5/14/2007

36 Responses to “Howard Dean and the DNC Reap The Whirlwind”

1. According to this Complaint, in 2004-2006 the DNC alienated many Democrats in the gay community. I wonder whether this made Democrats more desperate to use events like the Foley scandal to bring back gay Democrats and, if so, whether it worked.

   DRJ (8b9d41) — 5/14/2007 @ 3:07 pm

   
   

2. Something worked for them in 2006.

   Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 5/14/2007 @ 4:49 pm

   
   

3. Here’e a legal question from a non-lawyer regarding the standard of defamation.

   In order for a statement to rise to level of defamation is necessary for the statement to have been believable?

   For instance if I said that Howard Dean is actually from Mars and that he sleeps in a vat of vegetable oil and eats only kittens and bunnies, it is obviously not believable. Would that be defamation?

   Stephen Macklin (68591a) — 5/14/2007 @ 5:03 pm

   
   

4. Oh my god. You just confirmed everything I suspected about Howard Dean~! I KNEW it!

   C Student (3dd3fe) — 5/14/2007 @ 5:08 pm

   
   

5. I think you might have defamed vegetable oil, kittens and bunnies.

   Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 5/14/2007 @ 5:54 pm

   
   

6. And Martians.

   Old Coot (f4cbb6) — 5/14/2007 @ 5:57 pm

   
   

7. “In order for a statement to rise to level of defamation is necessary for the statement to have been believable?”

   As a rule, an element of defamation is damage to a persons reputation. If it is not believable, then it is not considered damaging to the person’s reputation.

   Bruce Rheinstein (60ed13) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:13 pm

   
   

8. Man, this is silly. Dean was the first governor to sign a bill for civil unions, and he’s under pressure from the conservative side of his own party and from gays as well. Here’s a discussion in a post at OutForDemocracy.org.

   And here’s the quote at Powerline from the Brownback campaign: “Just to be clear, the call between Sebelius and Brownback never happened. I don’t know what the source here is, but the existence of the phone call has been fabricated out of thin air.”
   So one the one hand we have a political leader caught in a difficult political situation, which you want to make more difficult of course [and on the moral questions you have no right to say a damn thing] and on the other we have a complete and utter fabrication- A LIE- invented for purposes of attack. Those are the primary points of your argument.

   Meanwhile back at the war:

   BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. Embassy employees in Iraq are growing increasingly angry over what they say are inadequate security precautions in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where recent mortar and rocket attacks have claimed the lives of six people, including two U.S. citizens.
   In spite of the attacks, embassy employees complain, most staff members still sleep in trailers that one described as “tin cans” that offer virtually no protection from rocket and mortar fire. The government has refused to harden the roofs because of the cost, one employee said.
   A second official called it “criminally negligent” not to reduce the size of the embassy staff, which a year ago was estimated at 1,000, in the face of the increasing attacks and blamed the administration’s failure to respond on concerns that doing so might undermine support for President Bush’s Iraq policy.
   “What responsible person and responsible government would ask you to put yourself at risk like that? We don’t belong here,” the employee said, adding, “They’re not going to send us home because it’s going to be another admission of failure.”
   Embassy employees have been ordered not to talk about security concerns or precautions with reporters, but three State Department employees in Baghdad discussed the issue with McClatchy Newspapers. All three asked not to be identified for fear that they’d lose their jobs.
   The officials also complained that important security precautions appeared to have been set aside during highly publicized official visits. During a March 31 visit from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a high-profile presidential candidate, the embassy lifted a requirement that bulletproof vests and helmets be worn at all times. When a rocket landed outside the U.S. Embassy while Vice President Dick Cheney and several reporters visited last week, no warning sirens were sounded.
   “Where were the sirens then?” one official asked. “We don’t belong here, and people are afraid to say it.”

   And whatever happened to your discussion of the US attorney mess?

   AF (683024) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:29 pm

   
   

9. Stephen Macklin, I think this was the precise issue in Jerry Falwell’s suit against Penthouse. If I recall correctly, Falwell lost his suit because the statement made against him was so outrageous that nobody could be expected to take it seriously.

   Milhouse (dde971) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:42 pm

   
   

10. […] by the lawyer, get sued by another lawyer. Howard Dean and the DNC are being sued for defamation and discrimination by a former employee – […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Dean’s DNC: Reaping what it has sown (d4224a) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:53 pm

    
    

11. AF: Yeah there have been so very many embassy employees killed or injured in the Green Zone. And of course, our diplomatic corps should never expect real physical danger – only lattes in Vienna, I suppose. However, unlike soldiers these employees can resign, I believe.

    SC (8d4e12) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:57 pm

    
    

12. Obviously this is a sensitive issue for the Left, with people like AF trying so desperately to change the subject.

    Good work, Patterico!

    Evil Pundit (13f668) — 5/14/2007 @ 6:59 pm

    
    

13. So Dr. Demento is being sued! What is this country coming to when a simple, humble, deranged hate-filled maniac like Howard Dean is faced with a lawsuit? Is nothing sacred anymore?

    Mwalimu Daudi (f57033) — 5/14/2007 @ 7:09 pm

    
    

14. [and on the moral questions you have no right to say a damn thing]

    Oh, look! God Almighty is commenting here. How cool is that?

    Pablo (08e1e8) — 5/14/2007 @ 7:13 pm

    
    

15. AF,

    I’ve been very busy, unfortunately, and this will likely continue for the near future.

