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Former DNC chairman Howard Dean was on NBC’s Meet The Press today talking about the compromise healthcare bill. Dean finally answered the Republicans who have been twisting his words on healthcare, specifically John McCain. He accused McCain of using his words for something that he has no intention of endorsing.

Here is the video:

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Earlier this week McCain said about Dean, “If you live long enough, all things can happen. I now find myself in complete agreement with Dr. Howard Dean, who says that we should stop this bill in its tracks. We should go back to the beginning and have an overall bipartisan agreement. Dr. Dean, I am with you.”

Dean replied, “I, I think, you know, the Republicans’ behavior has been reprehensible. They haven’t lifted a finger. All their, their–they, they have really put their party in front of their country here. You know, they could have made this bill a better bill, but they choose just to kill the bill because they thought they did do that for political reasons. First–and I don’t believe there’s a bipartisan compromise possible.”

He continued, “As David Axelrod said, the Republicans of today and the John McCain of today is not the same–not even the same as the Republican Party of eight years ago, and it certainly isn’t the same as the Republican Party my father was in until the day he died. So it–you know, I respect John McCain, but it’s, he wouldn’t be the first person who twisted my words around and used them for something I had no intention of endorsing, which is the Republicans’ behavior in this bill.”

The Republicans have been warping Dean’s criticisms of the healthcare bill for a week now. They have been trying to muddle the debate in a desperate last ditch attempt to stop the bill. I only wish that Dean would have came out sooner and knocked down these obvious distortions.

Dean is correct today’s GOP and John McCain are not the same as they were eight years ago. The Republican Party is now being driven by a far right ideology, and McCain the maverick has been replaced by McCain the pandering parrot. Republicans are unable to understand that criticism of the healthcare bill does not equal agreement with their position.