And So it Begins...

It has taken a little while, but it would appear that we are moving into more intense in-fighting amongst the Nine (soon to be Ten?): Gephardt Shifts Attacks to Dean

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) launched a sharp attack against former Vermont governor Howard Dean here today, charging that his rival sided with former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in Republican efforts to scale back and rewrite the Medicare program in the mid-1990s.

And, really, Gephardt seems to be on thin ice here, as the following is hardly radical (although I will grant, it won't play well with some of the Dem base):

Gephardt based his attacks on a series of articles describing Dean's position in the early and mid-1990s. One article said of Dean that he "supported more managed care for Medicare recipients and requiring Medicare recipients to pay a greater share of the cost of their medical services."

In a statement issued by his campaign, Dean accused Gephardt of engaging in the "politics of the past" and that he was "deeply saddened" by the attack from someone he considered a friend.

And, to be fair to Dean, his current proposal for shifting the Bush tax cuts into health care seems to trump any past proposals he may have made.

And, as I pointed out a while back, Dean had some rather negative things to say about Gingrich and welfare reform in general.