Dean Called Rahm's 'Contempt' For Base 'Devastating And Incredibly Demoralizing': Book Excerpt

[democracy1st]

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot Moderator Democratic Underground)

A new series of statements from the president and the vice president are casting the spotlight once again on the sometimes fractious relationship between the White House and its progressive base.

On Monday, Vice President Joseph Biden told a crowd of Democratic voters in New Hampshire that the "base constituency" had to "stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives." The point, he argued, is that the legislative accomplishments of this administration were more motivational than a cause for discontent. On Tuesday, the president echoed the point in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he was quoting as saying it was "inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election."

"People need to shake off this lethargy," he said. "People need to buck up,"

Combined, the two statements seem relatively consistent with a somewhat curious tack the administration has taken with respect to disaffected Democrats. Granting a fairly progressive-leaning publication access to the president is a straightforward way to reach progressive voters. Telling them that they need to buck up seems a bit counter-intuitive (though the DNC and the White House have been blasting out the interview to reporters throughout Tuesday morning).

This, of course, has been the dynamic for a while now. And while the president may lament his party's lethargy, he has in some respects his own staff to blame.

This week, Ari Berman of the Nation released his book "Herding Donkeys" that documents the growth of the modern Democratic Party from the nadir of the 2004 election through the triumph of 2008. The majority of the book looks at the efforts by former DNC Chairman Howard Dean to build a national network that could immunize the party from becoming either marginalized or regionalized. But the epilogue charts out how the style of Obama's governance drained the type of voter enthusiasm that, Dean acknowledges, was critical in those efforts.

(snip)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/28/dean-called-rahms-contemp_1_n_741942.html

Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics
http://www.amazon.com/Herding-Donkeys-Democratic-American-Politics/dp/0374169705/ref=sr_1_1

[VMI Dem]

1. Rahm is a shit for brains.

[closeupready]

2. Zero social skills, arrogant, smug.

I'll never understand his selection as CoS.

[VMI Dem]

3. Shared values with the boss.

:shrug:

[Individualist]

Exactly!

[chimpymustgo]

8. Unfortunately it's not just Rahm. It's Obama and Biden being arrogant and smug.

And treating us like crap.

[mod mom]

48. Sleezeball thug. He should go back to work w his con buddies in investment banking.

May BAD karma find him and his.

[bvar22]

18. Rahm is SMART and EFFECTIVE.

He DELIVERS to the people that OWN him.


The DLC New Team

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254886&kaid=86&subid=85


"By their works you will know them."

[Octafish]

49. + Democracy

Thanks, bvar22. Ya pegged them for all they're worth.

[PufPuf23]

72. Should have thanked you for this long ago.

Democratic party members need to know the difference between neo-liberals and liberals.

The neo-liberals took over the Party to counter (or profit on) the "Reagan Revolution".

Neo-liberals are a loud minority at DU and would be a minority to an informed voter bloc.

Clinton was the 1st neo-liberal POTUS. He was a successful POTUS but laid the agenda for the future and is pal's now with the GOP opposition (pro-haves and have-mores, empirically the current and worrisome extreme wealth income gap in the USA is the worst threat to securty and prosperity).

Neo-liberals are similar to Neo-cons in being corporatists, globalist "free" traders, antipathy to a strong social safety net, anti-to a strong and educated middle class, neglectful of the the poor and metally ill, and pro-global domination by means of a violent covert and military empire. This is the bi-partisanship of the Economic Elite Monarchy and their toadies.

Pretty gloomy. Shit.

[femrap]

54. I remember the

little turd taking all the credit for the 2006 Election when it was Dean who had orchestrated the Dem wins. Chicago certainly can find someone better that this little turdlet. Buh bye Rahm!

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stray cat]

5. Now the base is being called donkeys! ie asses

[Winterblues]

13. At least they didn't call us elephants..

:kick:

[newspeak]

46. hey I love that bumper sticker

"I'll hug your elephant if you kiss my ass"

[Myrina]

64. um, have you ever seen the Democratic Donkey?

