Inside Politics

Saving Democrats

“The journalistic establishment has become an anti-Dean mover,” Peggy Noonan writes at www.OpinionJournal.com.

“Tuesday’s New York Times piece on the absent Mrs. Dean, for instance — that was a piece with a sting. They decided to front-page it six days before the caucuses. The morning network news shows and the cable news shows are full of Mr. Dean’s gaffes, Mr. Gephardt’s rise and Mr. Edwards’s potential,” said Mrs. Noonan, an author and former speech writer for President Reagan.

“Why? It is true the press wants a race. They don’t want to spend the next three months filing ‘Dean Wins Again’ and ‘Why Kerry Failed to Ignite.’ But it’s more than that. Reading between the lines and listening between the lines, it’s hard to avoid the thought that reporters don’t really like Mr. Dean. The last time a viable Democrat rose, in 1992, the columnists for the newsmagazines and profile writers for the newspapers loved Bill Clinton with a throbbing love. None of those columns are being written now. They don’t love Mr. Dean.

“This is not a shock. He seems as unlovable (unless you’re a Deaniac) as he is improbable. But I suspect there’s something else at work. I wonder if mainstream media aren’t trying to save the Democratic Party from Mr. Dean. They know he’s not a likely winner down the road. Boomer reporters who’ve been through the Clinton experience have sharp eyes. I suspect they’re put off by Mr. Dean’s Clintonian aspects, such as his tendency to dissemble. They’re pushing Gephardt and Edwards and even Kerry. They may push Wesley Clark. But they’re not pushing Dean.”

‘An empty suit’

Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, delivered a blistering attack Wednesday against Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, describing North Carolina’s junior senator as an “empty suit” who lacks understanding of how government works, the Manchester Union Leader reports.

Mr. Santorum made his remarks in an interview with senior editors of the Union Leader. His lengthy attack against Mr. Edwards came in response to a question asking about Mr. Santorum’s impression of the Democratic primary field and particularly his three Senate colleagues in the race. Aside from Mr. Edwards, those are Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

“As far as the three are concerned, all three of those candidates have their strengths and have their weaknesses. Of the three, candidly, I’m the least impressed with John Edwards,” Mr. Santorum said. “In his time in the United States Senate, he distinguished himself by arguing for things I would have thought he would have been an expert on — things like the Patients’ Bill of Rights and medical liability — but was as remarkably uninformed as any general member of the United States Senate on these issues.”

Mr. Santorum added: “The basic perception in the Republican caucus was that this guy is just an empty suit, that he just simply doesn’t understand.”

Mr. Santorum is the first of several national Republican leaders scheduled to visit New Hampshire before the state’s first-in-the-nation primary on Jan 27. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee was scheduled to visit yesterday and today, while New York Gov. George E. Pataki will visit Jan. 25.

Rush to arms

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