🚀 go-pugleaf

Dean deserves EVERY word of this...........


http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/index.asp?Dist=68&Lang=1&Body=PressReleases&RefID=2998

Tran Blast Dean, Calls For Solidarity In Iraq
�Dean�s comments are irresponsible and revisionist�

12/6/2005


WASHINGTON, D.C.� On Monday, Democratic National Committee Chairman
Howard Dean said during an interview with WOAI radio in San Antonio,
TX, �Of course, the South Vietnamese couldn�t manage to support their
own country.�

�Dean�s comments are irresponsible and revisionist,� said California
Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Costa Mesa), the first Vietnamese-American
legislator in America. �Instead of undermining our war effort, Dean
should focus on joining the rest of Americans in supporting our
troops.�

�South Vietnam only fell after Congress lost the will to support our
allies. Their terrible decision in 1975 has led to three decades of
tyranny in that country, where freedom is persecuted and political
choice doesn�t exist. This is something we can not let happen in Iraq.
To maintain security in the region and to continue an aggressive
prosecution of the War on Terror, American must continue to support
the new government in Iraq and help them establish stability there.�

�I am particularly offended by Dean�s attempt to pull the Vietnamese
people into his political strategy. Like the oppressed people from
Cuba, the Vietnamese people have a strong love of freedom and
democracy. Millions have died and more have been imprisoned trying to
secure those freedoms.�

�After the January elections in Iraq I wrote:
�I still mourn the dreadful situation in Vietnam, where human rights
are crushed and freedom is a distant dream. Our loss there helps
Sunday�s achievement to shine even brighter as a symbol of hope to the
world.�

�Sunday�s vote was a great step toward the promise of democracy, but
only one step up the long stairway of a truly democratic society.
Remember it took Japan and Germany about ten years to govern
independently after their surrender in 1945 (it was four years before
the first election in Germany). The progress in Iraq has been heart
warming and should help us to reaffirm our values as this troubled
nation continues the path to democracy.��
�The terrorists are trying to win this war by challenging America�s
spirit and returning us to a status where we just react to future
attacks. They have succeeded in bringing the unwitting Dean to their
efforts, but we can not just bury our head and wait.�



Biography 
 
Van Tran was elected to the California State Assembly in November
2004. He represents the 68th Assembly District in Orange County,
including the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden
Grove, Newport Beach, Stanton, and Westminster.

Assemblyman Tran serves on the Business and Professions, Banking and
Finance, and Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committees.
Additionally, he is a member of the Select Committee on Critical
Issues and Asian Pacific Islander Joint Caucus.

Since his election to the Assembly, Van has made quick work to advance
common-sense solutions to some of the biggest problems facing
California. His efforts include Assembly Bill 199, an act to expand
the number of Enterprise Zones in California and help create new jobs,
and Assembly Bill 38, cutting the excessive salary for members of
part-time boards and commissions, saving California over $5 million
per year. Van�s agenda includes balancing the budget deficit through
spending restraint, eliminating waste in the bureaucracy, and
improving our infrastructure, particularly roads and highways.

Van�s family first came to America in 1975, evacuated by the U.S. Army
a week before the fall of Saigon. Originally settling in Michigan, the
family moved to Orange County while Van was in high school.
Politically active during his university days, Assemblyman Tran
started as an intern for Congressman Robert Dornan and for then State
Senator (now Congressman) Ed Royce.

Leading up to his historic election as the first Vietnamese American
in a state legislature, Van was the focus of broad media and public
coverage. He was featured in the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar
alongside Colin Powell and Abraham Lincoln. Van�s biographical profile
has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register,
Sacramento Union, Grand Rapids Press (MI), and by the Associated
Press.

Prior to serving in the Assembly, Van was managing partner of his own
law practice, served on the Garden Grove Planning Commission, and
served as Vice-Mayor of Garden Grove, having garnered the highest
number of votes in the city�s council election. His community
involvement has been extensive, including as Vice Chairman of the
Orange County based �El Capitan� District of the Boy Scouts of
America. He is also a lifetime member of the prestigious American
Council of Young Political Leaders, and a 2002 Delegate to the Young
Leaders Conference, organized by the American-Swiss Foundation in
Zurich, Switzerland. In 2004, OC Metro Magazine recognized Van as one
of the �Hottest 25 People in Orange County�. The Orange County
Register recognized him in 2001 as a �person to watch�.

Van completed his Bachelors Degree in Political Science at the
University of California, Irvine, and went on to earn both a Master�s
Degree in Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline
University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2004, he married
Cindy Nguyen of Elk Grove.