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July 15, 2005
More on Dean Last Night
While Howard Dean did a great job at the afternoon fundraiser for the State Party, he truly hit a home run with the crowd last evening in Denver. If you missed last night's DNC fundraiser, you missed quite the show. Here are some excerpts:
The AP Article (summarized well at 5280) contained a pretty good summary of Dean's comments, especially his jabs at Focus on the Family, and the anti-immigration stances of Beauprez and Tancredo:
The former presidential candidate said Democrats are focusing on families, who are willing to sacrifice for their children. "If you want to focus on the family, focus on minimum wage. If you want to focus on the family, focus on smaller class size," Dean said in an apparent reference to Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, whose public policy arm has campaigned against gay marriage. Dean said gay marriage is not mentioned once in the Bible.Focus on the Family did not answer calls after hours.
He also criticized two of the state's Republican congressmen for going after illegal immigrants, and he renewed his call for President Bush to fire anyone who leaked the name of CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to the media.
"Mr. President, keep your word, keep your word," Dean told the crowd.
He indirectly criticized Colorado Republican congressmen Tom Tancredo and Bob Beauprez for their stands against illegal immigration after Tancredo accused Denver of harboring illegal immigrants and revamping its libraries to cater to Spanish-speakers and Beauprez for trying to withhold federal aid to Mexico after that country refused to extradite a man suspected of killing a Denver police officer.
Dean said Republicans will try to make immigration a national issue.
"In 2006, it's going to be immigrants, you wait and see," he said.
The News' Bartels focused more on the reaction of attendees to Dean's speech:
If Howard Dean is there, Joel Weierman wants to help.The Boulder resident, 32 and a self-confessed "die-hard Deaniac," shelled out $100 Thursday to hear the former presidential candidate spell out his vision for leading the Democratic National Committee.
Dean got big laughs and lots of applause at the Oxford Hotel as he ribbed President Bush and the three Rs: Republicans, Rove and Rush
...
"Thank you," Arapahoe County resident Laure Levin told Dean afterward. "I'm ready to hit the streets again."
"He was great," said Weierman, who admitted he was crushed last year when Dean lost the Iowa primary to John Kerry.
Dean came to Colorado on Thursday for a fundraiser that attracted more than 300 people.
Finally, the Post's Sanchez focused a bit more on Dean's commitment to help Colorado Democrats over the next four years:
Fiery Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean promised $1 million in campaign funds to state party candidates during a Denver fundraiser Thursday, saying recent takeovers of the state House and Senate showed that Colorado was primed for further Democrat victories....
Dean whipped the crowd up as he recounted Colorado's political shift last election. The $1 million pledge, he said, would be doled out over four years.
State Democratic leaders said Thursday that they already are hiring staff to spread their message across Colorado.
"We're gonna turn Colorado from purple to blue," Dean said amid cheers and applause at the $100-per-person event. "You turned it from red to purple all by yourself."
I'll write a bit more on what has become my pet issue over the past couple of months -- more attention for the West from Democrats. I had an opportunity to ask Gov. Dean about that last night, and his response was interesting, so I want to blog on that separately...
Posted by dslater at July 15, 2005 12:54 PM
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