The Hindu : Dean wins first primary, in Washington

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

International

International

Dean wins first primary, in Washington

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 14. Howard Dean, frontrunner among the Democratic candidates seeking party nomination for this November 2 presidential election, has won the first vote of the 2004 season taking the non-binding primary in Washington D.C. on Tuesday getting 43 per cent of the vote.

Behind the former Governor of Vermont in this largely voting rights rally — where about 10 per cent of the registered voters participated — were the Reverend Al Sharpton, the former Senator, Carol Losley Braun, and the Ohio Congressman, Dennis Kuchinich.

The other candidates were not in the ballot. The contest brings about no delegates.

The Mayor of the city, Antony Williams, had not endorsed any candidate but made the point that the turnout meant that people were serious about voting rights in Congress which is not allowed under the present scheme of things. The city insisted on going first with a view to highlighting the lack of voting rights and Democratic Party leaders had their way in insisting that the primary be a non-binding one.

Meanwhile, at the campaign trail in New Hampshire, the retired General Wesley Clark has called for a full scale Congressional investigation into why the U.S. went to war in Iraq.

"We do not know what the motivation was. We just do not know. We have spent $180 billions on it; we have lost 480 Americans; we have got 2500 with life changing injuries", Gen. Clark said.

The decorated soldier who is not participating in the first caucuses in Iowa next Monday but channelling his energies and resources for the January 27 one in New Hampshire has also questioned the timing of the investigation of the former Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill.

The former Cabinet official has been critical of the President, George Bush's substance and style of functioning and has argued that Mr. Bush had planned to go after Saddam Hussein from the time he got to the White House in January 2001. The Treasury Department announced on Monday that it was getting ready with an Inspector-General's investigation of how an agency document stamped `Secret' showed up on the CBS' Sixty Minutes Programme. Gen. Clark contrasted this with the slow manner in which an enquiry evolved when the name of a CIA operative whose husband had been critical of the involvement in Iraq was divulged.

"They did not wait 24 hours in initiating an investigation on Paul O'Neill. They are not concerned about national security.

But they are really concerned about political security. I think they have got their priorities upside down."

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