... and/or the GOP Elephant? My suspicions is that's what the author is referring to. :shrug:

[laughingliberal]

6. K & R nt

[Luminous Animal]

7. Dean is nothing but a whiner.

[EFerrari]

12. Rahm is a truthteller and Dean should just go join the GOP!

lol

[sonomak]

9. "you got us here, now FU"

That was the plan.

[woo me with science]

10. Okay, I get it now.

The first line of that story clarified everything:

"...casting the spotlight once again on the sometimes fractious relationship between the White House and its progressive base."

This is all on purpose. This will be the reassuring message to the country: You don't have to worry about those scary progressives, because Obama's relationship with them is "sometimes fractious."

This is the administration's crafted strategy for countering what the right wing is already saying about him and Democrats. They have always said that he is a Marxist communist leftist. They will continue saying he is a Marxist communist leftist who is taking over corporations and putting the government in charge of health care.

This is the line of attack.

And we are seeing a purposeful and carefully contrived strategy to show that Obama is NOT a whacked out liberal. This is the Sister Souljah strategy, Obama-style.

And the base can go fuck themselves, because they have nowhere else to go.

[yodermon]

14. good point

thx

[lob1]

16. I think you're exactly right.

I guess they know they'll lose some liberals with this attack, but they must think they'll pick up more votes by convincing middle-of-the-roaders that he's not a socialist. I think this is a stupid, stupid way to go, and I really resent being kicked to the side of the road like a dead skunk.

[bvar22]

19. He will pick up votes "from the middle"...

...just like he picked up votes from the Republicans for Health Care.

I just can't believe that the Party leadership is THAT stupid.
There MUST be another agenda.

[girl gone mad]

24. I can believe they're that stupid.

They live and work in a bubble.

[molly77]

52. There is ..promote corporations

It doesn't make any difference who is in office.Notice all the goodies in DC going to the corporations for two decades? Merger of corporation and state = fascism. We have no media..it is controlled. The journalists aren't all super lazy. They are programmed.

[kenfrequed]

60. How?

Are these mythical middle voters really that turned off by accusations of communism? If that is the grand strategy than it has failed. The right wing has been calling them communist sicne day one and no amount of pissing on the left has reduced those accusations one decible. In fact, Glenn Beck was practically emboldened by his ability to attack and destroy appointed officials.

[ibegurpard]

33. the thing is...no one anywhere else on the political spectrum is buying it

[txlibdem]

58. I hope this strategy (if that is in fact what it is) will succeed in 2010

But I guarantee it will fail miserably for Obama in 2012.

Obama Administration Beware:
F**ing R*tards, whiners, younger people, the unemployed, the middle class, and people who have or are going to lose their house WILL BE VOTING in the 2012 primaries!!!

[kenfrequed]

59. This has always been a mistake.

Look, the right wing is going to call any democrat a communist no matter what policy they back. We can steal their ideas and run on nothing and to them, since they want to win elections and represent the wealthy and the bigots of this nation, they will still call us communists.

Policy has been shifted right in hopes of appeasing Olympia Snowe, message has been muted and contorted to not offend or not make to bold or specific a stand, and the base (you know the activists that get out there and knock on doors and volunteer time and... I dunno vote) has been offended by repeated and pointless attacks against them.

The attempts to placate a completely psychotic and eliminationist right wing republican minority party has been out of scale with Obama's election. Republicans claim a mandate if they win a plurality, our president won a majority and the white house has acted like it has to apologize about this.

Of course it isn't all their fault. I pin an enormous amount of the blame on Evan Bayh who actually made the republicans nonsense far easier than it should have been with his sectioning off a 'Blue Dog Senate Caucus.'

Of course the white house does deserve blame. Rahm has, as predicted, bubbled off the president and tightly controlled which advisors get time to talk and which don't. All of this has created a president who has been slow to act, broad to speak, and left him with a communications section that is more concerned with 24 hour spin and tactical manuevering than with broader strategic message and policy. Win the battle, lose the war.

