Howard Dean: "We fully stand by Al's speech. He is a great American, `

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

..and should have been President."

(note from Chairman Dean to Eagle County (COLORADO) Democratic Party chair Harvie Branscomb.)

Harvie wrote a letter to DNC Chair Howard Dean, after the Gore speech. Dean replied to the email
personally, with the statement,
"We fully stand by Al's speech. He is a great American, and should have been President." (note from Chairman Dean to ECD chair Harvie Branscomb.)
http://www.knowledgemessenger.com/a/ViewBlogs.asp?App=eagle

(Harvis's Letter to Chairman Dean's office)

Alice
I have a question. Have you and the Governor read or listened to the entire one hour of Al Gore's speech from last monday at DAR Constitution hall?

It is important to have read or listened to the entire speech, not just the sound bites reported in the media which ignored 90% of the important contents.

(speech can be found on http://www.algore.org/)

Most of my friends here in Basalt and Carbondale Colorado actually listened to the speech and we think that it is 100% correct, appropriate and vital to the health of the nation.

Gore alone seems to have actually addressed almost all of the key points and in a responsible and presidential way- excessive fear mongering as an ideological weapon, the progressive accretion of excess power by the executive, the weakness of the legislative branch and its inability to perform oversight, the progressive weakening of the judicial branch via Roberts and Alito, the exploitation of science, the failure of the media, wiretapping, torture, kidnapping, war-making under conditions of false information, criminality.

I want to know how much Governor Dean and the rest of the DNC support the contents of this speech. I do not mind some difference of opinion.

I think the speech merits a celebration by broadcast email to Democrats.

I know that Ken Mehlman wrote some stupid drivel with the intention of discrediting Gore...I know the White House has started a disinformation campaign to discredit Gore and the speech and we all know that the power of the media to discredit is far more powerful than any power it has to accredit. In any case the major media rarely make the distinction between bad, false or irrelevant and the good, true and relevant.

Foremost, we MUST join Gore in throwing off fear of the media response for to fail to do so always results in an incremental destruction of intellect in our politics and culture.

That is why it is so important to bring Gore's good, true and relevant words directly to the people, bypassing the press. The DNC has the power to do that, and I hope you will do so.

Harvie Branscomb, Chair, Eagle County (Colorado) Democrats

Harvie then adds six advice points that he thinks the party should do.
1) take some action to give
platforms a more favored position in the process, make sure candidates
and officeholders actually see the platforms;

2) propose rules for debate so that it becomes meaningful (stop allowing
the media to ask the same rhetorical questions);

3) advise our candidates to take an aggressive stance on issues important
to Democrats and not just those important to Republicans and
Democrats... (this will require new political advisers)

4) give the opportunity to the entire Democratic
Party across the USA the chance to pick our candidates for office (at least
have the order of primaries change somehow from year to year);

5) do not tolerate satire, harangue and cynicism including
exhaustive repetition by the media.

6) work to make spaces to turn political dialog acceptable and even
popular again... we should never
be embarrassed to be politically active as Democrats at the grass roots
in a "red state".

Eagle County Colorado (a supposed to be Republican stronghold including Vail)
voted for the Democratic candidate in 9 out of 10 cases in 2004 including for
Kerry... but at our State Assembly late last summer, about a third of the Democrats
still wanted to vote for Kucinich. And our State Platform was turned progressive through
amendments from the floor of our State Assembly. These two messages should be
heard by those making messaging and policy in the Party.

[madfloridian]

1. Recommended. Clarity and honesty.

And succinct.

[JDPriestly]

2. Wonderful. thanks.

[kentuck]

3. How long before CNN reports?

That Howard Dean, the Chair of the DNC, is just as far left and insane as Al Gore? Those guys are crazy leftists, don't you know??

[knight_of_the_star]

5. Been there done that

Wouldn't surprise me if they did though.

[Kurovski]

4. K&R(nt)

[understandinglife]

6. Outstanding!!!

Peace.

[Tuesday_Morning]

7. great letter, Harvie

and I love this point:

Foremost, we MUST join Gore in throwing off fear of the media response for to fail to do so always results in an incremental destruction of intellect in our politics and culture.

[ladjf]

8. I'm glad Dean supports Gore's statements. But, I don't think he

should address him as Al. It just doesn't sound as dignified as it should.

[autorank]

9. Thank you Doctor Dean. Must make the Mandarins nervous.

You know those cautious people who don't want to say anything.

