It’s 1984. Dr. Howard Dean has an internal medicine practice in Vermont, and fifth-graders everywhere love ninjas. Meanwhile, “Ninja III: The Domination” is in theaters. In one scene, a hooded warrior is wreaking his trademark havoc on a golf course, plying the ancient mystical art of making patrol cars fly into lakes in slow motion.
And that’s when, in a gruff tone some might associate with a guy taking the Democratic Leadership Council to task, a cop in a descending helicopter barks into his walkie-talkie. He warns all units to be on the alert. Too late: The ninja jumps onboard from a palm tree and hurls stunt doubles out the hatch.
Recently, reports that that the cop was portrayed by Howard Dean, Democratic forerunner, bubbled up onto the liberal blogs Daily Kos, Eschaton and Pandagon, where Dems were urged to run out to the video store. Murmurs had persisted since late 2003, when someone noticed that the Internet Movie Database listing for “Howard Dean,” which mentions the former Vermont governor’s turn on last fall’s “K Street,” also credits “Howard Dean” with playing a policeman on “Ninja III.”
So Dean fans sought copies of the silver-boxed ninja epic shot in Arizona (originally released by legendary ’80 schlock outfit Cannon Films). Arizona State University student Tony Cani threw a “Ninja III” party to see if the cop was Dean. “Roughly 8 minutes into the movie a police officer in a helicopter LOOKS AND SOUNDS LIKE HOWARD DEAN,” he posted on the blog Fear Itself. The use later of a much more dashing stunt double left him undeterred: “For now though — the 15 of us in the room are willing to say tentatively… IT IS HOWARD DEAN.”