[4dsc]

61. We do have somewhere else to go

and if President Obama doesn't want our support we can always "GO HOME" and sit on our hands on election day.

[laughingliberal]

62. It does seem it was a 'strategy' for courting the right of center indies. It hasn't worked.

As always, the right has remained unimpressed with them and now the left is miffed.

[foxfeet]

11. Cue the STFU brigade.

[democrank]

15. Howard Dean is right.

[woo me with science]

21. As he so often is. nt

[Ganja Ninja]

17. I think what Dean is really trying to say is that this White House thought

what they were dealing with in the Democratic base was a cult of personality.

For some it is, for some it ain't.

[woo me with science]

20. +1

Yup, I think you are right for some.

For others, there seems to be a cult of "D." There are certain people here who will defend ANYTHING or ANYBODY as long as there is a "D" after their name.

It has electrolytes. It must be good.

[Poll_Blind]

31. +1 n/t

PB

[Smashcut]

22. I am a Howard Dean Democrat.

That is all.

[golddigger]

23. !!##!! BRING BACK DEAN RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!##!!

[deaniac21]

25. >

:yourock:

[WillyT]

26. K & R !!!

:kick:

[slay]

27. I agree with Howard

Dems talking shit about liberals is NOT good strategy but whatever - it's nice to know how the Obama Whitehouse feels about us. :puke:

[muffin1]

28. Howard Dean hates Obama.

:cry:

[frylock]

29. knr..

gonna be hard for the choir to dismiss Horward Dean as a whiny-ass know nothing.

[bvar22]

30. Howard Dean is a conservative Democrat...

..and he is so much better than the crowd that now occupies the White House.
No wonder they had to banish him.

"Strong and successful presidents (meaning those who get what they want - whether that happens to be good for the country or not) do not accept "the best deal on the table". They take out their carpentry tools and the build the goddam piece of furniture themselves. Strong and successful presidents do not get dictated to by the political environment. They reshape the environment into one that is conducive to their political aspirations."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/17

[bajamary]

32. the whining White House spin

Obama knew exactly what he was getting by putting Rahm as his COS.

These past months have shown how little Obama and his top guys (yep, they are all "real guys") think about the progressive ideas that Obama eloquently agreed with during his campaign.

But I am from Chicago and I said it here during the Obama campaign that Obama was surrounded by Chicago Machine politicos whom I wouldn't want in the WH, especially my former IL 10th Congressional District elected official Mr Rambo.

Obama has never stood up and had his own feet "in the fire" - not as an IL state senator, not as my US Senator, and so far, at least, not as my president.

The unmitigated gaul of Obama, Biden, Rahm etc. to speak so critically about the Progressives who made his election a reality, is beyond the pale.

FDR would have never done this. But Obama is nothing like FDR.

One might say "stop your whining" to a child who is misbehaving, that is in the opinion of the parent or adult.

If I've learned anything here at DU is that our voices and views are not those of 12 year olds but of adults who are being crushed by the corporate political machine that Obama clearly is a part of.

And I, for one, am not playing in their dirty little sandbox anymore.

Howard Dean is the person I am supporting as the Democratic Presidential nominee in 2012.

[Carolina]

38. Great post

totally agree :hi:

We should have known what Obama was made of when he went after Bobby Rush!

[bajamary]

44. Amen

You're so right. When he went for Bobby's seat if was clear that Obama only wanted power and a political position no matter what. Obama was a part of the Machine for sure.

[klook]

55. "Clinton pal Bobby Rush: I'm supporting Obama "

Bobby Rush disagrees with you, BTW.

"We buried the hatchet a long time ago," Rush said Friday. "We worked very closely together in Washington. He works very closely with the Congressional Black Caucus, and I look forward to his candidacy, and I'll be with him until the end."
- Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 1/27/2007

[The Uncola]

40. Wish I could rec your post.

I'm with you 110%.

[bajamary]

43. thanks

Thank you and we will not let the whining White House keep us away from what truly matters to millions of Americans.

