This may not have any truth to it whatsoever, since it’s the usual anonymous “big name Democrats” cited (save *sswipe Carville), but if you thought Howard Dean’s leadership wasn’t what you wanted, take a look at this flippin’ trial balloon up at The New Republic. (TNR’s The Plank):
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.Jeebus H. Christ. The man who carries business cards with the Ten Commandments on them? The homophobe who bleated his head off about the evils of the NJ marriage ruling? No f*cking way. And that goes for any other anti-gay “centrists” they want to put on a short list.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.”
Yes, that rumor sounds like that pathetic, yet highly desired (anti-gay) move to the center-right of the “big name Democrats” in the party that I discussed in my post yesterday, “Folks, where do we go from here?”
38 Responses to “Trial balloon: Dean replacement at DNC?”
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Let’s see: thanks to a 50-state strategy we picked up seats where the DCCC and DSCC thought democrats had no chance at all, so the guy we should put in charge is (not entirely his fault) the one highly visible guy who lost.
As some people over at Kos have noted, the majority of folks who get to vote on the DNC chair are state party leaders. Think they’re going to back a DC insider over someone who’s spent money on helping them rebuild their infrastructure? Hardly. Dean’s safe in his job.
The mood at Daily Kos, for one, is Most Displeased at the thought of replacing Dean. I surmise that if the corporate fellators had their way and organized a putsch ousting Dean, there would be a netroots riot.
I tend to agree. I credit Dean and his fifty-state strategy with a good deal of the Democrat wins. Candidates like McNerney (WHOOPEE! No more Pombo! YEEHAW!) and Tester to name two, were netroots-backed dark-horse candidates that the corporate minions of the Dem party would not touch with a bargepole - and here they are, Representative McNerney and Senator Tester!
I have much more faith in Dean and the netroots than the corporate minions and fellators right now. As for Carville - bitch, please! Where were you during this election? You contributed NOTHING so please to crawl back under your rock. Kthxbi!
Yeah, make the DNC’s kingmaker the spouse of a candidate for the RNC chairship. That’s always smart.
That’s crazy talk. After a stunning victory, you don’t throw out the guy who decided to go for it. How in the flying spaghetti monster’s name did going after seats in all 50 states NOT turn out to be a winner?
I suppose the logic is, that by taking a shot at lost-cause seats in places like Alabama and Oklahoma and Wyoming, the Democrats missed a few tricks in the northeast and midwest — Jim Gerlach in Pennsylvania, for example, or Christopher Shays in Connecticut.
The “logic,” though, is pure Tuesday-morning quarterbacking. If you’d asked the insiders what states to give a miss, strategically, Indiana would certainly have been near the top of the list, but Dean put some resources into the Hoosier state and it gave the Democrats win after win after win on election night. Even some of those “lost cause” seats are lost causes no more; the Democrats may not have unseated Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado or Barbara Cubin in Wyoming, but they’ve put the Republicans on notice that those seats are no longer safe, and even if the Democrats didn’t pick those seats up in 2006 they might in 2008 or 2010 — because the demographics there are increasingly unfriendly to Republicans.
Essentially, the best spin I can put on replacing Dean is that the insiders who are floating the idea (a) have unrealistically high hopes, and (b) aren’t thinking long-term. “The 50 state strategy didn’t give us a veto-proof majority the first time out? Time to try something else!” What they’re not doing is what the conservative movement did so successfully in the 60s, 70s, and 80s — showing some patience and making decisions that pay off down the road.
Here’s a fun question: How insanely bigoted and evil can the Democratic party get before disillusioned 3rd-party voters stop having to take shit for not handing their vote to the Dems, who will have done nothing to deserve it?
Is Harold Ford as DNC chairman far enough, or do we have to go full-on Rick Santorum DNC chairman for that?
Perhap if Dean had used his time machine to learn exactly which races were lost by a small margin he could have taken money away from the 50-state strategy to put more money into those races, which we then would have won. Then a singularity would destroy the universe, but it would be a universe with a half dozen more democrats waiting to be seated in the House.
To borrow from Kyso K and Punkass Marc, “No, you can’t have a pony.” At this point in time, we have so much accumulated horseshit to shovel out that we realistically can’t expect that pony, not even a My Little Pony. We have to remember that politics is the art of the possible, and to think longterm. The netroots and fifty-state strategy are excellent examples of realpolitik and long-term planning in action.
I suspect, however, that Carville and others in the corporate wing of the Democratic party are merely pissed off that they are not the life and soul of the Dems anymore. They’ve been marginalized, and they are cheesed off no end. Ha ha ha to them. They were so ineffective in losing us 2000 and 2004 and sticking us with a far greater mess to clean up after eight years of Chimp-in-Chief that I just wish they would STFU and go far, far away. (Now who’s the one wanting a pony? Heh heh.)
