Kaine to Become DNC Chairman

[1776Forever]

Source: Washington Post

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama's administration even while he finishes his final year in the governor's mansion, several sources said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401139.html?hpid=topnews

[JNelson6563]

1. I'll miss Howard Dean

Let us hope the incoming team remembers that there are 50 states to a national strategy.

Julie

[1776Forever]

2. As will I! A great and good man - Wish him the best! Good article link...

What's next for Dean?
Mon, 12/29/2008 - 14:08 — Dirty D

http://www.overdetermined.net/site/content/whats-next-dean

Chris Cilliza and Perry Bacon report on the travesty that Governor Howard Dean is without a job. Anyone who's been reading us for a while knows that I have a high opinion of Governor Dean, so you shouldn't be surprised to find out that I am rather angry at the treatment that our party is choosing to give Dean. Let me say it up front: without the Governor, we would have had no victories in 2006 and 2008.

[yardwork]

3. Kaine is very conservative.

[VADem11]

5. Sort of

He's a DLCer but he's not a blue dog.

[yardwork]

6. He has very conservative views on women's rights, gay rights, etc.

[IndianaGreen]

8. He is anti-choice, and opposes LGBT equality

but at least he doesn't want to kill us all, like Rick Warren.

Baby steps!

:sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

13. Media Matters says he's not anti choice:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200511110006

[LostinVA]

19. He is a devout Catholic and campaigned as anti-choice

He doesn't believe in overturning Roe, BUT he IS against true legal access: he believes in parental consent and is against that make-believe RW boheyman, partial-birth abortion, no matter what.

And, is against GLBT equality. This is NOT a good sign for centrist to leftist Dems.

This isn't directed at you, but rather at posters who twist themselves into pretzels trying to say he's liberal or centrist. He isn't. He's a Conservative Dem.

I did vote for him, because the GOP opponent, Kilgore, is to the right of Hitler.

[NutmegYankee]

22. He did not campaign as anti-choice.

I know, I lived there and was involved back then. He support legal access to abortion for women, but notes that he personally opposes it. He doesn't force his views on others, because he is a true Christian, and wants to help the poor and take care of people rather than be a hate group like the fundies.

[EFerrari]

38. Thanks. I don't know the man. n/t

[NutmegYankee]

43. Neither does the other poster.

Nice that they edited their post after mine rather than respond...

[NutmegYankee]

14. No, he is not.

He hold a lot of very liberal views, especially on the poor and economics, but he is a devout Catholic. The difference is that he doesn't force his views on others, hence why he hasn't stopped the death penalty, which he opposes, and he came out against the gay marriage ban amendment in Va. He truly is a man who can separate his personal views from what he needs to do here in reality.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Devout Catholic = follows the German Pope

The same Pope that spoke wistfully of pruning the forest, while attacking LGBTs.

[NutmegYankee]

17. And I presume there was supposed to a point there?

The Catholic views are the same as under John Paul II. And Kaine certainly isn't acting on their wishes.

[IndianaGreen]

18. The late Polish Pope was not a Hitlerjudgen, and he helped Jews.

JPII did more than any previous Pope to reconcile with Jews, after centuries of Vatican anti-Semitic agitation.

[NutmegYankee]

20. And all of that has what to do with Kaine?

Kaine supports ready and legal access to abortion for women while stating that he personally opposes it. He signs death warrants in virginia because that is the state law, and he as the executive is to enforce the law rather than create or interpret it even though the Church opposes it.

He doesn't do the Churches bidding, so WTF does the Pope have to do with this?

[Zynx]

42. You are a profoundly biased person if you hold the current Pope accountable

for being a member of the Hitler Youth.

[closeupready]

50. What a filthy thing to say when

other German children were being tortured and even murdered by Nazi authorities for the crime of being Jewish.

[Zynx]

59. That has nothing whatsoever to do with the current Pope.

At all. You might as well have blasted me for not being sensitive to the Armenian genocide.

[TheWraith]

27. Are you still obsessed on making something of that forest metaphor?

Look, I find the Catholics about as nuts as anybody, but to turn that forest metaphor into into some kind of incitement to genocide the way you imply, you'd have to completely and totally reverse what Pope Rat was saying.

[Zynx]

34. That is a bizarre and unenlightened view of Catholics.

[yardwork]

39. We'll see. I'll be watching carefully.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. He is a DLCer

:)

[Hawkeye-X]

4. This avatar will remain there - until Obama recognizes Dean's accomplishments.

Hawkeye-X

[IndianaGreen]

9. Without Dean, 2006 would have been a GOP year

and many of the red states that turned blue in 2008, my own included, would have remained red.

