Dean: 'These guys are out of credibility'

Chris Matthews Host of 'Hardball' • Profile

Chris Matthews talked to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean about Tom DeLay's resignation and the upcoming elections in November. This is an excerpt from their conversation.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, "HARDBALL":  Governor Dean, as chairman of the National Committee of the Democratic Party, do you have anything to say about the possibility, the probability or even the chance that if the Democrats get control of the House of Representatives and the subpoena power, they’ll use it to investigate, impeach, or censure President Bush? 

HOWARD DEAN, CHAIRMAN DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's interesting, I think the real election issue in this election is do you want more of the same or do you want something different.  We’re different.  We’re not like the Republicans. 

We don’t jump to conclusions, we don’t think impeachment is as trivial as the Republicans seemed to think it was when they tried to impeach President Clinton. 

I think we ought to stick with the facts, lets find out what the facts are.  But this notion is automatically we are going to raise taxes, impeach the president, this is nonsense.  This is right wing stuff and that’s why the Republicans are in such trouble.  They just make this stuff up and they put it out there.

What we want to do is bring the country back together again.  We want to bring this country back together again so everybody is respected and when we take power back in 2006.  We'll do that in the Senate and the House. 

I think these guys are out of credibility.  As you were talking about Pat Buchanan and Willie Brown, think of what George Bush has brought to Washington:  his own procurement officer, arrested and indicted; the chief of staff of the vice president, arrested and indicted; the Republican leader of the United States Senate, Republican Bill Frist, under investigation for insider trading; Tom DeLay, resigned. 

On and on and on it goes.  That is the Republicans.  We’re going to do this differently.  We’ve learned by watching the terrible mistakes that the Republicans have made.  This is not so much a difference about policy, although there is one, it’s a difference of how you treat people. 

Are we going to treat people with respect?  Yes.  Are we going to run off and indict the president for no reason?  Of course, we’re not going to do that.  We want to bring this back to the days when America was governed by people who people understood America is more important than their own political party. 

And that’s what the Republicans have made their mistake about.  They think it’s more important that Republicans hold power than it is that America be strong.  We think Americans come first and parties are second. 

MATTHEWS:  Is Tom DeLay still a poster boy for corruption for the Democrats? 

DEAN:  We don’t need Tom DeLay as a poster boy for corruption.  We have Karl Rove who still has a security clearance after leaking the name of a security agent.  We’ve have got Bill Frist, we’ve got Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.  We have got so many poster boys for corruption in the Republican Party that, you know, I think this is good for America that Tom DeLay has stepped down and now we’re on to the next thing. 

The other thing is we haven’t even talked about the major issues.  Look at security.  This is a president who claims he’s in favor of security and sends our folks to Iraq without proper body armor.  How about jobs?  How about some American jobs that will stay in America?  How about health insurance for all Americans, just like 36 other countries have?  There are big issues on the agenda out there.  The Republicans haven’t been willing to tackle them; we will be. 

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