I think the reason Harold Ford is being floated for DNC chair is because Michael Steele is being floated for RNC chair. The Repubs are all busy talking about how many votes they could pick up with a black chairman and how bad it would look for the Democrats to have Ford facing off against white Harold Dean on TV. Ergo, lose Dean and get a black chair for the DNC. It’s fucking stupid but I actually think this might be the level of reasoning.
I meant Howard Dean of course. Harold, Howard, whatever.
Carville’s just not used to Dems winning and doesn’t know how to handle it, so he wants to go back to the good old days of losing all the time.
I can’t believe that they are discussing changing Chairman when they still haven’t found a Presidential candidate with any serious charisma. (Obama is a long shot for 2008, 2012/16 is a better bet.)
Actually, they should replace Dean with Ford.
Then Dean can run in ‘08.
“Yeah, replace Doctor Dean with a bigoted black guy from the mid-south who lost his Senate race. That’ll show the Republicans that we’re serious about resisting them in their ongoing destruction of our democracy! Right honey?”
Carville is a genius, as long as you understand that getting laid on a regular basis is his goal. If you think he desires the Democratic Party to come back to its home as a broad, inclusive coalition of Americans with shared progressive interests, he sounds either dumb or crazy.
As to What are we going to do with all these conservative Democrats?, I think the answer is, use small words to remind them how they got where they’re at. I don’t know that it’s realistic to push for passage of ENDA, and DADT is dying of attrition, but we certainly can insist that new House Dems get a little education on how the national party treats LGBT people. (As second-class citizens who own an ATM, is the answer.)
Hawise, Obama is NOT a good choice. Yes, he’s attractive and charismatic, but Lieberman was his mentor in the Senate, and he’s not done anything.
Plus, he’s got ties to Tony Rezko, who’s going to jail. He was like a deer in the headlights when he came back to Illinois after his book tour and all the fawning national media. First thing local reporters did was grill him on Tony and why he would ever be involved with this guy. Obama really wasn’t ready or used to a combative situtation.
As for the whole ‘kick Dean out’ meme–I’m so pissed at the NYT for running such a kiss ass piece on Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer as the architects of the takeover. If we’d listened to them, we wouldn’t be winners today. Why are Carville and others who were WRONG allowed to set the agenda for the MSM without question? Why doesn’t the MSM ever try to verify reality? Ask rebuttal questions? Behave like journalists?
Rahm is a DINO, he belongs to the corporate lobbies that fund him.
[…] Now Pam has a story about Dean possibly being replaced at the DNC. I’m all for replacing Dean, but not with Harold Ford, a fundamentalist who embodies the ideal of the excessive moderate, who has no concrete ideas about anything but screwing gays and atheists. […]
They just haven’t been looking.
Hmmm…. so they really want to make sure third party candidates draw off votes by going backward to the “pander to people who will never vote for you ever and piss off people who might or will vote for you if you don’t pander to those theocratic bozos” strategy. Right.
But the democratic party owns my vote by divine right - NOT.
I take it folks have seen Glenn Greenwald’s take on this?
If not, Check it out
In a nutshell, Carville shoots a typically stupid Anti-Dean idea, The Times assumes that such an important figure like Carville has his fingers on the pulse of the party, and expands it to be “Rumblings” even though the only source is Carville.
Conservatives pick up on it to bash the DNC (since really, any twig looks like a big stick to these jokers), the media runs with it since it matches their storyline (Democrats win my moving to the center), and Carville dosen’t do anything because the media reports of desire to replace Dean helps him sell the idea that it’s not just him thinking that.
It bugs me that Rachel Maddow (my Radio Goddess) in promoting Rahm Emmanuel as an upcoming guest (I forget if for her show or the one she was guest-hosting, Ring of Fire) just now said Emmanuel “spearheaded” the victory.
From Ed Schulz or Al Franken I might expect this. But Rachel?
Oh, maybe it was just radio–gotta puff up whoever is coming on, regardless of your actual world-view on them.
Co-guest-host David Bender interviewed McNerney–hey, the guy has a PhD in math!
The world is not saved yet. It may never be. But at least we are turning in the right direction.
If we can keep the hands of the likes of Carville, Emmanuel, and that lot off the tiller…
Update: Now I just heard Al Franken interviewing McNerney, and then or at some point specifically crediting Dean, not Emmanuel, with the victory.
No way!…
Pam Spaulding suggests that this unbelievable speculation is a trial balloon: 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……
So Carville has screwed his way to being a Republican. How quaint.
“Carville’s just not used to Dems winning and doesn’t know how to handle it, so he wants to go back to the good old days of losing all the time.”
Carville put Clinton in office. I personally can’t stand the guy but ya really can’t throw the loser label on him. But then again I can’t stand Dean either so I don’t really have a dog in this fight. But I really don’t think Dean’s contribution to this election went much beyond shutting the fuck up and not saying something colossally stupid, as he is always prone to do.