[natrat]

7. i give up

[EFerrari]

10. And manic Terry is running for VA gov.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/mcauliffe-announces-bid-for-va-governor-2009-01-03.html

[1776Forever]

11. I have to say I like Terry very much - He is loyal you have to admit & there may be more about him

that I don't know. Lately I am holding back on my support until I read up more on all of them.

[Pastiche423]

33. If you are talking about McAwful

then you really do not know what you are talking about.

[IndianaGreen]

16. He is manic alright, but he is entertainment

I still remember him gushing over the 20 point lead that early returns show Hillary having over Obama back in May primary.

[tpsbmam]

12. Va. Governor Kaine to Become DNC Chairman

Source: WaPo

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama's administration even while he finishes his final year in the governor's mansion, several sources said.

Kaine, who emerged as one of Obama's vice presidential finalists this summer, will operate from Richmond in a part-time capacity until January 2010, when he will become the full-time DNC chairman. Kaine is constitutionally barred from running for reelection.

A personal friend of the president-elect, Kaine is a gregarious chief executive who is known to relish political combat and helped put Virginia in the Democratic column for the first time in almost 50 years.

,,,,,,

Also this year, Virginians will choose Kaine's successor in a race that has already become contentious for Democrats. Former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe, a longtime adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, announced in an Internet video Saturday that he intends to run for governor, pitting him against two Democratic state lawmakers in a June primary.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401139.html?hpid=topnews

[politicalmajority]

23. I Will Definitely Miss Howard Dean!!!

Without Howard Dean, we would not have won in 2006 and 2008. Now that Barack Obama won the White House, the DNC Chair position is not as powerful as when Dean was the chair. I still hope Dean makes Obama's cabinet and the 50 state strategy continues. Thank you Gov. Dean!!!!!

[bluestateguy]

24. Kaine is committed to the 50 state strategy

So I regard this as a good thing.

It took years to recover from Terry McAuliffe's nincompoopery at the DNC.

[natrat]

54. sure ,good luck with this

[natrat]

55. politics is all about marketing and nothing to do with truth or actually helping people

[debbierlus]

25. Ahhhh - the new Democratic conservative circle is almost complete

[NorthCarolina]

26. Ughhh....a DLC'er

Can't we ever get rid of these small minded conservatives in what should be a progressive party?? "He's a Devout Catholic" aka He's anti-choice and Hates Them Queers. Yeah, that's JUST what the Democratic Party needs...Ughhh

[1776Forever]

28. I tend to agree - Kaine is a very likeable person - BUT is likeablility enough?

Seems to be so far for him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kaine

Tim Kaine has stated he is personally opposed to abortion<30> but he opposes overturning Roe v. Wade. He supports restrictions on abortion, such as requiring parental consent and banning so-called partial-birth abortions in cases where the woman's health is not at risk.

In the 2006 Senate election, Kaine supported Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb. Kaine also opposed an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that would define marriage as that between one man and one woman, though he has publicly stated that he personally opposes same-sex marriage.

[Pastiche423]

32. Nothing makes a DLCer likeable enough

The DLC needs to form their own fucking party!

[1776Forever]

35. Oh I agree - isn't it becoming obvious that the DLC Clinton era is back more and more?

http://leftwingnutjob.blogspot.com/2008/01/clinton-erawas-it-really-that-good-for.html

Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The Clinton era..was it really that good for America?

Bill Clinton, with the flourish of his pen, changed the course of all telecommunications. He signed into law the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This act allowed a free-for-all to take place with the blessings of the federal government, and I might add..without one iota of oversight or public hearings on the massive changes that would take place.

(snip)

The Financial Services Modernization Act was a real gem as well. Enacted in 1999, this sucker deregulated the banking and investment industry. This opened the door to the creation of the 'hedge fund' which we all know is not regulated in the slightest and is the most crooked investment scenario ever created with many cases of manipulation and down right illegal price-fixing.

Can you say Enron? I knew you could..From the Alternet writeup:

Wholesale electricity deregulation began under George H.W. Bush, but Clinton worked relentlessly to extend it and bring it to the retail level. We forget that Ken Lay, the founder of Enron and the driving force behind electricity deregulation was a friend of and mentor to Clinton as well as George W. Bush. Enron gave $420,000 to Clinton's party over three years and donated $100,000 to his inauguration festivities.

