‘Tis the Season

Howard Dean’s remark about wanting the votes of men in their pickups with Confederate decals has been condemned, explained, analyzed and apologized for until most people are sick of the subject. He can take comfort that had he been trailing the pack of Democratic presidential candidates instead of leading it, the comment would have gone unnoticed.

Dr. Dean’s statement happened to touch a sensitive nerve and provided cheap fodder for his political opponents, talk-show hosts and the press as a trivial and welcome side show from the serious business of electing a president.

Such distractions, blown up into major issues, have sometimes seriously threatened or even sunk political candidates. Think about Edmund Muskie’s remark about “Cannucks” and his apparent tearfulness when his wife came under attack. And George Romney’s truthful and sensible statement that he had been “brainwashed” to support the Vietnam War. And how about Al Gore’s words, distorted into an alleged boast that he had invented the Internet?

It is high time to forget such tripe and get back to real political issues like the troubling war in Iraq, the inability of the economy to create more jobs, the out-of-control budget deficit, the need for a universal health care system, the curtailment of civil liberties and the continuing threat of international terrorism.

The candidates should rise above these silly flaps. Bill Clinton, who seemed to create furor just by showing up, reacted as well as could be expected when his affair with Monica Lewinsky had been publicized and he addressed the spring dinner of the newspaper men and women’s Washington Gridiron Club. He gazed out silently for a moment at the white-tie audience and then said: “Well – how was your week?”