Dean’s Out

Democrats hate a winner.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asking if Howard Dean was soon to become the Democratic Party’s most powerful man, given the fact that he is the architect of the once hated, now-hallowed “50 State Strategy” that many people credit with winning the election for Barack Obama and others.   I concluded that since Howard is, by and large, a clueless, Dagwood Bumstead-type, lucky bungler, he would not; rather, that Obama would find him imminently expendable.  Seems Howard Has come to the same conclusion.  Adam Nagourney of the New York Times writes:

Howard Dean will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, ending a tenure marked by an aggressive attempt to reshape the mission of the committee – and to court support by the so-called Netroots – but also marked by frequent quarrels with Democratic leaders over his abilities and the direction he was taking the party.

The truth is, nobody much likes Howard.  Far from being the well-oiled machine the well-oiled,  astroturfing,  Obama pr machine promotes, the Democratic Party seems to be a loose coalition of back-biting factions, thugged into submission by Camp O.  Though some may claim Obama owes at least a portion of his success to Dean, in reality, Obama basically sucked the juice out of Howard’s brain, took what was useful, and discarded the rest.  Dean may have provided the blueprint, but Team Obama built the car Obama drove across the finish line.

Chris Cilliza tells us newly appointed White House Chief of Staff-elect, Rahm Emanuel, hates Dean, and his plan, and has never been shy about colorfully saying so.  Paul Begala once said on CNN that Dean’s 50 State Strategy amounted to hiring people to “wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.”  James Carville called Dean’s DNC “Rumsfeldian in its competence,” and called for his resignation.  Though she seemed to be an active collaborator with Dean to disenfranchise Florida and Michigan to Obama’s benefit,   Donna Brazile and Howie-baby have clashed, too, most notably over the inclusion of gay rights into the DNC’s Affirmative Action platform.  Uptight Howard Dean testified in a deposition that sensible shoe-wearing Donna is against it, claiming it was an “affront to the Civil Rights Movement.”  Though Brazile claimed to have no interest in being DNC Chairperson in 2004, her name is currently being bandied about as a possible replacement, as are Claire McCaskill, Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Bill Richardson.  Given the Obama campaign’s rather complete takeover of the DNC operation, however, whoever gets the job will likely be nothing more than a glorified figurehead.

Not a lot of love going ’round, to put it mildly.  But, since Brazile’s vision relative to gay rights most closely resembles Camp Obama’s, and since she was invaluable during his campaign with her “cheerleading disguised as neutrality,” on CNN, and her considerable input as Chair of DNC Voting Rights Institute, I’d say put your money on the “dark horse.”