Howard Dean tells a fib while on Olbermann ... sorta

The Scream-man, Howard Dean, was on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" tonight critisizing Republican Congressman Eric Cantor's failure to denounce a C-Span caller's reference to one-party rule as fascism.

Dean said it was disrespectful to refer to the President as a fascist (though neither the caller nor Cantor ever did), stating that "even in the darkest days of the Bush-Cheney administration, I don't think there was any reason to call President Bush a fascist."

Really? According to a Byron York piece that I found, during his speech at the 2004 Democratic National convention, Dean had this to say regarding his mistakes during the campaign: "There were a few little slip-ups. You can't call the president a fascist. You're not supposed to do that this week, anyway." York writes: "The audience loved it, as they did when he [Dean] said the Bush administration is "an administration where they like book burning better than reading books."

Wow, book burning -- sounds pretty fascist to me. And "not this week, anyway" -- sounds like Dean was saying it's ok to call Bush a fascist any other week.

Which is it, Howard? You can't have it both ways.

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Comments

[Jeff McReynolds]

I remember the word "fascism" being used about the Bush administration from the very begining. In the 2000 election during the oft repeated selective Florida recounts, Gerrald Nadler from New York said there was "a whiff of fascism in the air".