This entry was posted on 11/12/2006 11:54 AM and is filed under Election 2006, All Posts.
James Carville appears to have kicked off the rumor that Harold Ford, recently failed Democratic Senate candidate of Tennessee, may be in line to replace Howard Dean as Democratic National Committee chairman.
Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.
Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."
What do people like James expect of the DNC? What kind of electoral victory would have been cause for congratulating Dean? Capture of the House and Senate in a single election cycle? Oh wait...
It is Howard Dean just as much as it is Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer who engineered the Democratic victory Tuesday. He has spent the last two years building up state party infrastructure in states which we were largely uncompetitive before. Places like, I don't know, Montana, North Carolina, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, and Texas.
It's not glamorous work, and it doesn't have the short-term thrill of throwing money at individual candidates in one election cycle, watching them win, and then getting to say to everyone, "I did that". That's Rahm's job. Some are starting to say Rahm didn't actually do as much as has been made out to be the case. I don't know whether that's fair or not, but it's certainly no less fair than what is being said about Howard Dean.
As Dean himself has said, where was President Bush campaigning in the days before Tuesday's election? Typical battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania? Try Republican strongholds like Georgia, Texas, and Nebraska.
And why was that? Because Dean's decision to fund party infrastructure in conservative states where there were previously no salaried organizers—in addition to Emanuel's candidate recruitment—forced the GOP to fight on their own ground. This meant there were far fewer Republican resources available to rescue Northeastern Tuesday losers like Sen. Santorum and Sen. Chafee.
My feeling is that this move to oust Dean is little more than a petty, personal, and ultimately self-destructive game Clintonites like Carville and Emanuel are playing as they move to take firmer control of the party apparatus for 2008. They don't trust Dean to adequately support a corporate centrist like Hillary at the DNC.
Carville's desire to replace Dean as chairman with Harold Ford, a talented and charismatic politician, is strange. Harold should be running for elected office, not organizing direct mail efforts and paying off precinct captains. Dean has taken a thankless job and created the correct role.
The role is not Terry McAuliffe, where it was all fundraising all-the-time. And it's not Harold Ford, which would be rock star spokesman. It's long-term, behind-the-scenes organizer. Perfect for a man more suited for this task than prominence on the national stage. Not so much for young firecracker Ford, whose destiny lies in winning himself big elections down the road.
If this is how the party thanks its champions, no wonder the Democrats became so good at losing.
11/12/2006 8:55 PM
Aaron wrote:
Beautifully stated. I don't get these people. They've been losing for years trying to beat the Republicans at their own game-- massive fundraising efforts, top-down organization-- and the moment someone implements a winning strategy, they want to fire him. I'm thrilled the Democrats have taken back Congress, but what we really need are reform-minded pragmatists like Dean-- people who will eventually take the fight out of the talk show circuit and into the shat-upon mess of a political system we've all inherited. If he's able to implement half of his goals before the terrified establishment-mongers kick him out, he'll have been worth more to his party, and ultimately to this country, than a herd of Clintons and Carvilles. Reply to this
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