Great job Dean, you did the right thing.

Keep it up.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Dr. Dean is also a great American.

He has the integrity and political balls to stand behind Al Gore's speech.

[Hissyspit]

11. Excellent! Recommended.

[DemReadingDU]

12. K&R

[slay]

13. It was an EXCELLENT speech

Just goes to show how big a difference there really is between TOTAL SCUM like George W. Bush, and a truly great, intelligent man like Al Gore. :)

[electropop]

21. I was at Constitution Hall.

The crowd loved him. In fact, if you watched on C-Span you probably heard a lot more of Al than I did, thanks to all the standing ovations. He did indeed lay out all the shameful facts about Bush, in a very long row.

[Skidmore]

14. Expect Begala and Carville to try to hamstring him at their

next appearance. They sat silent while Matalin mocked Dean on MTP.

[Edgewater_Joe]

17. Which is Why PumpkinFace asked Obama About Belafonte

God forbid Russert try to ask a relevant question from someone that should be an important political figure.

[Neil Lisst]

15. I thought Gore's speech was exceptional.

glad to see Dean backing him up

[gratuitous]

16. Gee, standing together isn't so hard after all

Who'da thunk it?

[dem-moose]

18. Thanks for the hopeful letter !

Dear No DUplicitous DUpe,

Thanks for uploading a great letter from Eagle County Democratic Party Chair! I feel Colorado is going to be an important battle ground for the next presidential election. Great to know that Howard Dean is paying attention to a local voice.

"... but at our State Assembly late last summer, about a third of the Democrats
still wanted to vote for Kucinich. And our State Platform was turned progressive through
amendments from the floor of our State Assembly."

This is wonderful. The more competitive within the party, the stronger the presidential candidate should become. Clear democracy within the Democratic Party is much needed instead of hyping and fabricating against the reality.

Cheerz,
Dem-Moose

[EagleCountyDem]

19. platforms- could be the meat of the democratic process

(more from the original author of this thread)
Its interesting that the way political advice seems to work today, the only way we ever hear a really great inspiring and fulfilling speech like the one Gore gave is from a non-candidate. This brings up an important point about how party platforms are misunderstood and underutilized. I think the hidden forces which keep our candidates from saying what they really mean (a la Gore) also manifests in the hiding of what could be the real meat of the political process... the creation of platform initiatives by the grass roots.

The Democratic Party rules call for two parallel processes... one for candidates and one for platforms- but due to the overwhelming media attention to candidates and a lack of Party focus on platforms only the candidate track reaches real fruition. A lack of attention by leaders of the Party at state and national levels leads to letting the candidates dictate the platforms which disregards the extensive grassroots work on them and voids their original purpose. I hope that the DNC will focus some new attention to bring platform discussions back into an important position in the democratic process. The platform process is the only one which gives all Democrats a chance to express themselves and to learn what they collectively want in terms of policies, region by region.

Platforms represent the actual intentions of the people who are the Party. These activists care enough about our government and its policies to spend hours creating initiatives they would vote for if they were given the chance.

The platform process could be much more valuable than focus groups or national opinion polls or hackneyed stereotypes which candidates and the press too often depend on for their answer to the question: what is the Democratic Party and what does it stand for?

The platform process is often taken seriously at the precinct and the county but then later in the process this work is inevitably discarded.

In Colorado, county platforms are rarely if ever published and usually not at all considered in making the state and national platforms. The same is true for the State Party platform.

Of course in Colorado we have the additional problem that the candidate is handed to us by the media before we have a chance to discuss and vote in a primary. To give New Hampshire and Iowa the opportunity to decide the Presidential candidate is not healthy for Democrats anywhere. Unhappily it has been decided to repeat this foolishness again in 2008. We are really looking forward to an opportunity for a western state to have a caucus or primary early in the election season. It might happen in 2008. In almost every state we find ourselves without the voice we deserve, either in the form of a meaningful set of platform iniatives or a meaningful vote in a primary race for a candidate for President. But one or more ex-candidates who eloquently speak their minds, and a DNC Chairman who is willing to voice his support when asked.

Harvie Branscomb
Chair, Eagle County (Colorado) Democrats

[TNC4DNC]

20. Thankyou Vermont.....

for giving the Dems a man like DEAN!!! Finally someone who will not stand down, and stick up for other Dems, EVEN THE ONES THAT GET A LITTLE CONTROVERSIAL!!! ...at least by Repug standards.