By David Edwards on 1/9/2006, 12:31pm PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Wolf Blitzer interviewed Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on CNN's Late Edition yesterday.

Dean says that Alito is outside the mainstream on privacy issues. Not only does Alito believe that women do not have the right to an abortion, he also ruled in favor of strip-searching a 10 year old girl.

Dean is also troubled because Alito adjudicated a case in which he had a serious conflict of interest, ruling in favor of a company in which he owned $400K worth of related mutual funds. Alito's ruling was later vacated. Especially disturbing is the fact that Alito had promised the Senate, during a previous confirmation, that he would recuse himself from any case in which he had a financial stake. If Alito did not tell the truth to the Senate on that occasion, how can he be believed during the latest confirmation hearings?

When Blitzer asked about the current Iraq policy, Dean expressed disappointment about a meeting in which the President called members of previous administrations to The White House, supposedly for their advice on Iraq. The New York Times reported that the President did most of the talking before rushing the group out of the meeting for a photo-op. Showing, once again, that Bush has little interest in ideas from outside of his presidential bubble.

After learning of a recently-leaked secret Pentagon report which said 80% of torso-based fatalities in Iraq could have been avoided if soldiers had been equipped with proper body armor, Dean renewed a call for the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Dean said he was "disgusted" by the report.

Dean went on to say that Senator Lieberman's statement that Democrats "undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril" is "absolutely wrong". The president has shown a lack of credibility since the day he took office (and including the way that he took office). The president has abused his power. He has taken the country in the wrong direction at home and abroad. Bush's economic and foreign policies have been failures. Dean said that Bush deserved criticism and it is the job of every patriotic American to speak out.

Chairman Dean showed extreme concern over the ethically charged climate in Washington. He lamented the endless corruption scandals within the Republican party.


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