Not a bad idea. Turns out that a lot of them lost their funding during the campaign because Obama "successfully convinced the Democratic financiers to channel their money to him and few else."
The poster, Sam Stein, further points out:
This draining of the swamp forced many organizations to scale back their election season ambitions.
Now, without the prevailing need to get a Democrat in the White House and with a debilitating economic crisis stifling the most politically philanthropic, there may not be enough loot to keep these outside organizations operating.
I do have a major bone to pick with Sam Stein. He is usually one of the few who give credit where due. But this time he gave credit for the 50 State Strategy to the
campaign committees. Wrong, Sam.
The DSCC and the DCCC were NOT responsible for the 50 State plan. In fact they ridiculed it. Rahm was chair of the DCCC when we won in 2006, and he cursed Dean for it. Literally, in his own office. He used the f*** word to him. So be fair, here.
Give credit to Howard Dean for the 50 State Strategy. Work with other bloggers to stop the
anonymous hit pieces on him even as he is heading out the door. And add a correction to your blog.
Now for the idea Dean presented last week.
Keeping the party goingThe blogger speaks of the problems getting the progressive groups funded in between elections...a very real problem. Here is Dean's idea.
The first question facing Democrats is how to centralize this portion of the party without a galvanizing election. Howard Dean, the departing Democratic National Committee chair, has an answer.
"Do it through here," he said of the DNC in an interview last week. "I'd like to consider this becoming a grassroots organization, not just to win elections but to win programs, to get programs passed... to push out a president's message and go door-to-door for health care reform, and for climate change."
"Campaigns are not for education," he added. "They are for winning. Afterwards, governing is for education. And there is enormous potential among the grassroots community for educating by reaching out to people."
Dean may be pushing against prevailing wisdom, which suggests that elections are about learning. But in many regards he is right. An example of when infrastructure proved remarkably effective as an "education" tool is the debate over privatizing Social Security in 2005 -- when progressive groups of all colors (labor, veterans, women's issues, etc...) punched holes in Bush's proposals with a largely coherent message. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the immigration debate, in which a lack of cohesion allowed GOP groups to derail any moderate or progressive reform proposal.
That's really a very good idea.
Now if someone will just give credit due.
Stein quotes Bob Borosage of
Campaign for America's Future."Every group on the left and probably every group on the right will have to face the problem that we just whipped out a trillion of stock assets among the wealthy donors of the right and left. And it is quiet possible that many progressive donors will think, oh, well, our job is done," said Bob Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America's Future, in a recent phone interview. And yet, Borosage himself adds the caveat: having been in the political wilderness for so long, the progressive id now dictates that nothing should be taken for granted. There is, he says, an understanding that all the gains made in the last few years could be lost just as quickly. A fallout and consolidation may be likely -- the White House, for starters, will hire away many of the best staffers from these outside groups. But it shouldn't be debilitating.
So, Sam Stein, thanks for presenting the ideas. But please give credit to Howard Dean for the 50 State Strategy...NOT the campaign committees led then by Rahm and Schumer. They did not even like the idea.
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