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Hillaryland attacks
Well, that didn't take long: The Plank, the blog of the right-leaning DLC organ The New Republic, has an item titled "Putsch at the DNC".
Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.
The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.
Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."
Notably, Dean is closely identified with the netroots and the fifty-state strategy; both are intent on devolving power away from the Beltway aristocracy, of which Carville is a starring member, besides being a loyal retainer to the Clintons. It's also worth pondering that present conventional wisdom has it that the main obstacle to a Hillary candidacy will be, you guessed it, the netroots and those newly energized state parties.
Carville has been a useful surrogate for the Clintons before, as when he wrote an article for WaPo laying out a rather threadbare case for her electability. It seems reasonable to see the same dynamic at work in this case.
What's truly disgusting about this is this: we lost the Congress in 1994, when you-know-who was President. For the rest of his tenure, no serious effort was made to reverse that defeat; this in part because the Democratic Party was fully focused on saving Bill Clinton's posterior from the republican jihad. In part as a result, the party out there in the country withered, a process that has not been undone until just now. Not to be unkind - or hell, why not - but James Carville's fingerprints were all over that withering.
I'm going to hazard a guess that the rank and file aren't going to be too friendly to this newest Beltway power grab. We've seen what it's like when D.C. runs things, and we don't like it, Mr. Carville. Back off.
This is the left vs. the DLC
This is the left wing vs. the DLC centerists. Howard Dean was never their candidate to be chairman, they see him as pushing the party to the left. Bill and Hillary Clinton no doubt opposed Dean's election and wanted their own man in, and still do.
Of course Dean may welcome a push out-- because the Democrats regained the house and senate under his watch. There's nowhere else to go in that job now but down. So if they push him out now, he'd be under no further obligations to sit on the sidelines. Dean would probably end up running for President again, which he wants to do eventually anyway.
I totally....
dislike James Carville. And this puts some things into perspective. On Monday night Dean was on CNN and responded to a question regarding voter fraud. Being himself (God Bless Him) he responded in his usual manner addressing the issue right on. James Carville just could smirk and made a stupid-ass (really, and I usually refrain from using such language) comment that did not support Dean's statement. Well, now a light bulb went off. I knew about the "established" democrats' dislike for Dean, but I didn't think it was going to go this far. Yeah, I know pretty naive.
They (Carville and friends) should roll out the red carpet for Dean because with his vision and his 50 state strategy they won. Simple as that!
Now, I really hope that Howard Dean will stick to his guns, and NOT let them push him out. And...
I have news for you Mr. Carville, every single Dean supporter (and there are many) will come out in support of this man. Who are you but a belligerent wanna-be, who pretends to know about politics and what the people want, and then go home and cozy up to your right-winger wife? (I know he will never read this but what the hell, it makes me feel somewhat better).
Man, I am really ticked off right now. What is wrong with these people? Instead of focusing on the issues at hand, they concern themselves with BS! And so the internal fight begins.
And I really have to say this right now: I supported Dean all the way, I was crushed when all came to an end, yet I did support Kerry because I thought this is what I was supposed to do. And then he kicked us in the butt (at least this is how I felt), and now these backstabbing tirades? And just when I thought they were going to turn the corner (slowly) getting back on the right track, just when I thought “well may be there is a chance they’ll prove me wrong†and restoring my believe in them again, just when I thought that there was a glimmer of hope, they start attacking a man whose intentions are to better the lives of every single American? WTF is wrong with them?
I think I going to pull my blanket over my head, and start hibernating for the next two years, because I really don't want go thru this upheaval, it just drains one's soul and spirit. I really don’t get it anymore!
P.S. Sorry about some of the crude words but I am livid.
Typical
I am convinced that there are some Democrats who are afraid of winning. I mean it seems to terrify them.
So, let me get this straight. Between 1994 and 2004 the Democrats lost pretty consistently with the exception of Clinton's winning the presidency. Howard Dean took over the DNC after the 2004 election. He has raised TONS of money and energized the grassroots. Then Democrats did unexpectedly well in both 2005 and 2006. Harold Ford is one of the few Democrats who lost this year (though I give him full credit for doing a good job). So, Carvelle wants to replace the guy who has been winning elections with one of the few guys who lost this year?
I'm sorry, that does NOT make the slightest bit of sense.
President Clinton was able to succeed where most Demcorats could not these days: winning 2 Presidential elections. I have always said we need to learn from what Clinton did rather than denegrate him. Similarly, Howard Dean turned around the DNC. The DNC failed repeatedly since 1994. Now it is successful. Let's learn from what Howard Dean is doing rather than denegrating him.
There's more to this story....
There's more to this story. Just read that the GOP is offering its RNC chairmanship to Michael Steele, the african american lt. governor of Maryland who just lost his senate bid. So now Carville is pushing for Harold Ford, another african american, to get Dean's job. Carville is playing tokenism. He seems to be essentially saying, "if they have a black heading their party, we need a black heading ours...otherwise we'll lose black votes"
The thing is we as democrats don't need to play these "token" games, we have the stands on the issues to guarantee minority support. They do not. But I guess Carville doesn't see that.
Dean vs. Clinton in '08?
I really can see this ending up with James Carville and Rahm Emanuel, with the Clintons backing, forcing Howard Dean out as DNC chair, in favor of Harold Ford. Dean then strongly claims that the dlc centerists are trying to steal the party from the progressives, and he triumphantly says the fight is on and goes back to Vermont and immediately announces that he's running for President again because there is a fight going on for the soul of the party.
Howard Dean then says he is running representing the democratic wing of the democratic party against hillary, carville, emanuel, .etc who represent the republican wing of the democratic party. The fight would be on. Dean '08-- the Doctor is Back In Again. It all makes sense.
DNC Chair
In truth the people who really choose DNC chair are state party level. Since Dean is sending them lots of money for their state level party infrastructure, they like him. That means it would be hard to oust him. The power play is at the state party level, not at the level of Congress.
I predict, though I am not sure, that this will blow over. I see more fights among factions within Congress. Can we keep up a united front? Probably not. THere are going to be contentious battles over Congressional leadership roles and that will fragment the party.
But, Pelosi and Reid are already coming out with some substative ideas for where to begin and they are things the Republicans will either have to support or they will be embarassed. So...both hopeful and concerned.
Dean isn't going anywhere
This because the votes for chair are cast by the state parties, who like that they're being strengthened.
Nor, for that matter, is he running for President; that's perhaps a fond hope of the party's base, but is just not going to happen.