Reply #4: Here's what he said at the TAP breakfast.. [View All]

"Walter Shapiro: I’m shocked to have been part of a situation where two policy questions were asked back-to-back, and I’m about to try to eliminate this dangerous trend.

Dean: As you know Walter, I kind of like policy questions.

Shapiro: I know, I know. You mentioned a fellow by the name of Joe Lieberman as an outlier. To what extent is the Democratic National Committee doing things to make Lieberman abide by the results of the Connecticut primary, and to quash efforts, talk on his part to run as an independent?

Dean: We’re not doing … we don’t get involved in primary races, period. We just don’t.

Shapiro: But what about candidates who leave open the door if they lose the primary, they will leave the party?

Dean: We don’t get involved in that, either. That’s all matters for the … we’re going to support the Democrat, of course, who wins -- whoever wins is the Democratic nominee. But we don’t get involved in that, I haven’t made any phone calls about that, we don’t … the only role that we play in primaries is to try to keep the discussion civil, because we know there’s going to be a winner and we want the winner to win. But we have not, since I’ve been at the DNC, encouraged anybody, discouraged anybody -- we don’t push people out of races either. That’s something I feel strongly about. I think the Democratic Party has to work as a democracy, so we just don’t get involved at all, not at all."

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11436