Robert Tagordo has relented somewhat in his quest to smear Howard Dean with the stain of Halliburton. Tagordo titles his post Making Peace with Howard Dean. He concedes at least one of the points I made earlier, that such a piddling sum isn’t enough to sway Dean’s position. But the concessions seem to stop there.
Instead Tagorda tries to offer lame excuses for this perceived lack of comment by Dean, ignoring the comment I posted yesterday. Interestingly, I got an email from Tagorda earlier today containing essentially this post straight from his blog. Therefore, he knew at least of the existence of my earlier post, if not the content of it. I’m sure Tagorda received a lot of reactions to his comments and certainly didn’t have time to examine all of them, so I don’t fault him for missing what I wrote. I do fault him for missing what Dean wrote. (And now it seems he has updated his post to include Dean’s comment from yesterday, although he misses a similar
And Tagorda doesn’t stop his criticism with these sly implications of silence. He scarequotes his way into open criticism of Dean, saying:
Therefore, as I make my concessions, I trust that he will meet me halfway by taking his own advice and announcing Crandall’s contributions. In the interest of openness, his campaign, I’m sure, will declare that a Halliburton board member has ties, however minimal. Dean won’t need to return the money, since he contends that “[m]ost of these corporations will give $1,000 to the Democrats and $ 50,000 to the Republicans, so there’s not much comparison.” But I expect him to “go the extra mile” and make absolutely certain that there’s no “appearance” of anything sketchy.
Tagorda commands Dean to be open and transparent in his dealings with donors. So we must ask, if Dean is being secretive about this, then how did Tagorda even get to this point in the first place? Dean reports his donations and information about donors as he is required to by campaign law. He isn’t hiding anything.
Yet, Tagorda gives Dean just two options, keep the money and be a hypocrite or return the money so as to avoid having “ties” to a Halliburton board member. I would suggest another option, ignore the likes of Robert Tagorda and take donations from people who are willing to donate, even if their political views are antithetical to those of the Dean campaign. If some neo-nazi gives money to Dean, fine, great, dandy. The money won’t be going to support neo-nazi causes, the money will go to help Dean win the nomination and then the Presidency. Crandall contributed knowing full well that his act conferred upon him no benefit aside from a thank you letter and a better chance at seeing a Dean in the White House. I would hope Tagorda recognizes this fact.
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I never said that Dean is being secretive. Nor do I believe that he has any dirt on his hands in this instance. I have no problems whatsoever with his acceptance of Robert Crandall’s donation. He should keep it. He should do good things with it.
However, the good doctor has argued that the President ought to “go the extra mile” to be open and transparent, especially with much maligned companies such as Halliburton. Dean’s FEC filings follow the law — fine. But his own public statements raise the standard for Halliburton, and if he wants to reach it — if he wants to take his own advice — then he must consider making clear that one of his contributors serves on the Halliburton Board. I don’t have any reason to believe that there’s anything sketchy about the contribution. But if he wants to be perceived as frank and as a true outsider, then he has to go beyond standard disclosures.
After all, he seems to have no reason to be afraid. It should therefore be rather easy for him to make the following simple statement: “I have been critical of the Bush administration for its atmosphere of secrecy, especially with regards to its coziness with Halliburton. I believe that there is good reason to be concerned about this issue. I will not conduct my administration in such a manner. Instead, I will be open and transparent. I will go the extra mile to maintain the public’s trust. Therefore, I want everybody to understand that one of my contributors is a current member of the Halliburton Board of Directors. Unlike President Bush, who behaves in secret, I behave out in the open for everybody to see. I, after all, reject the notion that the Democratic Party should be ‘Bush Lite.’ We have higher standards that reflect the values of hard-working Americans. We will live up to these standards. That’s why I am the candidate whom you should be supporting.”
Simple, don’t you think?