Is Dr. Dean Illiterate?

The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire Blog reports that the NY Time’s sliming of John McCain has become a money-raising bonanza for Team McCain;

[T]he Republican National Committee and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign wasted no time yesterday sending out email fund-raising pitches riffing off a highly publicized front-page New York Times story that questions McCain’s record on ethics and suggests he may have had an extramarital affair.

It appears to have been effective. Reports circulated this afternoon that the McCain campaign has been flooded with donations since the plea went out. Conservative pundits, like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, have also been giving McCain some free airtime, using their shows to bash the Times’ decision to run the story.

It worked so well, Howard Dean wants to cash in on the free publicity, too, and sent out his own email solicitation;

Republicans “spent the day breathlessly assailing the New York Times as ‘liberal,’ ignoring the ethics lapses the team of reporters had uncovered,” Dean writes, “The fact is, John McCain is facing legitimate questions about lobbyists, favors, and campaign contributions, just as he did during the Keating Five scandal that nearly derailed his political career twenty years ago.”

Dean continued: “Seeing more dollar signs, the McCain campaign and the RNC decided to jump at the chance to take advantage of the distraction they had created to raise money. They had spent the day firing their supporters up, trying desperately to change the subject, and then they literally cashed in on it. It was textbook sleaze. So, let’s hit back.”

Hit back against what, Howie? Hit back against Republicans defending the lies and innuendo being propagated against them? Instead of taking the high ground and criticizing the New York Times like the rest of the honest Left, Dean takes the Dan Rather “fake but accurate” approach.

Category: Politics