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SPECIAL REPORT

Half-Baked Howard?

By Fox News
Published | Updated

And now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine:

Half-Baked Howard?

The head of the nation's largest union of public employees, which had backed former presidential candidate Howard Dean, says of Dean -- "I think he's nuts."

AFSCME president Gerald McEntee told the New York Times that he warned the Vermont Governor -- "don't do Wisconsin, O.K.? Don't go in... you can't win."

When Dean pledged to fight on, McEntee told him -- "if you think I'm going to spend $1 million to get you another point after this election is over, you're crazy."

McEntee says the union doesn't plan to endorse anyone else at this point. "I think we need a rest," he said. "Maybe in an asylum."

Poll Results

A new Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll reveals why voters like the candidates they do. It shows that 27 percent of those who support Democratic frontrunner John Kerry back him because he's not President Bush.

Twenty percent admire his position on campaign issues, and 11 percent support him for what they perceive as his ability to beat the president.

Only 3 percent are swayed by Kerry's Vietnam experience. Meanwhile, 30 percent of President Bush's supporters favor him because they believe he's doing a good job, 23 percent admire his character and his values, and 15 percent support his stands on the issues.

Christian Concerns

The heads of several conservative Christian groups are getting impatient with President Bush, the Washington Times reports. Religious conservatives are specifically outraged over the president's failure to condemn gay marriage in San Francisco.

Concerned Women for America president Sandy Rios says -- "they can't possibly guarantee a large turnout of evangelical Christian voters if he does not do what is morally right and take leadership on this issue."

Too Long, John?

During a campaign stop in Ohio, John Kerry gave a lengthy answer to a question on unemployment, citing statistics and highlighting differences between his plan to create jobs and the president's.

The Boston Globe reports that Kerry's answer proved unsatisfactory to a CBS News producer, who asked the senator to try again. Kerry responded with -- "They don't know what they're talking about in their own economic policy. Today it's one thing, tomorrow it's the next."

The revised quote, but not the first, appeared in a CBS News Online report that day.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report