Inside Politics

Dean’s latest

Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman who was the hero of his party’s anti-war wing before his gaffe-prone 2004 presidential candidacy crashed and burned in Iowa, still doesn’t think the Iraqis are better off with dictator Saddam Hussein out of power and in prison.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” yesterday, the fiery former Vermont governor said, “It looks like today, and this could change, as of today it looks like women will be worse off in Iraq than they were when Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq.”

Mr. Dean was the guy who said right after Saddam was found hiding in a “spider hole” that his capture by U.S. troops “has not made America safer,” a statement ridiculed and condemned by most of his Democratic rivals at the time.

In a brief statement yesterday, the Republican National Committee said, “Dean’s wild assertion that Iraqi women would be better off living under Saddam Hussein than democracy is not only counterproductive to meaningful debate, it demeans the hard work of American servicemen and women serving in Iraq.”

Southern switch

One of the top Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives switched sides last week.

State Rep. Greg Morris joined the GOP, giving Republicans 100 seats in the legislature.

“On major issues that are important to me and the people I represent, I’m out of step with the Democratic Party,” said Mr. Morris, from the southern Georgia city of Vidalia, best known for its sweet-onion crop.

Last year, Republicans gained control of the state House for the first time since Reconstruction, after winning the state Senate and the governor’s office in 2002. With the addition of Mr. Morris, Republicans now have a 20-seat edge in the 180-member state House.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Mr. Morris “had been [Democratic] Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor’s de facto floor leader in the House and allowed to sit in on closed-door meetings of the Senate leadership when Democrats controlled that chamber.”

Silent Democrats

“The rancid attack ad against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts shows, in a nutshell, what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. Emphasis on nut,” New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin writes.

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