1115.org

Memo to Bob Novak: Howard Dean isn’t running for office anymore. Democrats already know he’s the chairman of their party, and no one else gives a damn. When you waste space in your waste-of-space columns bashing him, it has the exact same effect that your endorsement of Al Sharpton carried: the opposite of whatever you were attempting.

It’s hard to tell if Novak’s repeated Dean bashing is an homage to William Safire’s bizarre Hillary Clinton stalking or the garden-variety rantings of a reporter slipping into senility. Before the race for DNC chair, Novak quoted unnamed Democrats who wanted anyone but Dean to win the race. After all of Dean’s competition (probably the very same “unnamed Democrats”) dropped out, leaving Dean the near-unanimous choice for DNC chair, Novak quoted more anonymous Democrats, this time “longtime contributors” and “prominent financiers,” who said they would stop funding the DNC under a Dean chairmanship. Novak later broke his arm patting himself on the back when the DNC raised less money than in the first quarter of 2004. Trouble is, 2004 was a Presidential election year and 2005 isn’t. And as long as we are comparing numbers, the first quarter of 2005 doubled the first quarter of 2003, the last off-year total, $16 million to $8 million and even bested the mid-term election year of 2002 which saw $12 million in donations.

These attacks, while unwarranted and dishonest, were little more than inside stories, news only to people who actively follow politics. More damaging was Novak’s reporting on a Social Security speech Dean gave at Cornell University. Novak claimed that Dean predicted benefit cuts of 80% when Dean actually predicted cuts of 20%. Yet after Media Matters set the record straight, Novak continued to disparage Dean buy deliberately misquoting him, leading to a correction that ran on CNN’s Inside Politics.

Frothing at the mouth, Novak is eagerly awaiting Dean’s appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press this Sunday, anticipating some kind of “scream” redux:

Accordingly, anticipation of Dean on ”Meet the Press” Sunday is unsettling for the party’s faithful. This will be his first exposure as chairman on a major network interview, and Russert predictably will be well-prepared with a rap sheet of the chairman’s verbal assaults. The prospect that Dean will make juicy additions to that collection unnerves Democrats.

As supporting evidence, Novak presents a few of Dean’s recent quotes:

He has described the Republican leadership, in various venues, as ”evil,” ”corrupt” and ”brain-dead.” He has called Sen. Rick Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, a ”liar.” Addressing the Massachusetts Democratic convention in Lowell, Dean declared: ”I think DeLay ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence down there courtesy of the Texas taxpayers.” Dean would jail DeLay without trial, without indictment and without accusation of any crime.

National chairmen are supposed to fire up the troops, but Dean’s rhetoric crosses a line.

Novak should know crossing the line when he sees it:

On the May 14 edition of CNN’s The Capital Gang, Novak responded to a question from panelist Al Hunt:

Al Hunt: Bob, why would Senator Frist refuse an offer [by Reid] to break the deadlock?

Bob Novak: Because the whole system is that you’re not going to have — like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber.

And Novak’s not the only resorting to line crossing:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist(5/18/05):

“It’s the partisan leadership-led use of cloture to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.”

Third ranking Senate Republican Rick Santorum (5/19/05):

“What the Democrats are doing is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, ‘I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It’s mine.’ This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster.”

Will Novak spend time in future columns agonizing over the possible damage inflicted upon his party by upcoming public appearances by his party’s top Senators or even himself? Not when it’s so easy for him to smear Howard Dean with lies and misdirection.