Dean: 'I Need to Be Restrained'

Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean admitted on Monday that he sometimes gets so angry over political attacks on his character and record that he needs to be "restrained."

"If someone punches me I am apt to chase them down, and I need to be restrained by the people who know better and have been in the game longer than I have," Dean told MSNBC.

Calling himself a "street fighter," Dean said that some of the worst attacks have been prompted by reports that he avoided service in Vietnam by telling draft board doctors that he had a back injury – before heading off to Aspen to spend the next 10 months skiing.

In a comment that had to be particularly traumatizing, even his mother said of the episode, "Yeah, that looks bad."

Dr. Dean told MSNBC: "I think some of the personal attacks we can do without. You know, claiming I am a draft dodger and stuff like that. You know, it's pretty low and I don't think it is necessary in politics and it's inaccurate as well."

The leading Democrat said that he's found campaigning for president so bruising that he often wakes up at 4 a.m. and mulls over the day's events.

"I don't enjoy it, but that is what happens," he told MSNBC. "I have run eight statewide races and I know what’s coming and it is not pretty. The last few weeks and few days of a campaign are some of the most intense experiences a person can have short of being incarcerated in a prison camp someplace."

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2004 Elections