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Wednesday, November 17, 2004
All With a Grain of Salt
Lots of rumors and guesswork on the blog circuit about the candidates for DNC Chair and their behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Someone on Daily Kos claimed their wife heard Dean say at some event that he had decided not to run, but this was quickly nixed by someone else who heard differently. Well.
Meanwhile, it's becoming increasingly evident that Kerry may be the primary obstacle to Dean. And he has lots of money to use in the process that's left over from donations from the grassroots -- the same grassroots that he apparently wants to freeze out of the process and Party power. Ugly, isn't it?
DNC update by Jerome Armstrong on MyDD:
. . . Kerry is not behind Shaheen right now, he's behind Vilsack (not that he wouldn't turn to her if Vilsack dropped out). As I stated earlier, it's mostly a "Stop Dean" movement that Kerry is leading the charge on from behind the scenes. And yes, Kerry does have that $45M left over from the campaign that he's not ready to hand over to the DNC at this time-- why not?
From everyone I've talked to inside the Dean campaign, he's ready to take the chair at the DNC. He's just got to get the votes. It's obvious that the "anyone but Dean" movement has no vision of it's own, other than stopping the grassroots from actually taking control of the party. We need to re-invigorate the local level with power that has a say, and take away power from the vested interests (mostly their own) inside DC.
MyDD quotes Karen Timulty in the 11/22 issue of Time Magazine saying:
Howard Dean is "being urged to run by liberal activists convinced he is the best chance for channeling the bas'es ire into a national message," but the more centrist group believes Dean "is the last person the party needs." Vilsack was calling labor leaders and others last week, "asking them to hold off backing Dean ... as Vilsack decides whether to make a bid."
Seems funny that the "centrist" pushers believe Dean would be a mistake, resulting in a Dem "disaster." How much worse can things go than the losses Dems have experienced since the heyday of the early Clinton administration?
In my view, if the Dem "centrists" -- read Republicans-lite -- prevail, the Dem Party and its national candidate can kiss goodbye the bulk of grassroots donations in terms of time and money. Unfortunately, Kerry seems to believe that all that cash via small donations and all those hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours were the result of Dems being heavily supportive of him, rather than being so down on Bush. What do you think?
November 17, 2004 at 10:45 AM in Democratic Party | Permalink
Comments
TO: DNC MEMBERS
FROM: A REFORM DEMOCRAT
RE: MODERNIZING THE DNC
Over the next two months, you will be bombarded with suggestions on how you should vote when it comes time to decide the direction of the Democratic Party. As you consider who should lead our Party, please keep in mind the following observations:
Evaluating 2004
The Democratic Party did not "come close" to winning in 2004. This is a zero-sum game and we need to measure our position against that of the GOP. Democrats would have needed a 10 point across the board increase in support to have done as well as Republicans. True, Kerry came close to scraping together an electoral vote win, but Democrats did poorly and Kerry lost. We lost. We are in worse position than we were before the election. As Mayor Gavin Newsom is fond of saying, "Do what you've done and you'll get what you've got."
Choosing a new DNC Chair
When choosing a new leader for our Party, please make your choice based on your own decision of who will take the steps necessary to modernize the Party. We must have a full-time leader with the vision necessary to restructure our organization. We can't let our Party serve as a golden parachute for those who lost in 2004 -- we need the DNC staffed by the best and the brightest not the oldest and best connected. Our next Chair needs 100% dedication to the effort and must put the Party before any other concern. Recently there has been talk of a candidate running to protect his home state's antiquated primary tradition -- we can't afford to elect somebody with a conflict of interest and ulterior motives. We need reform.
Accountability
Only by deciding our goals and quantifying our methods can we determine what is working and what isn't. We need to hold programs and people accountable. We lost and we can't be afraid to fire losers. The campaigns of tomorrow are far different from the campaigns of a decade ago -- we need to evaluate individuals by their value in a modern campaign. The railroads didn't hire the fastest Pony Express riders; they hired people who made good railroad engineers. Campaigns have gone through a similar sea change and our Party's future depends upon intelligent reaction to the new rules of politics.
Reform
We are reforming our local central committees but we need your vote to reform the Democratic National Committee. We are waiting for systematic reform, but the Party needs the grassroots more than we need the Party. We want to win and we will support the best vehicles for victory. We would like to continue our support for the DNC, but we're also members of Democracy for America and Moveon and the New Democrat Network. If the Party won't stand up for us, we know they will. We know they were built as modern organizations and a far more efficient than the Democrat Party. DNC members need to elect a new Chair who can compete with DfA, Moveon, and NDN or the party will be relegated to only hosting the convention. We are Democrats and we don't want the most moderate or least controversial Chair, we want a leader. So lead us or we will follow the visionaries at the reform organizations.
For more information, read I am a Reform Democrat on Daily Kos, the , , Change for America or Democrat Blog Swarm.
If you have additional ideas on modernizing and reform the Democratic National Committee, please email me at bob.brigham [at] gmail.com. I am a Reform Democrat.
Posted by: Bob Brigham | Nov 21, 2004 4:01:32 PM
