Dean may be 'just a two-year, transitional party leader'

[quaoar]

This is from the RW magazine American Spectator so take it with a grain of salt if you like, but I would not be surprised at all if so-called moderates in Washington try to muzzle Dean as the unnamed senior Democratic Senate leadership aide suggests.

And the way they would do it is by sticking someone else in there and leaving Dean as a figurehead so as not to piss off the base.

They must think we're all really stupid.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8294

Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday for what amounted to a visit to the political woodshed. Meeting with Senate Democrats, Dean was essentially told to hire a couple of speechwriters and stick to a script.

Dean had been invited to the meeting before his last public embarrassment, when he claimed the Republican Party was nothing more than a bunch of Christian, white males, and while he expected some kind of a tongue lashing from his Democratic colleagues, he also had come prepared to lecture them on party communication and coordination.

"He hasn't been happy with the support the DNC has been getting from the Hill," says a DNC adviser to Dean. "He feels he and the party are being given short shrift."

< snip >

"It's getting to the point where Dean may be just a two-year, transitional party leader," says a senior Democratic Senate leadership aide. "He might stay in place, but there would be another, more ideologically centrist figure there to overshadow him. Dean thinks the party needs to talk tough, there are a lot of us who think the party just needs to talk sense."

[trotsky]

1. "there are a lot of us who think the party just needs to talk sense"

Hmmm, there are a lot of us who think Howard Dean is the first Democrat in a long time TO be talking sense.

[sniffa]

2. yup

as the rude one says, "howard dean wiLL fuck your shit up!"

[Larkspur]

3. The DNC Executive Committee disagrees with the senate blowhards

both Repuke and the Repuke-lite Democrats.

The reminded Dean that THEY, the DNC member, not the senate Democrats, elected Dean to NOT BE A WIMP and to consider the source for intra-party rebukes of him -- Hill Dems, like those who supported and illegal war against Iraq and bankruptcy bills written by credit card lobbyists, etc. and whose record has hurt Dems.

[Mass]

14. Happy to see that Pat Buchanans'newspaper is an admissible source for you.

Ok, next time we will trust the papers from the New Nazi Party.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. If they do this...

my association with the Dems is over, for the foresaeable future. I'm no Deaniac, but this shit's too much.

[Dhalgren]

5. If the Democratic "centrists" oust Dean, then what they are

admitting is that they do not want a "people's party". They are afraid that Dean might lead to the overthrow of the corporate dictatorship, now in control of the Democratic Party. If Dean is "muzzled" or "purged" from the leadership then the Democratic Party is dead as a doornail. It might be dead anyway, but if the "centrists" can manage to stifle any real populism, then there is no chance of revival. If the "centrists" get their way, there really will be only one political party in the US...

[Cassandra]

7. But then Dean could run for president!

This just sounds like an aide for some disgruntled Democratic wimp.....Lieberman, perhaps?

[Avalux]

6. "senior Democratic Senate leadership aide"

interviewed by a RW rag to diss Dean. If that's how the they're gonna play - we're ready. Their worst mistake will be NOT LISTENING to the people and continuing to run the party into the ground to save their own asses.

[Edgewater_Joe]

8. Let The DLC Try To Take Dean Down in '06

If that ever happened, Dean would run for President in '08 -- and I betcha he would beat Hillary and destroy those losers once and for all.

But I don't buy a wingnut screed on Dean for a second. Dean sounded awfully chastened yesterday when he called Fox a Repunk propoganda outfit, didn't he?

Please don't throw Howard Dean in the briar patch, Republicans!

[Warpy]

9. That's what the American Expectorator would like, anyway

but we'd have to ask the question, "Transition to WHAT, cupcake?"

Dean is certainly a whiff of fresh air after all the DLC stodginess, lack of imagination, and capitulation to the GOP. If he represents a transition, then what the party will transition to is not going to be liked by anybody on the right, including the DLC crowd.

If Dean represents a transition, then the party is finally moving in the correct direction, no matter how long he's at the helm.

Personally, I tend to look at the Expectorator's track record, and realize that Dean may be head of the party long term.

[quaoar]

11. The Hill Democrats are just afraid

that the system of stroking big corporate donors is being pulled out from under them and they don't like it.

Tough shit, I say. Get used to it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Conyers, Dean, Boxer, Clark, and there are more...

We have some strong voices who understand that politics has to be more than "cutting deals" and sounding suitably moderate. Where have these "sober voices of reason" been for the last ten years while Republicans were organizing lynch mobs to go after Clinton and scaring the shit out of people with visions of "mushroom clouds" over American ports - the same ports Republicans refused to provide adequate protection for by the way? What about the Christian Right choir of hate mongers who happily waltz into power over the backs of gays and lesbians? What about an Administration that came into power promising to unite, not divide, Americans, which was entrusted with all of America's loyalty immediately after 9/11, and then immediately converted it into "political capital" to consolidate their own power?

If just a few Democratic voices are raised, even the slightest "Off note" uttered stands out in the silence as it echos off walls of lies. When Democrats break that silence in mass, there won't be "off notes" for Republicans and media lackeys to seize on, there will only be the roar of a people woken, standing against the madness for our country. The answer isn't to "tone down" Conyers or Boxer (remember the fear those two struck into the Democratic Establishment when the said they would actually challenge the election results in Ohio?), or Dean or Clark, out of fear of sounding "too shrill". Induced and enforced moderation is to political discussion what Muzak is to Songs. No one listens to it.

The answer is to join Conyers, Dean, Boxer, Clark and others in speaking out, not to muffle them. Let our own roar overwhelm the Republican lies.

[Guaranteed]

12. NICE. DEAN IN 2008!!

:)

[ulysses]

16. exactly my thought.

:)

[Mass]

13. Or we will believe anybody regardless of the source.

So now, our source is the American Spectator. Next it will be Rush.

And an unattributed quote from a Senate aide.

No surprise we cant win if these are your sources.

[JNelson6563]

15. Here's what they don't get

Dean is going to the various states and visiting local parties as well as helping state party leadership. While he's not courting the corporatocracy or playing to the DLC wing of the party, he's making progress and friends around the country. He's earning their high regard by giving a shit about their state and counties. He's helping them raise money and interest in their efforts.

Then of course are the Big Whigs. Whining cause Dean isn't catering to them. Well let me tell you, it isn't them that make up the all the voters of the DNC. There are a lot of state party chairs and others who will be eternally grateful to him for his help as he was probably the first. Who do you think they will support? If Dean wants another term they'll work hard to see he gets it so they can continue to have an effective partner in the DNC.

Julie

[mmonk]

17. And some of us could become two year transitional democratic contributors