WP: Dean Urges Appeal to Moral Values

I love this response from a blog:
UNREPENTANT
How I love that description.

It's not "apologetic".

It's not "cowed".

It's UNREPENTANT!!!

Dean Urges Appeal to Moral Values
DNC Chairman Calls for Democrats to Adopt GOP's Language to Woo Voters

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A05

Unrepentant after a week of controversy over his inflammatory remarks, Democratic chairman Howard Dean told party leaders yesterday that casting traditionally liberal issues in moral terms is a key to breaking Republicans' eight-year hold on the White House.

Dean acknowledged that he sees his party's national campaign apparatus as being "30 years behind" the one fielded in November by the Bush-Cheney campaign, and said the solution is for Democrats to be tough, describe themselves boldly and get organized in all 50 states....

***

The Democratic National Committee's lead pollster, Cornell Belcher, said that religious people who have been stymied economically represent a huge opportunity for the party, and that the challenge is to portray moral values as "not just gay marriage and abortion."...

***

Dean and the pollster provided the most specific blueprint yet for a party where a multitude of factions and potential candidates are competing to point the way back from Sen. John F. Kerry's (D-Mass.) loss to Bush, 19 states to 31 states. "We have not spoken about moral values in this party for a long time," Dean said. "The truth is, we're Democrats because of our moral values. It's a moral value to make sure that kids don't go to bed hungry at night. . . . It is a moral value not to go out on golf trips paid for by lobbyists."

Belcher, the pollster, said the emphasis that many voters placed on moral values in November is "not a call to move to the right." He said that a lot of what he called "faith voters" -- those for whom religion plays an equal or more important role in determining their vote than conventional issues such as education -- "are up for grabs." He said those voters can be reached by acknowledging their fears about raising their children....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...