Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Dean for ... um, what's it called again? Howard Dean is running for chair of the DNC.  While there are many, many candidates running against him - including some people I'm rather fond of - he seems to be the overwhelming favorite, at least according to the popular vote.  Salon has a poll up in War Room, and when I last checked it, Dean had over 1200 votes.  The next contender was Simon Rosenberg.  He has 33 votes.  Calling him the runner-up would be an absurd overexaggeration. A lot of the bloggerdomos and sorta-party insiders are pulling for Simon Rosenberg, whose only qualification seems to be that he digs technology.  He used to work for the Democratic Leadership Council (otherwise known as the sell-the-farm, Republican lite wing of the party.)  He is a centrist.  He seems to have some great ideas about trying to answer the Republican echo chamber with an equally well-funded Democrat (not progressive) echo chamber - interesting, but possibly futile.  If we have networks and think tanks and loudmouths out there expressing our views, but we don't know what those views are, what's the f@%*ing point? Joe Trippi (the brilliant man who took Howard Dean from Jeopardy answer to serious candidate) has endorsed him.  Kos seems to have endorsed him, although it's hard to tell where he stands though all his Rainman "I'm a Reform Democrat... I'm a Reform Democrat... I'm an excellent driver" baloney.  (See the linked smartaleck article for evidence of endorsement.) (By the by, I can't stand all Kos' reformDemocrat bluster, because it seems completely phony.  It means nothing - it means that he wants a different Democratic party than the one than the one that currently exists.  Fine - so does Lyndon LaRouche.  So what do you mean?  Lay it on the line.  Stake out some issues, rather than just whine about how the party loses and loses.  He claims that he's left the meaning of "reformDemocrat" deliberately vague.  I doubt that.  I think it's vague because he doesn't really know what the party means.  I don't claim to know this, either, but at least I'm not inventing new slogans to express my ambivalence.) Anyway, what to do?  I don't vote for DNC chair, so my voice doesn't really matter.  But I still want Howard Dean.  I don't know Rosenberg from a hole in the wall, and he sounds earnest, but the New Democrats are the failures of the party. Their big champions:  Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Bill "ending welfare as we know it" Clinton, and, at least in the last election, John Kerry.  Thank you very much.  Rosenberg has good ideas, and he may have lots of connections, but so does Dean.  Rosenberg's a true believer in the Internet.  Dean's been converted from a technophobe to someone deeply committed to the power of technology and the grassroots.  Democracy for America has genuinely become a powerful funding machine in mere months, funneling millions of dollars into the coffers of local candidates.  Let me say that again:  Dean is helping local candidates - school board candidates, state rep candidates, state auditor candidates.  Dean is committed to the bottom-up work that must, must, must happen for the Dems to be successful. Here's one more thing.  Dean speaks his mind.  I think Rosenberg may have good ideas, but I'm afraid of a vision for infrastructure without a message behind it.  I want someone who can demonstrate courage in a leadership position.  Rosenberg may be a good deputy, but let's give the brave loudmouth the horse and let him lead the troops. Dean for DNC chair.  7:03:48 PM     Speak up!  []