... that the Bush administration has broken all branches of the government; that if ever competent people regain control they will discover that whole departments of the government have been stripped, looted, the most competent workers forced to leave, run by political cronies whose only interest is in looting the Treasury.

Thanks for an excellent article that unfortunately seems to corroborate my fears.

Bravo Mr Dean!

I can only hope that some of what you say sinks into more and more American heads.

And I want to thank you for leading me to Bob Altemeyer's book (free on the Web), "The Authoritarians". In case anyone is wondering where Mr Dean is getting his language from (right-wing authoritarian, conservative authoritarian), it is from this book, a wonderfully insightful analysis (30 years of research!) into this personality type. It was quite a revelation to find that the RWA's mind doesn't work the same way as other personality types - it is more compartmentalized, weaker at logic, prone to double standards and hypocrisy, more prejudiced, much more submissive to authority, much more willing to aggress in the name of those authorities and very conformist and conventional. These are the people that have taken over the Republican Party and jeopardized American values and freedoms.

Keep on writing Mr Dean.

In surveying all of the Republican contenders for the GOP nomination, I have found that to the man, they all are far more authoritarian than even the most authoritarian of the Democrats.

I really enjoyed the article and the sentiment expressed. As a libertarian (lowercase intentional) who voted for Bush both times, I feel essentially the same. I did take exception to the quote above, however. Has the author seriously examined all the candidates, or by 'all the Republican contenders' did he simply refer to the top tier? One in particular, Congressman Ron Paul of the 14th District of Texas serving his 10th term, doesn't fit the mold. Dr. Paul has fiercely opposed any form of arbitrary government power over the citizenry, and most certainly does not mirror any aspect of the corruption and confrontational arrogance ascribed to Republicans so correctly by Mr. Dean. I would encourage him to look closer at the obstetrician from Texas, and at his ability to win independent and even Democrat voters, due to his platform of sound money, diplomatic and trade-based non-interventionist foreign policy, and rejection of the growth in both the size and the abuses of government.

If your friend truly believed his words he would not hesitate to expose himself and his son to retribution. If he really thinks the government could crumble if Republicans are allowed another four to eight years he should say so on the record. To not do so is an act of cowardice.

But he knows about whom he is talking and it's not HIS position at stake, it's his son's. If you had a son, and you knew that someone would ruin his life and career if you spoke your mind, you'd be circumspect too. It's very easy to be brave with someone else's life. Would you put your child's life, career and possibly freedom on the line?

Remember Valerie Plame?

The official in Minnesota (or was it Michigan) who went to jail because she wouldn't implicate a Democrat whom she felt had done nothing wrong?

That Democrat governor of Alabama?

You can't sit there and seriously tell me that this administration would never retaliate. It's just not supportable.

This is exactly what these Republicans set out to do. Break the government so badly that no one will trust it to do anything. All to lower taxes. And Americans followed willfully, grabbing blindly at their $300 check. We will get fooled again.

"People should not vote for any Republican, because they're dangerous, dishonest and self-serving"... Huh?

As far as I'm concerned, you can say the same damned thing about the Democrats, who cravenly capitulated to virtually everything the Bushies have done.

The problem runs far deeper than the two political parties. It's Capitalism and everything that goes with it. Just take a look at the personal incomes of our Senators and the rest of the Congressional membership.

Lincoln was wrong. He should have said: "of the rich, by the rich, for the rich"... And the rest of us suckers can easily be bought off with subprime mortgages and SUVs.

Sure sure everyone's disappointed. Yup. But everyone I know who voted for Bush would vote GOP no matter what that person said or claimed authority from no matter what, 100% of the time, regardless. Where were all these 'patriots' 2 years ago or 4 or 7? You mean to tell me only retards bought cases of ribbon magnets? I don't think so. So it's a moot point. The electorate is the real failure here. You morons who would vote in another Bush. And please, don't tell me it's 27%. It's half you know it is - the next election will of course end in a tie, a dead heat.

I would wear my "Are you gonna vote this time, hippy?" t-shirt but it's not funny any more.

That's what my very conservative grandmother said about John Dean in 1973, when he testified in the Watergate hearings.

Nothing he's done since has changed that; but the actions of the RWA wingnuts has made it more true by the day.

When the history of this maldministration is written, the list of republicans who put nation ahead of party will have but a single name.

Not Chuck Hagel, not Arlen Specter, not Colin Powell, not any of the other too-fucking-little-too-fucking-late critics.

Just "John Dean"

Dean is right about the authoritarian bent of the current Republican administration, which has finished the job of constructing the imperial presidency that Dean's old boss, Nixon, started. However, Bush has had plenty of help from cowardly Democrats who have voted with Republicans time and again to give him powers he never should have had--the recent FISA vote being only the latest example--and a lapdog corporate press which has abdicated its responsibility to look beyond the public relations spin of the administration and critically report on its activities. Without the active cooperation of these two organizations, Bush would have been corralled a long time ago, and he and Cheney would be facing the impeachment they so richly deserve.

If it were just a matter of cleaning the Republican rats out of office, then I would not be so despairing of the future of this country. But until we the people stop allowing big corporations to buy our political leaders, until we insist that the Democrats stop capitulating to the demands of an unpopular, deadly incompetent president for fear of being seen as "soft on terrorism," and until we demand that the mainstream media start doing its job of critical investigative reporting, we're going to get more of the same fascism lite.