Happy 70th birthday to an amazing Democrat who changed history for the better

[DFW]

64. Agreed, Sibelius was way out of her depth

Tactically, it was also a poor decision to recruit her away from the Governor's position in Kansas. It took us until now to reclaim it, and Brownback in the meantime was a catastrophe for the state.

It burns me up that ego, that for which we so rightly criticize Trump, is also such a hindrance to our party as well. Instead of consulting with Howard, the most successful DNC chair we've had for a generation, a succession of less experienced DNC chairs have said "I got this," when they plainly did not.

In February, 2009, I was discussing the future of the DNC with Howard (also in Switzerland, as a matter of fact--in Genève), when he was on his way back from an environmental lecture at Davos. He said he wasn't going to stay on as DNC chair because the position of party head passes to the President when that party holds the White House. He knew (how could he not?) what a great job he had done at turning the party's fortunes around in just 4 years, and the last thing he wanted to do was clash at the party head level with a president he had just busted his ass to elect. I was at the Denver convention in 2008 at the "party for your Party," a day or so before Obama gave his acceptance speech, and Howard was reveling in the glow of what he had accomplished. I don't think anyone (except Rahm) had any clue of how badly Howard would be treated after the election, but he took it like a trooper, and said it was Obama's show now. There are a lot of people, myself included, who wish Obama had run that part of his show a little differently.