The Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti has written a blistering attack of Howard Dean’s recent fundraising letter. It’s a fisking worthy of the Fisking Hall of Fame, if such an institution existed. Here’s an amusing portion of the fundraising letter:

John McCain is a media darling, but don’t trust his carefully-crafted image; he’s worked for years to brand himself. From Iraq to health care, Social Security to special interest tax cuts to ethics, he’s promising nothing more than a third Bush term.

I can’t believe that this passes the laugh test with anyone but the craziest of lefties. John McCain twice voted against the Bush tax cuts, which makes Dean’s assertion that McCain’s for “special interest tax cuts” utterly absurd. During his speech to CPAC today, Sen. McCain promised that he’d veto bills with earmarks in them. That’s a major distinction between Sen. McCain and President Bush.

Here’s Dean’s next absurd assault against McCain:

After championing campaign finance reform and ethics legislation to score political points, he now has a staggering amount of lobbyists involved in every aspect of his campaign. In fact, two of the top three sources for John McCain’s campaign cash are D.C. lobbying firms, and he looked the other way as Jack Abramoff bought and paid for the Republican Party and the Culture of Corruption.

Democrats have been exposed as corruptionmongers, using earmarks as a fundraising tool. John Murtha has perfected it to the level of a science. The absurdity of Gov. Dean’s statements gets more obvious with each sentence.

Here’s Mr. Continetti’s response:

I wrote an entire book in which McCain was one of the few Republican heroes in the Abramoff affair. Besides which, whether you agree with the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, and I don’t, you can’t really argue that McCain is trying to make lobbyists’ lives easier. Quite the contrary.

Dean’s claims are without merit. They can’t be substantiated. I don’t agree with McCain’s way of fixing Washington’s corruption but I’m not foolish enough to say that Sen. McCain wants to make Washington lobbyists’ lives easier.

As if those claims weren’t absurd enough, this one tops the charts by a country mile:

On immigration reform, he’s run as far to the right as he can, aligning himself with the most extreme elements of the Republican Party.

Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter had the most ‘radical’ positions on immigration of this year’s GOP presidential candidates. As I said here, the vast majority of people agree with their once-radical positions on immigration:

People have criticized Tom Tancredo’s immigration beliefs. Fortunately for people who believe in the rule of law and in the principle of sovereignty, Rep. Tancredo didn’t moisten his finger to see which direction to take. He kept forcing his beliefs into the political mainstream.

It’s a fitting tribute to Rep. Tancredo that people are agreeing with him. People are looking for principled politicians.

On immigration, John McCain needs to come right a considerable distance before anyone confuses him with Tom Tancredo.

Ordinarily, I’d say that someone should slap Gov. Dean silly for making such statements but it’s obvious that someone’s already done that.

Technorati: Howard Dean, Fundraising, Culture Of Corruption, DNC, Special Interests, Immigration, Taxes, Tom Tancredo, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative