tdaxp

"A Suicidal Selection: With Dean as party chairman, the Democrats wouldn't need enemies," by Jonath Chait, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait4feb04,0,4714338.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions, 4 February 2005.

"Hewitt versus Beinart," by "Steve in Sacto," MyDD, http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/2/3/142723/3608, 4 February 2005.


The Democratic Party decides to commit suicide. After all, there's nothing wrong with a confederation of regional parties. Unless you want to govern. Torification continues:

The article sums up Dean's failures

The conventional rap against Dean as DNC chairman is essentially the same as the conventional rap against him as presidential candidate a year ago. Namely, he reinforces all the party's weaknesses. Democrats need to appeal to culturally traditional voters in the Midwest and border states who worry about the party's commitment to national security. Dean, with his intense secularism, arrogant style, throngs of high-profile counterculture supporters and association with the peace movement, is the precise opposite of the image Democrats want to send out.

So, how did Dean manage to trounce all comers for this position? Dean's supporters see his triumph as the victory of the masses over a tiny Democratic elite desperately trying to cling to power. As one left-liberal blogger gloated: "The fact that Howard Dean will most likely be heading up the Democratic Party is our victory. It is the voice of the grass roots lifted up into the halls of power once owned by the 'aristocracy of consultants.' " That actually has it backward. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that only 27% of Democrats approve of Dean.

In the latest issue of the New Republic, Ryan Lizza described how Dean had prevailed in a process of third-rate intrigue. The choosing of the DNC chairman has been dominated by state parties, whose concerns revolve around expanding perks, including a demand for a $200,000 handout for each state party from the national party. Nobody seemed to pay much attention to the good of the party as a whole. Meanwhile, Dean touched those leaders' ideological erogenous zones, promising to "feed our core constituencies" and not be "Republican-lite."

As the last election showed, the core constituencies are plenty well fed. There just aren't enough of them to win the White House.

I was going to post yet another Bienart takedown/outrage, him cavorting with the extended Republican Noise Machine, blah, blah... But instead I'm posting this just for the sheer hilarity of it as written. You just can't make up stuff like this...