Gaffes

From Tacitus

I've got Dean's speech on in the background while I'm working on some other stuff. In the midst of a lengthy rant about GWB allegedly playing the race card by using the word "quota" with regard to the University of Michigan's affirmative action program, he stated that the current Supreme Court was the most conservative since the one that issued the Dred Scott decision.

*Who's* playing the race card here, Howard?

Also, you might owe President Clinton an apology, since the last two appointees to the USSC were his--was the Court *less* conservative ten years ago when neither Ginsburg nor Breyer was on the bench?

Oh, and the Dred Scott decision was issued in early 1857--so, every USSC panel between then and now was less conservative than the current one? Including the ones that decided Plessy v Ferguson, blocked child labor laws, and blocked New Deal legislation? Really, Howard?

I'll be interested to see if anyone else noticed this--IMO, it's a much more serious reason to question his seriousness as a candidate than his little yell in Iowa, since it indicates rather strongly that he is either woefully ignorant of history or simply nuts.


While I don't think Dean's comments mean that he is "either woefully ignorant of history or simply nuts," I do find it interesting that the press didn't jump on him for this. I mean, they practically buggered him for saying that Saddam's capture did not make us safer (which was clearly true), but when he says things that are demonstrably false he gets a pass. I guess this reinforces Michael Kinsley's defintion of a gaffe: when a politician accidently tells the truth. Lies, I suppose, are expected and tolerated by those in the media and so they ignore them.