DNC Chairman Howard Dean on Fox News Sunday
February 2, 2006
Washington, DC- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today outlined the Democratic Party's strong, positive agenda of reform on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The following are excerpts of Dean's interview with Wallace:
On the State of the Union
I think most Americans think the state of the Union is in pretty difficult shape right now. We do need some new ideas on the economy. The Democrats have put forward a jobs plan that has to do with energy independence. We do need a healthcare system that works for everybody. And, frankly, I think we need a little better work on defense. We're worried about the troops not being taken care of properly in Iraq. We're worried about a lack of direction. I think the President is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
On President Bush's Lack of Credibility
So, you know, we all want the President to succeed, but the President hasn't succeeded. I think that's because he has a lack of vision and, frankly, he hasn't been truthful to the American people and people, frankly, just don't believe him anymore, and that's a real problem for him.
On Fighting the War on Terror
I was very appreciative of the work that we did attacking the Al Qaeda in northwest Pakistan. I thought that was a good idea. We need to be really tough with these terrorists. And I think there needs to be more attempts at the Al Qaeda leadership, and that was the big problem with Iraq.
On the President's Domestic Spying Program
Look, I support spying on Al Qaeda, and I think every Democrat in America thinks that we ought to attack Al Qaeda, and spy on them, and do whatever we have to do to beat them. The problem is we ought to do it within the law.
We have to do it within the law. We need a President that will lead the nation but a President that will follow the law. The law says that if the President thinks Al Qaeda is an imminent threat and he wants to spy on them, he can do that immediately, but he's got to get a warrant after the fact. In 2002, there was a memo from the Justice Department that suggested changing the law and the White House said, "No, we didn't need to do it." We are not asking the President not to spy on Al Qaeda. We are asking the President to follow the law when he does so. No one should be above the law. Not even the President of the United States.
Again, this is not a matter of a disagreement between the Democrats and Republicans on security. We favor spying on Al Qaeda. What we don't favor is spying on Americans without any kind of court oversight.
On President Bush and Jack Abramoff
Look, I think the President should release the information about when Jack Abramoff was at the White House. I believe it's been confirmed that he's met with Karl Rove before in the White House. We need to know who Jack Abramoff met with in the White House and did he meet with the President in the White House? That's public information, and we're putting in a request to make sure the American people know to the extent of this lobbying scandal. Does it reach into the White House in addition to just the Republicans in Congress?
On Jack Abramoff and the Republican Culture of Corruption
First of all, every dime of Jack Abramoff's money went to Republicans. Not one dime went to any Democrat or any Democratic organization- his personal money.
Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff. No Democrat delivered anything, and there's no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered anything to Jack Abramoff. And that's not true of the Republicans.
On the Cost to the American People of the Republican Culture of Corruption
One thing we're going to do that the Republicans haven't even talked about is we're going to stop people putting things in conference committee reports in the dead of night when nobody knows about it. Here's the cost of this. It's not just dishonesty in government. The real cost is a couple weeks ago the Republicans stuck in a $22 billion tax money giveaway to HMOs. Nobody knew anything about it. That's the problem with corruption. It's not just dishonesty. It costs the American taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. That is the shame of this scandal.
