Gibbs whacks Dean

Robert Gibbs, in today's briefing, slammed Howard Dean for leading the charge to kill health care legislation:

"If this is an insurance company's dream, I think the insurance companies have yet to get the memo," he said. "They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying against this legislation ... If this is such a good deal for them, I’m not entirely sure why they're fighting."

"I don't know what piece of legislation he's reading," Gibbs continued. "I think if you talk to members of the Senate, they'd represent a similar viewpoint in the political spectrum that Howard Dean does. They seem to disagree as much with Howard Dean as I think we would."

One of Obama's political advantages is his total independence from much of the Democratic party. He ran won the nomination largely without the support of labor, and without institutional endorsements. He inherited parts of Dean's movement without Dean's personal support. He ran his primary campaign without the support of many of the progressive bloggers now attacking health care legislation. And now he's demonstrating, among other things, that he feels he doesn't owe them anything.

Source:politico.com/