Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
In the primaries, the anti-Dean movement was aided and abetted -- if not led -- by friends of the Democratic Leadership Council, whose Al From and Bruce Reed dismissed Dean's supporters as "activist elites" and railed against the "misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party."
Will arguments such as these hold sway with Democrats after Kerry's loss? It's hard to know. For every Democrat who believes Kerry lost because he was seen as "too liberal" on gay marriage or taxes or God knows what else, there's another who believes he handed George Bush the presidency by refusing to hit him harder on Iraq. Kerry consistently criticized Bush's handling of the war. But in his own refusal to admit a mistake in voting to authorize the war, Kerry denied himself the unequivocal antiwar argument that Dean made forcefully in the Democratic primaries. Kerry's approach represented the sort of centrist pin-dancing the DLC may favor, but it doesn't speak to Democratic activists -- elite or otherwise -- who are looking for someone to guide them out of their post-election despair.
Of course, many of those activists have larger aspirations for Dean. They wanted him to be the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2004, and they like the idea of his making another run for the nomination in 2008. For Brazile and many other DNC members, that's a problem. The DNC chairmanship is a full-time job, they say, and it shouldn't be filled by the chosen one of any potential presidential candidate -- let alone by a potential candidate himself. Brazile expects to meet with Dean in Washington before he speaks Wednesday; if he won't commit to not running in 2008, she said, she won't be able to support him for the DNC chairmanship.
Laura Gross, a spokeswoman for Dean's Democracy for America, said Dean's presidential aspirations are just one factor that will go into his decision whether to run for the chairmanship. She said he hasn't decided whether he'll run in 2008 -- let alone whether the desire to make such a run is incompatible with the chairmanship.
If Dean runs for the DNC job -- and gets it -- he may ultimately be able to have it both ways. If the Democrats surge in the 2006 election cycle -- if history and Dean's leadership conspire to win governorships and significant numbers of seats in the House and Senate -- then the party may be so enthusiastic about Dean's skills that he'll win widespread support for a presidential run. But there are a lot of "ifs" built into that equation, and it's not a contingency Dean can embrace -- at least publicly -- if he hopes to win the support of a lot of DNC members wary of picking a chairman who uses the DNC as his own personal exploratory committee.
Few -- if any -- of the other candidates carry that particular baggage. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is a potential presidential candidate in 2008, but he has checked out of the DNC race. Other candidates in the race now are Harold Ickes, the former Clinton chief of staff; Ron Kirk and Wellington Webb, the former mayors of Dallas and Denver, respectively; Simon Rosenberg, the president of the New Democratic Network; businessman Leo Hindery Jr., and former Gore and Kerry advisor Donnie Fowler.
None of those candidates raise the same concerns Dean does, but none carry Dean's high public profile, either. That's a plus and a minus -- as even Dean's supporters acknowledge. Paul Maslin, who helped run Dean's primary campaign, is enthusiastic about his former boss's DNC candidacy. He's even comfortable with Dean's ability to avoid being caricatured as an out-of-touch Northeastern liberal.
"He ran for president because he wanted to do something about healthcare and the budget deficit, but then Iraq happened and he exploited an opening," Maslin said last week. "The party was being too meek and mild, and he said 'Hey, we've gotta fight.'" Maslin, who has talked with Dean about a DNC run, says the fight "still matters."
"I don't mean that we're going to be in pitched battle with George W. Bush over every single thing he does," Maslin said. "But there's a lot of things he does that still require Democrats to have a voice." As soon as he said it, though, Maslin acknowledged the problem of having that "voice" come out of Dean's mouth -- and it's one that a Harry Reid will never have. "That damned scream," Maslin said, and you could almost hear him shaking his head over the phone line. If the Democrats choose Dean to lead them, Maslin said, "We'll just have to accept the fact that Fox is going to show that clip for the next 1,046 days, or whatever it is. That's life."
