Spinsanity has made an impact, "in the news" and according to them their "articles have been cited widely in the national media - the list includes CNN, Fox News, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Post media critic Howard Kurtz, The American Prospect, Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times, The New Republic, Washington Monthly and The Nation." But who is watching the watchdog?

"Spinsanity's" Brendan Nyhan repeats attacks from Governor Dean's rivals, taking them at face value. Then, he echoes and amplifies the accusations and finally, ironically claims Dean is dishonest and degrading discourse. But what Nyhan claims are Dean's distortions are nothing of the sort.

While Spinsanity got it right on "The media myth about Howard Dean's reaction to the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay," this time Nyhan is wrong on the facts. Despite Nyhan's claims, Howard Dean was not trying "to have it both ways" or "promulgating an unknown and unproven theory" on the Diane Rehm show.

Bush's hand-picked 9/11 Commissioner, Republican Thomas Kean confirmed and even exceeded Dean's criticism when he said the Bush Administration ignored warnings which should have let them prevent the terrorist attacks. See: http://www.mikehersh.com/Bushs_Short_Sighted_911_CoverUp.shtml

This is hardly new news. Several major media outlets confirmed that Anti-Terror Czar Richard Clarke, the FBI, flight school personnel and our allies warned the Bush administration about terrorist attacks with great specificity, but Bush and his national security team ignored the detailed warnings and went on vacation. See: http://www.mikehersh.com/cat_index_9.shtml

When Dean "blamed Bush for the emergence of such theories" - which he reasonably explained naturally result from Bush's stonewalling - he is in good company. Former New Jersey Governor Kean also confirmed that Governor Dean is correct about Bush's refusal to comply with commission requests for information. Kean expressed frustration and threatened to subpoena the Bush White House to deliver documents.

Nyhan is also wrong about Dean's position on the Iraq War. As hard as it is to imagine, Nyhan actually claims Dean isn't honest about his opposition to the war, and lets Dean's rivals who voted for the war twist reality like a pretzel to claim Dean supported it as well!

This even though Dean has been clear about the reasons he opposed the war and the White House-backed resolution handing Bush a "blank check." Dean favored a Democratic alternative which the administration complained would "tie Bush's hands," which is the reason Dean and other Democrats supported it. Incredibly, Nyhan denies there was any real difference.

Nyhan complains, "Dean does not explain why the resolution he supported was not a "blank check,'" but that's just not true. The difference is obvious, and Dean explicitly explains this over and over. Nyhan ignores a critical point. If the two resolutions were essentially identical, why did the White House twist arms to pass the Gephardt-Kerry-Edwards-supported version and work to defeat the competing Biden Resolution? Because the latter would have "tied Bush's hands" according to the Bush administration.

Dick Gephardt and Dean's other leading rivals doomed the resolution Dean supported when they cut a deal with Bush. Even Nyhan admits, "Dean has implicitly acknowledged this distinction at times, such as a statement on the February 25, 2003 edition of PBS's 'Newshour with Jim Lehrer' in which he said "What they [his rivals] voted for was to allow the president of the United States to attack Iraq unilaterally without going back to Congress." 

There's nothing "implicit" about the difference, however. This is no "fairly subtle distinction." It's like night and day. Dr. Dean endorsed the approach drafted by Democrats which would NOT give Bush a blank check. Dean's top rivals all voted for or endorsed the resolution the White House drafted.

To recap, Bush's hand-picked 9/11 Commission Chairman, the Republican Thomas Kean agrees with Howard Dean that Bush is stone-walling and the commission may have to resort to subpoenas and court orders to force Bush to comply with requests for information.

The public record shows Bush had ample warning about 9/11, and the White House cover-up encourages theories about why Bush ignored the warnings. Efforts to blame Dean for reporting what we all see is blaming the messenger at best, if not contributing to a shameful smear campaign and cover up.

Rather than take the Bush administration to task for the non-stop "deception and misinformation" from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz and Powell, Nyhan blames Dean for telling the truth about Bush et al. Rather than a real concern for accuracy, Nyhan demonstrates a zeal to demonize Dean and help Team Bush trick Americans.

Although Nyhan and his partners claim they "will always be non-partisan, fair and civic-minded" he spins madly, conflating this bizarre distortion of Dean's comments about Bush's stone-walling with purported Dean "deception" about his opposition to the Iraq invasion. It's hard to imagine this is accidental, much less fair. Nyhan either supports one of Dean's rivals and refuses to admit it, or else he has some other ax to grind against Dean.

This is willful dissembling in an obvious effort to slam Dean. Stitching these attacks against Dean into some "pattern of misleading and contradictory remarks [which] is damaging to Dean's reputation," is unfair, vicious and unfounded - a sad rerun of the smears against Al Gore for his supposed "pattern of misleading" and exaggeration.

Nyhan sugar-coats Bush's misleading comments on Iraq and misrepresents Howard Dean. This reveals Nyhan's protest that "the debates over Sept. 11 and Iraq ... have been plagued with deception and misinformation" as a joke. This supposed watch dog barks at the wrong people - it ignores Bush's lies, and attacks honest Howard Dean as a liar. More rampant double standards. It's "Deja 2000" all over again.

Write to "Spinsanity" and Brendan Nyhan. Demand honest, accurate reporting from the self-proclaimed watch dog even if they obviously prefer some other Democrat in the primaries.

Spinsanity: letters@spinsanity.org

Brendan Nyhan: brendan@spinsanity.org.

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Article: Dean's not-so-straight talk on Bush and the war
By Brendan Nyhan, December 17, 2003

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, has stated that he is "running as the candidate who is not afraid to tell the truth" and proclaimed that he is "going to be the John McCain of this race," referring to the Arizona senator who is famous for so-called "straight talk."

However, in the last few weeks, Dean has not lived up to his claims of honesty and candor, which are frequently cited as motivating factors by supporters. Most recently, as Slate's Timothy Noah has shown, he irresponsibly suggested President Bush had advance warning of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, failed to take responsibility for his remarks when asked about them and then dissembled about having done so.

In addition, as two of Dean's rivals have pointed out, his attacks on the candidates who supported the October 2002 Congressional resolution authorizing military action against Iraq actually hinge on a fairly subtle distinction that he often fails to mention - namely, Dean supported an alternate resolution that would also have granted such authority, but the resolution he supported required that Bush make additional certifications to Congress before taking action.

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This pattern of misleading and contradictory remarks is damaging to Dean's reputation, which was previously hurt by a false claim about Edwards and dissembling about his support for Medicare cuts during the 1990s. It also sets back the debates over Sept. 11 and Iraq, both of which have been plagued with deception and misinformation. While Dean frequently tells his supporters that they "have the power to take this country back," the power to set the record straight lies in his hands alone.