We can survive only if we stay the course against the casino corporations who now control the keys to our democratic process.

[flyarm]

34. Dr Dean is 100% correct! eom

[carolinayellowdog]

35. Demoralizing contempt is contagious in the WH

Alas, before Rahm left he infected Gibbs, Biden, and Obama.

[Carolina]

39. no they were already infected

and BTW, Obama CHOSE them all!

[carolinayellowdog]

41. they might have felt contempt before, but publicly displaying it...

in a demoralizing way follows a bad example set by Rahm IMO.

[demmiblue]

36. K&R

:kick:

[ProSense]

37. "Dean did not immediately return a request for comment"

"Dean did not immediately return a request for comment about the most recent round of Obama-Biden statements."

So why is using Stein using an excerpt from Dean's book related to Rahm to give the impression it has anything to do with the President's and Vice President's comments?

[guruoo]

42. The constant infignting is the only thing I find demoralizing.

I could care less what Rahm says.

[LWolf]

45. He's right. nt

[madfloridian]

47. Kick

[disillusioned73]

50. "That's basically saying to your own people -- you got us here, now FU."

Truer words never spoken. I'm gonna have to get this book - Amazon will probably block it...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

51. It's unfair to say Rahm has contempt for the base ...

... when his contempt is a much broader, all-inclusive contempt. He seems to have contempt for everyone except Obama. And his contempt against Obama will be made clear after he's mayor of Chicago.

He certainly would not sit down for a beer with the likes of us.

[COLGATE4]

53. Howard is right. Bring him back as Chair of the DLC.

[Dr.Phool]

56. You mean DNC

Nobody with a conscience would go near the DLC.

[bullwinkle428]

57. Good luck in Chi-town, buddy-boy!!

:rofl:

[DeSwiss]

63. K&R n/t

[leftcoastie]

65. I know...

put Dean where Rahm used to be. But, alas I don't think Obama could handle the truth(teller).

[myrna minx]

66. K&R n/t

[JDPriestly]

67. Has Obama called out Mary Landrieu for blocking the vote on

Obama's appointment to the courts? Seems like he should call out the conservative Democrats who block his programs as strongly as he calls out us progressives. We aren't blocking his programs. We just aren't getting out the vote.

Why should we make the effort to get out the vote if he doesn't go to Louisiana and explain in no uncertain terms that the moratorium on drilling is in the interest of the people of Louisiana, not some whim that is politically helpful to Obama? Obama should be calling out the right-wingers on specific issues in a way that educates them to support his programs. If he did that, he would soon find the progressive Democrats much more willing to support him.

[Mimosa]

68. Amen to calling out Landrieu! n/t

[KakistocracyHater]

69. good point & let me add: Obama should be personally calling any Dem who

isn't voting for progressive legislation, I think people would respond much more favorably if he did this.

[JDPriestly]

70. We progressives support Obama far more than the Blue Dogs.

That's the irony here. When my congressman asked constituents to state whether they supported the health care plan of Obama or not, I readily stated yes even though it did not have a public option. Do I still gripe about not having a public option? Am I disappointed that Obama did not fight harder for it? Yes. Am I willing to accept the plan we got -- reluctantly maybe -- but willing? Yes. I would never have wanted my congressman to vote against it.

We are far more likely to compromise and work with others than are the Blue Dogs. We get a bad rap because we are well informed and express our opinions in strong, articulate language. The Blue Dogs -- well, those who are in Congress are the basest of the politicians. They measure everything according to what they know are the ignorant prejudices of uninformed voters. They don't want to have to make the effort to educate the voters in their states about why they voted for something. Lazy bunch, the Blue Dogs.

When we progressives support or oppose policies, we can explain in clear terms just why we support or oppose them. Try getting Blue Dog supporters or Tea-Partiers to explain anything in coherent English. Yet, the Obama administration scapegoats us. That is not smart.

[TexasObserver]

71. The sooner Rahm leaves Washington, the better.