Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Rove-Dean health care debate punctuated by name calling

Karl Rove and Howard Dean brought the national health care debate to Penn State on Tuesday night.

There was little agreement, but a good bit of name calling, during the event, which ranged in tone from heated to humorous.

"That's a made up statistic, Karl Rove. . . . For the first time tonight, I'm calling you on it," said Dean, a physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. "You made that up."

Rove had said that Medicare rejects claims twice as often as the overall health insurance industry, and he promised to put the proof in his Wall Street Journal column next week. "And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my integrity. . . . Mr. Dean, you just called me a liar and I don't appreciate it," replied Rove, the former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor.

Later, Rove called Dean "adolescent" after the Democrat interrupted one of his answers.

The exchange was part of a debate in front of more than 2,000 people at the Eisenhower Auditorium. The two participated in a similar event at DePauw University in September.

Tuesday night's event was part of the Student Programming Association's distinguished speaker series. All but one question dealt directly with health care, currently being debated in Congress.

Read more at CentreDaily.com