Clinton's appointees on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) aggressively deregulated the electric grid system, even refusing to step in when Enron and other electricity traders' manipulation of prices drove California to the edge of bankruptcy.

This brings us to NAFTA, one of the proudest moments in the Clinton administration. Never mind that his own party didn't buy into his bullshit, Clinton still pushed hard to get the legislation, started by Bush41, passed by the Congress. The North American Free Trade Agreement was and is a nightmare, not only for America but for Mexico. Free trade isn't free, and someone has to pay the piper. In this case the high price for free trade has been paid by lost American jobs, an even wider gap between the top one percent and the rest of us, toxic imports from China and a lower standard of living for the Mexicans that actually stayed in their own country. Sandra Polaski of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace points out “that Mexican manufacturing is increasingly based on a production model in which component parts are imported, then processed or assembled and then re-exported. In the maquiladora sector, which accounts for most exports, 97 percent of components are imported; only 3 percent are produced in Mexico. The spillover effect of such operations on the broader economy is very limited.”- in other words, it's non-friggin-existent. In another piece, Ms. Polanski tell us- “that globalization revealed and exacerbated—rather than created—the unequal distribution of U.S. economic gains over the last three decades. Polaski further contends that reform of domestic labor laws, the tax system, and international economic policy are the policy tools needed to reverse stagnating incomes and the erosion of job security, health care, and pension plans. These policy changes would also sustain domestic demand in the U.S. Economy.”

With all the rhetoric about illegal immigration, why isn't' anyone placing the blame squarely where it belongs; on NAFTA. Since NAFTA came into being, the wages of Mexicans have stagnated. Actually Mexico wages have taken a downward turn, there by forcing those same people NAFTA was supposed to help, to flood over our southern borders. From 1993 to 2003, worker productivity in Mexico rose by 60 percent. In the same period, real Mexican wages declined by 5 percent.

As my final word on NAFTA, lets review the vote: In the House, two-thirds of House Republicans voted in favor while 60 percent of House Democrats voted against. In the Senate, Republicans voted 4-1 in favor while a slim majority of Democrats voted against. Seems to me the 60 percent of the House Democrats knew what they were doing..the rest just went along for the ride on the Clinton coattails, as did the Democrats that voted in the Senate. The reason NAFTA passed my dear reader was the Republicans voted en mass for it. A nice vote of confidence for a Democratic President from his own party? I think not..

.....

Hmmmmm

[Pastiche423]

37. It was obvious to me after Obama's 1st appointment

And it's gone down hill ever since.

My dictionary must have a different definition for "change" then does Obama's.

[bemildred]

29. Look. Dean gave us the power, showed us how to use it.

Now it's up to us.

[PassingFair]

40. Difficult to use when you are faced with nothing but Hobson's Choices.

People who were watching were hoping
that Obama was an ALTERNATIVE to the
DLC. It is totally clear that he is
more of the same.

[bemildred]

41. It's not clear to me, but enjoy your gloom if it suits you.

I have never had any illusions about some knight on a white horse riding in and fixing everything to suit me, so I am not disillusioned when it doesn't happen.

[PassingFair]

44. I never fantasized about "white knights" or black ones, either.

But I did HOPE that he may have been
an alternative to the DLC.

He CLEARLY is not.

[bemildred]

45. Well, what do you think we should do? nt

[PassingFair]

57. Keep the pressure on and speak the truth, even if it makes people uncomfortable. n/t

[bemildred]

58. Agreed. nt

[Bluebear]

30. Well, see, we're getting CHANGE!

[MasonJar]

31. Howard Dean he is not. Howard was great. He should have been asked to

continue. He saved the party; we will soon see if others lose it again.

[1776Forever]

36. Hear Hear!

We need to keep watching!

[MaineDem]

48. Dean has made it clear he was not seeking re-election

As long as Kaine continues the State Partnership Program I'm all for it.

[Blue_Tires]

46. not my first choice, but i hope it will work out for the best

he has big shoes to fill...

[underpants]

47. Excellent

:bounce:

[fascisthunter]

49. great... another regressive

one step forward, two steps back....

[crone]

51. Anti Choice

Am not pleased.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

52. Bleck.

No other word for it. ;(

[Taverner]

53. I hope he serves the DNC and not the DLC

But I am not hopeful

[dbackjon]

56. Great, ANOTHER HOMOPHOBIC BIGOT

Obama stabs gays and lesbians in the back, again.