can continue to promote values such as democracy, tolerance and a more benign form of capitalism in developing countries.

Many people in developing nations are beginning to give up on both democracy and capitalism. And, it's not a wonder why—multinational corporations, undeterred by labor protections that exist in the developed world have made life harder for many of the world's citizens—not easier. The developing world needs a more respected salesperson than George Bush to show them that a democratic society and capitalism works. In the absence of American leadership, it seems that Europe is emerging as that salesperson.

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Democratic Moral Values

Democratic Moral Values

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
This is one in a series of weekly syndicated columns written by Governor Howard Dean.

Four years ago, the President won 49 percent of the vote. The Republican Party treated it like it was a mandate, and we let them get away with it. 51 percent is not a mandate either. And this time we're not going to let them get away with it.

Our challenge today is not to re-hash what has happened, but to look forward, to make the Democratic Party a 50-state party again, and most importantly, to win.

The pundits have said that this election was decided on the issue of moral values. I don't believe that. It is a moral value to provide health care. It is a moral value to educate our young people. The sense of community that comes from full participation in our Democracy is a moral value. It is a moral value to make sure that we do not leave our own debts to be paid by the next generation. Honesty is a moral value.

If this election had been decided on moral values, Democrats would have won.

It is time for the Democratic Party to start framing the debate about values.

We have to learn to punch our way off the ropes.

We have to set the agenda.

We should not hesitate to call for reform—reform in elections, reform in health care and education, reforms that promote ethical business practices. And, yes, we need to talk about some internal reform in the Democratic Party as well.

Reform is the hallmark of a strong Democratic Party.

Those who stand in the way of reform cannot be the focus of our attention for only four months out of every four years.

Reform is a daily battle.

And we must pursue those reforms with conviction—every day, at all levels, in 50 states.

A little while back, at a fundraiser, a woman came up to me. She identified herself as an evangelical Christian from Texas. I asked her what you are all wondering—why was she supporting me. She said there were two reasons. The first was that she had a child who had poly-cystic kidney disease, and that the illness made it impossible for their family to get health care.

The second thing she said was, "The other reason we're with you is because evangelical Christians are people of deep conviction, and you're a person of deep conviction. I may not agree with you on everything, but what we want more than anything else from our government is that when something happens to our family or something happens to our country—it's that the people in our government act out of deep conviction."

We are what we believe. And the American people know it.

And I believe that over the next two... four... ten years...

Election by election...State by state...Precinct by precinct...Door by door...Vote by vote. . .we're going to take this country back for the people who built it.

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The Future of the Democratic Party

Howard Dean | The Future of the Democratic Party
By Howard Dean
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 06 December 2004

Since Election Day, there has been a lot of predictable moaning and groaning about the future of the Democratic Party. Particularly predictable are the suggestions that we need to be more like Republicans in order to win. Democrats need to learn by our previous mistakes - we have tried being "Republican-lite" and it does not work. It is a mistake to run away from the things we believe and I think we can win in the so-called Republican states by being real Democrats.

We have to realize that there are no red states and no blue states, just American states. I believe the country is still more in sync with Democratic values than Republican values. Our task is to remind ourselves and the American people of the hallmark issues that distinguish Democrats from Republicans.

For example, Democrats historically tackle economic issues with bold, common-sense policies. Our last Democratic president created 22 million new jobs in this country. In the last four years, George W. Bush oversaw the loss of over 1.5 million. Democrats balance budgets, Republicans do not. Democrats consistently try to pass legislation that would provide some kind of affordable health care, Republicans do not. Democrats believe we ought to raise the minimum wage to help the average worker keep up with the cost of living, Republicans do not. Democrats believe corporations have too much power over our daily lives; Republicans do not - and to prove it, they have given away billions of dollars of our tax money to the biggest corporations in the world over the last four years.

On each of these issues, the majority of the American people are with Democrats not Republicans. Democrats have the right beliefs to win; we just execute a poor public relations plan. And, despite the enormous improvement in our ground game, the Republicans executed a more effective strategy. Republicans are far more successful because they work in a more unified, disciplined way with local supporters, especially with their base. They also avoid the Democrats chronic pitfall of listening to pundits from inside the Beltway.

I truly believe that Democrats can return to national dominance. But, we must not be afraid to compete in every race, in every district and in every state. We can start rebuilding the Democratic Party from the bottom up. Through my organization, Democracy for America, we have already started that process. This past election cycle, we endorsed over 100 candidates, at all levels of government – from school board to U.S. Senate and we contributed to almost 750 candidates around the country.

These candidates helped return Democrats to the majority in the Vermont, North Carolina, Oregon and Colorado State Houses; as well as the Senate in Oregon, Washington and Colorado. These candidates included more women than men, 25 percent were African American and there were members of nearly every other minority group, including American Indians. Nearly ten percent of the victors were from the gay and lesbian community, which included wins in places like Idaho and Missouri. And, 15 of the candidates we endorsed that won never ran for office before.

Democrats can win by simply being Democrats. Reinventing ourselves as Republicans is the death knell of our party. We need to get back to basics and start listening to people from outside Washington. Only then can we save the greatest nation on the face of the earth from the twin Republican perils of enormous deficits and constant misadventures abroad.

Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, is the founder of Democracy for America, a grassroots organization that supports socially progressive and fiscally responsible political candidates.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120704U.shtml

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