Inside Politics

Armchair psychiatry

Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Freud.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he admires President Bush’s father, former President George Bush, but said the son has, as they say, daddy issues.

“He’s interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father,” said Mr. Dean, who is a medical doctor but practiced in the field of internal medicine, not psychiatry. The current president “is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.”

Mr. Dean went further, accusing Mr. Bush of not even having an interest in governing well.

“I admire George Bush’s father. … He tried to be a good president,” said Mr. Dean, the Democratic presidential front-runner. “This president is not interested in being a good president.”

When asked for his diagnosis on what motivates Mr. Bush, the good doctor put on his bedside manner: “George Bush’s philosophy is, ’If you’re rich, you deserve it; and if you’re poor, you deserve it.’ That’s not my philosophy.”

Appeal on ’marriage’

Conservative groups asked Massachusetts’ high court yesterday to delay the landmark ruling allowing homosexual “marriage,” saying residents and legislators should be allowed to vote on the issue.

A coalition that includes the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and the Massachusetts Family Institute made the appeal in one of several legal briefs filed with the Supreme Judicial Court, the Associated Press reports.

The court ruled in November that same-sex couples have a right to “marry” in the state. The court gave the legislature six months to pass a law that complies with the ruling.

The next month, the Senate asked the court for guidance on whether proposed legislation legalizing civil unions — just shy of full-fledged marriage — would satisfy the ruling, giving homosexual couples all the rights, responsibilities and privileges of “marriage” without the title.

The conservative groups argued that the civil unions bill “would be superior to requiring the legislature to include same-sex unions in civil marriage,” but said the 180-day time frame mandated by the court was unrealistic.

One of several options that the court should consider, the coalition said, is to “issue a stay of judgment until the legislature and the people democratically decide what course to take with respect to marriage.”

Soros’ book launch

Billionaire George Soros said yesterday he is ready to spend more of his fortune to oust President Bush in November.

“I am ready to put my money where my mouth is,” the Hungarian-born American said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the District.

Mr. Soros, 74, who is worth about $7 billion, spoke at the launch of his new book, “The Bubble of American Supremacy,” much of which is devoted to lambasting U.S. foreign policy under Mr. Bush, Agence France-Presse reports.

He already has donated several million dollars to left-wing groups campaigning against Mr. Bush.

“I have made rejection of the Bush doctrine the central project of my life for the next year,” Mr. Soros said, adding that he liked the foreign-policy platforms of Democratic presidential candidates Sen. John Kerry and retired Gen. Wesley Clark, but he especially liked former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

Dean loses it

Dale Ungerer, a 66-year-old retiree from Hawkeye, Iowa, succeeded Sunday where eight Democratic presidential hopefuls have failed — he made front-runner Howard Dean show his much-discussed temper.

The former Vermont governor, campaigning in Olwein, Iowa, had just finished a standard stump speech blasting President Bush for, among other things, his Iraq policy and his stewardship of the economy. Mr. Dean asked, as is his custom, for “questions, comments or rude remarks in the New England tradition.”

Mr. Ungerer rose to his feet and condemned what he called the incivility of the campaign and the political press, Reuters news agency reports. He suggested that Mr. Dean and the other Democratic candidates stop “tearing down your neighbor” and cut their “slam, bam and bash Bush” rhetoric.

“Please tone down the garbage, the mean-mouthing of tearing down your neighbor and being so pompous,” Mr. Ungerer, a registered Republican who voted for Mr. Bush in 2000, said to scattered hisses and boos from the overwhelmingly pro-Dean audience at the Oelwein Community Center.

Mr. Dean began by calmly replying: “George Bush is not my neighbor.”

But when Mr. Ungerer stood and tried to interrupt, Mr. Dean shouted: “You sit down. You had your say. Now I’m going to have my say.”

The crowd cheered, and Mr. Ungerer sat.

“George Bush has done more to harm this county right here with unfunded mandates, standing up for corporations who take over the farmers’ land, making it impossible for middle-class people to make a real living, sending our kids to Iraq without telling us the truth first about why they went,” Mr. Dean said.

“It’s not the time to put up any of this ’love thy neighbor’ stuff. … I love my neighbor, but I’ll tell you I want that neighbor back in Crawford, Texas, where he belongs.”

527 feud

The Republican National Committee is asking Democrats not to put their money where their mouth is.

Republicans’ party chief, Ed Gillespie, has challenged Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe to co-sign an official comment to the Federal Election Commission protesting the proliferation of 527 organizations, the new vehicle of choice for soft-money donors to have a role in the political process.

The 527s have picked up the slack after Congress banned political parties from accepting soft money, and Democratic supporters have taken the lead in using the organizations to supplement political parties’ activities. One liberal organization, MoveOn.org, has pledged to raise and spend millions of dollars to defeat President Bush.

Mr. Gillespie reminded Mr. McAuliffe that the top Democrat has, in the past, supported banning all soft money.

“I hope you will direct the DNC’s counsel to file a similar comment with the FEC,” Mr. Gillespie said, and offered to let him piggyback on the RNC comment.

But Mr. McAuliffe wasn’t biting. He sent back a letter telling Mr. Gillespie to first demand that conservative “nonprofit political front groups” list their donors.

Kucinich’s goof

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, violated House ethics rules in his campaign for the presidential nomination, Roll Call reports.

The newspaper said Mr. Kucinich’s campaign failed to abide by House regulations forbidding a member’s campaign from immediately publicizing material released by his congressional office. The rules are designed to prevent a member of Congress from using government resources to help his political campaign.

More than three dozen press statements issued by Mr. Kucinich’s House office, the newspaper said, immediately were placed on his campaign Web site.

Doug Gordon, a spokesman for Mr. Kucinich’s House office, acknowledged the violation and said corrective action was being taken.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.