The Dean legacy
by kos
Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 12:03:00 PM PST
With a new party head soon to be nominated, Howard Dean's days at the head of the DNC are likely numbered. It's not a bad thing -- presidential candidates and Democratic presidents get to run the committee for obvious (and logical) reasons. And Dean will soon have a full four-year term under his belt. I'm sure he's desperate for a change of scenery. It's not the most relaxing job in the world.
But it does give us a reason to reflect on Dean's tenure in charge of the party. The first in what will likely be a parade of such pieces is a great piece by the Nation's Ari Berman.
A few months earlier, The New Republic had reported that Clinton's camp was "laying the groundwork to circumvent the DNC in the event that Clinton wins the nomination." This shadow DNC had a number of integral parts: adviser Harold Ickes would develop state-of-the-art technology to help Clinton reach prospective voters; EMILY's List and Clinton's allies in organized labor would launch an unprecedented effort to turn out supporters, especially women voters; former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe would raise untold sums from wealthy donors and the business community; and communications honcho Howard Wolfson would direct an unrelenting war room. Ever since 1992 the Clintons had used the DNC as an outpost for raising money from big donors, and funding candidates had taken precedence over nurturing progressive organizers. That model would continue into '08. Dean could remain at the DNC as a figurehead but only if he stayed in line.
And then the effort to marginalize Dean collapsed. Partly it's because the party's Congressional takeover--and a subsequent study by Harvard's Elaine Kamarck documenting Dean's contributions toward that end--eventually silenced the Carville-ites. Partly it's because Barack Obama forced the Clintons to devote all their resources to fending off his insurgent candidacy. But another reason the DNC-in-exile never got off the ground was Dean himself. Dean is no longer a marginalized figure, the butt of "Dean scream" jokes, but a man with a powerful constituency in regions where his fifty-state strategy has energized aging, ailing or previously nonexistent state parties. His support to these parties has not only strengthened them but has created an independent power base for Dean himself.
It's amazing that when Jerome and I wrote Crashing the Gate, with its uncompromising promotion of the 50-state strategy, the notion was still considered incredibly controversial. Now, it's accepted CW in most quarters.
What's not amazing is that Jerome and I always knew that this was inevitable. We saw the party elite (dominated by the Clintonistas) in DC hoarding their power, sure, but we also saw that the masses outside the Beltway were far bigger, and collectively wielded far more power than the Ickes and the Podestas. Sure, they could raise a buttload of money and get their new organizations funded (and there's some good ones in that mix, like the Center for American Progress and MediaMatters), but their efforts to dominate and control the party machinery were doomed from the start. The people-powered movement would swamp them out.
So Dean became our surrogate and we propelled him to a dramatic victory as chair of the party. Sure, establishment Dems wailed and threatened and tried unsuccessfully to find an establishment-approved alternative to Dean. The equivalent today would be Mike Huckabee taking over the RNC after this election. Could you imagine the war inside the GOP if that were to become a possibility? That was us, in late 2004 and early 2005.
more...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/2/1530/49441/494/466327
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