They wouldn't have been able to muzzle Dr. Dean the way they have Veep Biden, and they knew this. How soon we forget that there was quite a bit of folderol around the fact that
Dr. Dean was nowhere near the DNC when President-Elect Obama came to its DC headquarters to introduce Kaine. I read an interview with Dr. Dean in which he in essence said that he rubbed people the wrong way because he was outspoken and didn't care who was offended when he spoke the truth.
When the president didn't offer Dr. Dean any advisory or cabinet position although it was his 50-state strategy that helped catapult him to the nomination, I knew then that something was up. In fact, we netroots nation people were outraged and traditional media made much to do about this for a few days.
President-elect Barack Obama came to Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington – the place where Mr. Dean, the current party chairman, has kept an office for four years – to introduce his new choice for Democratic National Committee chairman, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
. . .
But Mr. Dean was not there. His aides said he was in American Samoa to attend the inauguration of the state governor and raise money for the state party. . . .
All of which was a reminder that the relationship with Mr. Dean and the Obama campaign was always a bit complicated, even competitive. . . .
Mr. Dean’s work as a presidential candidate and chairman certainly laid much of the groundwork for the Obama campaign, starting with pioneering the Internet to raise money, organize volunteers and bring new voters into the electoral process. And Mr. Obama certainly made mention of that.
“We are in a strong position to rebuild a Democratic Party committed to these principles because of the outstanding work of its current chairman,” Mr. Obama said, adding. “Having steered the Democratic Party through two successful elections, Howard deserves enormous credit for helping usher in a new era in Washington.”
But Mr. Obama’s aides have always been a tad miffed at what they saw as the chairman’s supporters, in the days after the election, claiming some credit for one of the signature efforts of the Obama campaign: Expanding the map of states where Mr. Obama competed, fighting in like Indiana and North Carolina (and Virginia) which had been viewed as solidly Republican. One of Mr. Dean’s main efforts as chairman was to the so-called 50-state strategy, as he pressed for money and people to be sent to all 50 states.
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