What Deaner Was Talkin' About

(With apologies to Mickey and Aaron)

Frankly, I haven't the slightest clue.

Dean calls Iraqi PM an 'anti-Semite'

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an "anti-Semite" for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel.

Al-Maliki has condemned Israel's offensive, prompting several Democrats to boycott his address to a joint meeting of Congress and others to criticize him. Dean's comments were the strongest to date.

"The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite," the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. "We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah."

With an excellent opportunity to make gains in the fall elections, it's absolutely baffling why Dean (and the rest of the Dems who skipped Al-Maliki's address) would try and out-Republican the Republicans by going after the Iraqi PM under these circumstances.

Is it good that he won't officially take a stand against Hezbollah's actions that provoked this disaster?

No.

Is he an anti-semite for not parroting the U.S. position on Israel?

No, and that puts him in the same boat as virtually every other country on the planet.

You've got to pick your battles and this is one of the poorest picks I've ever seen. Not only does this really come across as the Dems being "the party of 'no,'" but it parrots the tired, bullshit freeper-land charges of anti-semitism so frequently levied at progressives who happen to disagree with Israeli policies.