I think the reason Harold Ford is being floated for DNC chair is because Michael Steele is being floated for RNC chair. The Repubs are all busy talking about how many votes they could pick up with a black chairman and how bad it would look for the Democrats to have Ford facing off against white Harold Dean on TV. Ergo, lose Dean and get a black chair for the DNC. It’s fucking stupid but I actually think this might be the level of reasoning.
Republicans underestimate Americans. Steele, bad black guy, vs. Dean, good white guy who helped win everything. Americans including nonwhites aren’t as stupid as they think,
We can handle complexity especially when our well-being is at stake.
[…] Alon discusses the split between the liberals and the Democratic party, and includes a disturbing link to some speculation that Howard Dean might be replaced at the Democratic National Committee by a centrist, possibly Harold Ford. […]
Jeebus H. Christ. The man who carries business cards with the Ten Commandments on them? The homophobe who bleated his head off about the evils of the NJ marriage ruling?
Not only that, one of the biggest LOSERS of the last election, and they want HIM to be in charge of campaigning?
I can’t help but think this particular cabal of “centrist” Democrats are committed to throwing the election to Republicans every chnace they get. Last week’s victory happened in spite of them. We must get rid of these people ASAP.
It’s Dean what did it. Ford lost, because he came on as a social bigot.
Carville has a point about Dean borrowing $10 million at the end of the 2006 race and then hanging onto $6 million of it til after the election. The NRCC went into debt defending their seats. There were a few more House seats we could have won if Dean had gone all in.
Having said that Carville’s suggestion that Dean be replaced, let alone with Harold Ford is nuts. The days of the DNC being the province and cash cow of DC bigwigs is over. Time to get out the debit cards and show Dean and the DNC what we think of Carville’s suggestion with some love folks. And not just because Carville is trying to hijack it to the 1990s. Dean’s PR shop has a devastating McCain Iraq war ad that ought to be broadcast on TV instead of just Youtubed.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=h-a5T0HsJpw
https://www.democrats.org/page/contribute?source=NETA454
Two words: power and entitlement. This is not about what is best for the Democratic party, this is about what is best for the Clintoncrats. It is Clintocracy at its most obvious. It is about reclaiming power — power they had as the Establishment regardless of whether the Dems were majority or minority. Simply, they don’t care whether we pick up seats or not, they care about having been squeezed by the rabble and their beloved Doctor. They want to reclaim the positions they are entitled to.
Oy.
Oh, please, dear Spaghedeity, save us from ourselves! If only we’d listened to James Carville we could have a DNC chair who campaigned for Republicans….
Now that’s someone Obama can get behind! Obama loved what anti-gay bigot Donnie McLurkin did for him in South Carolina, why would presumptive nominee Obama care if Ford were DNC chair? I just love how the gay community all of the sudden writes the Clintons off and embraces Obama, who pissed all over them with the McLurkin fiasco.
YOU STILL DONT GET IT DO YA????
Ever since the scary 60s, the wealthy sonsofbitches who actually run things (military, corporations, pharmaceuticals and banks) have been NEUTERING the democratic party.
First, the infiltration by DINOS, conservatives calling themselves Democrats.
Then, the DNC, a sheparding force designed to keep Dems in the basement till the end of time.
Now this blatant effort to belay the obvious(and frankly, inevitable after this last 8 years of hell) Democratic momentum by destroying the only effective DEMOCRATIC leadership the DNC has had since DAY FUCKING ONE and replace him with a CRONY
Come on people, say it with me:
they are trying to destroy progressives by first ousting them from the party in favor of rethugs in disguise and then putting yet another INCOMPETENT in charge of “getting dems elected” yeah right.
Time to wise up people.
WE NEED MUCH BETTER DEMOCRATS.
Harold Ford is a republican. So was Al Wynn. So are several other office holders who call themselves DEM but vote with the BUSHINISTAS every time, including BILLARY. get it?
Let’s see. Before Dean: Republican House and Senate, pathetic Democrats cringing before Bush the All Mighty, Joe Lieberman as a credible (!) Democratic presidential nominee.
After Dean: Democratic House and Senate, Democrats on the attack against a fading Bush, most exciting Democratic presidential candidate since Bobby Kennedy — who is raising $30-50 million a month in grassroots money using the campaign model Dean pioneered in 2004.
Yeah, what a loser. Let’s can him.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the DLC conection here. Isn’t Harold for the head of the DLC?
This would just be a take over of the Democratic Party by the DLC. Their plan to win elections was to become Republican light and cozy up with Big Business. Yeah, that’s gonna win back the poor southern voters. Hell, the only thing the DLC has accomplished over the last 20 years is to allienate the Democratic base.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the DLC conection here. Isn’t Harold for the head of the DLC?
This would just be a take over of the Democratic Party by the DLC. Their plan to win elections was to become Republican light and cozy up with Big Business. Yeah, that’s gonna win back the poor southern voters. Hell, the only thing the DLC has accomplished over the last 20 years is to allienate the Democratic base.