Religions > Atheism > Query on Dukakis evokes DNC anger: Ex-nominee, Massachusetts governor, sidelined!!!!!!!!!!!
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yangs Wang At Jynndis Place" |
| Date: |
05 Aug 2004 06:31:04 AM |
| Object: |
Query on Dukakis evokes DNC anger: Ex-nominee, Massachusetts governor, sidelined!!!!!!!!!!! |
Query on Dukakis evokes DNC anger: Ex-nominee, Massachusetts governor,
sidelined!
BOSTON
A media question about the conspicuous absence at the Democratic
National Convention of 1988 presidential nominee and former
Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis for whom John Kerry served as
lieutenant governor drew an angry response from a senior campaign
adviser, reflecting the party's apparent sensitivity to the issue.
Talk-radio hosts were barred from having a daily question period at
the convention after this reporter asked what Kerry campaign officials
considered an impertinent question. "You just got us into trouble!"
exclaimed the Democratic National Committee's director of radio
communications Candy Stroud.
Stroud said she had just asked Peggy Wilhide, director of
communications for the convention, "about having a daily question
period for talk radio hosts and she said 'with guys like you no
questions!'"
The exchange which was never designated as off-the-record took place
at the Democratic Convention Talk Radio Welcome Breakfast on Sunday
morning, attended by 75 of the 150 talk radio hosts broadcasting from
the convention.
After Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe addressed
the talk-radio breakfast briefly, and left quickly without taking any
questions, Tad Devine, the Kerry campaign's senior adviser, spoke and
then recognized this reporter for the following question:
"What place on this convention's program of principal speakers is
being given to the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee and repeatedly
elected governor of Massachusetts for whom John Kerry was lieutenant
governor?"
Devine, with hesitation and absolutely no specifics replied:
"Governor Dukakis will be here and active. He is loyal to Kerry."
After a brief follow-up question, Devine thanked the reporters for
attending the breakfast and was gone.
One talk-show host who sat at this reporter's table is the former
attorney general of Rhode Island, a former nun and parochial school
teacher of Devine, Arlene Violet of WHJJ Providence.
Violet described the question about the treatment of Dukakis as the
"best question in the house I wish I had thought of it." Boston Herald
columnist and syndicated talk show host Howie Carr added: "That's a
completely legitimate question."
As the Washington Post noted in a feature Sunday, "For Kerry, an
association with Dukakis could be damaging politically."
Dukakis has been scheduled to speak at several small events, including
receptions for state delegations, but he will not be onstage during
the event's official program, despite the presence of failed party
nominees former Vice President Al Gore and former President Jimmy
Carter, who lost his bid for re-election.
The Post said Kerry, who served as Dukakis's lieutenant governor from
1982 to 1984, "is already battling the 'Massachusetts liberal' tag
Republicans hung on the former governor in 1988."
Dukakis was relegated to the Democratic sidelines after losing to
then-Vice President George H.W. Bush after leading in August by a
double-digit margin.
"He presents a challenge for the Kerry campaign: how to involve a man
that the candidate and many of his senior aides admire and once worked
under, without opening Kerry up to unflattering comparisons," the Post
said.
Rob Gray, who was a spokesman for Dukakis's gubernatorial successor,
Republican William F. Weld, told the Associated Press Dukakis's "race
was an embarrassment for the party."
"The first rule for the Democrats is to avoid a picture of John Kerry
and Mike Dukakis together at all costs," Gray said.
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Al Gore-role model for mental patients
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