    Patterico (e313b1) — 5/14/2007 @ 7:17 pm

    
    

16. I read Hitchcock’s Complaint. Bleech! The DNC should be sued on behalf of all Democrats for hiring the whiny little creep in the first place. I hope he wins and gets every penny he possibly can but the vibes I get from the Complaint are kind of like Oscar Wilde’s defamation suit against the Marquess of Queensbury.

    nk (f28d83) — 5/14/2007 @ 7:37 pm

    
    

17. Delish: Dean and the DNC get sued for … discrimination…

    Heh. I love it.
    The complaint can be read here. (Hat tip: ST reader Mwalimu Daudi)

    ……

    Sister Toldjah (1466f5) — 5/14/2007 @ 8:02 pm

    
    

18. DNC Threatens Free Republic and XM Radio (UPDATED)…

    A couple of days back, a Free Republic poster named ‘coffee260’ repeated something he had heard on the XM Radio broadcast of Quinn …

    baldilocks (72c8fd) — 5/14/2007 @ 8:49 pm

    
    

19. Kevin Murphy: “Something worked for them in 2006.”

    The Stupid Party worked for them. Clueless, self-centered, no agenda, no accomplishment, cowardly, deaf GOP, that worked for the Dem’s in ’06. The Dem’s had no agenda. They are now claiming one by re-writing history with the help of the Media Dem’s.

    Jabba the Tutt (e922a6) — 5/14/2007 @ 8:53 pm

    
    

20. I echo Jabba… The GOP apparently took a blow to the head that season…

    It disgusted me…

    Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 5/14/2007 @ 8:57 pm

    
    

21. The dems just try to cram as many identity/grievance/issue groups under their tent as possible, ignore them between elections, swear eternal loyalty around election time, severely punish and attack departures from the plantation and are surprised when the strategy comes back to bite them. The idiocy and blindness of the people who continue to buy into that party continues to amaze.

    daleyrocks (906622) — 5/14/2007 @ 9:05 pm

    
    

22. Man you really need to war people when a link is a pdf – that should be common blog courtesy.

    Sorry, but it just irritates the heck out of me when I lose control of my computer to a link.
    DKK

    LifeTrek (201637) — 5/14/2007 @ 9:35 pm

    
    

23. Oops, meant warn people, not war.

    LifeTrek (201637) — 5/14/2007 @ 9:35 pm

    
    

24. Sorry LifeTrek – point taken about the PDF link.

    Justin Levine (b3aba4) — 5/14/2007 @ 10:41 pm

    
    

25. RE: DRJ comment 1. The DNC’s “plan to bring back gay democrats” was to force a gay Congressman from office? That seems like kind of an odd plan; though perhaps it worked.

    howard (cbd7f0) — 5/15/2007 @ 2:39 am

    
    

26. “In order for a statement to rise to level of defamation is necessary for the statement to have been believable?”

    “As a rule, an element of defamation is damage to a persons reputation. If it is not believable, then it is not considered damaging to the person’s reputation.”

    In my mind, this begs the question… If the claim is believable, then could it be considered damaging? And that being the case, perhaps the suit is being contemplated because the dems know the claim is believable… Hehehe

    Herosmith (5c621d) — 5/15/2007 @ 4:49 am

    
    

27. Herosmith,

    That was precisely the point of my question. By filing a defamation suit Dean et al are acknowledging that it is reasonable that people would believe they were on the phone working out how to exploit a natural disaster for political gain.

    Truthfully, I would be more surprised if it turned out not to be true.

    Stephen Macklin (fc20a6) — 5/15/2007 @ 5:53 am

    
    

28. Oh, and my apologies to vegetable oil, kittens, bunnies and Martians. I meant no offense.

    Stephen Macklin (fc20a6) — 5/15/2007 @ 5:54 am

    
    

29. […] or result marked by such incongruity Example: The Democratic National Committee, and Howard Dean, being sued for discrimination, defamation, and violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act, is a prime example of irony. Justin […]

    American Pundit » Blog Archive » DNC Sued for Discrimination (b45940) — 5/15/2007 @ 7:13 am

    
    

30. […] to Patterico Seems Howard Dean is being sued for violating the D.C. Human Rights […]

    186k Per Second » Howard Dean and DNC - Sued For Gay Descrimination (3c2933) — 5/15/2007 @ 7:53 am

    
    

31. Howard #25:

    Foley brought scandal on himself. I was referring to the way Democrats used that scandal to out gays.

    DRJ (c6d1df) — 5/15/2007 @ 8:27 am

    
    

32. My “favorite” lawsuit in the days I worked in the law biz was a transgender person (male to female) who looked totally female sued his employers because they refused to let him/her use the women’s facilities and otherwise refused to acknowledge him as a woman.

    The employer? The LA ACLU.

    Patricia (824fa1) — 5/15/2007 @ 7:35 pm

    
    

33. The DNC and HOWARD DEAN favor lawsuits until one is filed against them to bad but it looks like the turkeys the DNC has raised have come home to roost

    krazy kagu (044dd0) — 5/16/2007 @ 10:53 am

    
    

34. […] Justine says: First the DNC tries to legally threaten a poster to the Free Republic website – claiming that the poster defamed DNC chairman Howard Dean. […]

    Right Voices » Blog Archive » Howard Dean and the DNC are being sued for defamation and discrimination (1466f5) — 5/17/2007 @ 5:39 am

    
    

35. A few years ago some convicted murderer on death row in ILLINOIS sued for cruel and unsial punishment becuase they gave him creamy rather then chunky peanut butter STUPID THUG HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE MURDERED THOSE INOCENT PEOPLE THEN HE WOULD BE SITTING ON DEATH ROW

    krazy kagu (a97175) — 5/17/2007 @ 11:03 am

    
    

36. I recall the lawsuits about from prisoners because they only got basic cable…

    It’s enough to make me want to move to a deserted island…

    Scott Jacobs (feb2f7) — 5/17/2007 @ 11:20 am