GAFFES

Dean 'Quietly Rooting' for Shutdown

Ex-DNC chair says GOP would take the blame.

It’s not exactly the Dean Scream, but it was probably a bad idea anyway. As Democrats and Republicans tussle over the budget and flirt dangerously with a government shutdown, ex-DNC chair and former presidential candidate Howard Dean said that if the budget impasse can’t be solved, it would help his party. “If I was head of DNC, I would be quietly rooting for [a shutdown],” he said at the National Journal Insider’s Conference Tuesday. “I know who’s going to get blamed – we’ve been down this road before.” Republicans are pouncing on his remark as proof that Democrats are cool with a shutdown, although Dean did qualify his remarks by saying that as a statesman, it would be bad for the country. Regardless, that “quietly” isn’t really working out for him anymore.