Shout It Out, Howard, We're Listening

[DeepModem Mom]

LA Times op-ed:
Shout It Out, Howard, We're Listening
Dean isn't out of line, he's just restoring the fiery tradition of Truman and Jefferson.

By Jim Edmunson, Jim Edmunson is chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party. He is an attorney in private practice in Eugene, and he served four terms in the state Legislature.


Howard Dean's election as Democratic National Committee chairman was a shot across the bow of Washington's power clique, so it does not surprise us at the state-party level in Oregon that he is making our kin inside the Beltway nervous.

In fact, it delights us.

Dean speaks loudly about things our folks in Washington tip-toe to avoid. He condemns the Iraq war as misguided. He wonders why we don't worry more about nuclear weapons in North Korea.

Republicans preach morality, he says, but ignore poverty in the United States. Where is the respect for privacy when Republicans want to legislate end-of-life decisions for a brain-dead woman?

And Dean, the white Christian, acerbically grumbles that our nation is not stronger if we are viewed only as Caucasian mono-religious.

Are those comments misguided, or are they timely? The way we see it from this end of the country, the former presidential candidate is catching the wave....


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-dean26jun26,0,2275726.story

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. oh yeah

The Democratic Party has a decision to make. Do we play up to Big Money and the power structure in DC, ignoring the people, or do we build up the party from the grass roots?

Howard Dean is doing the latter, and if this op ed is any indication, doing it quite successfully.

Anyone who thinks that cowtowing to the corporate elite and moving the party to the right should check out how well Dems have done in elections in the past few years. The Repukes have obviously sold out to corporate interests, and their actions often ignore their base (they make a big stink about Terri Schaivo to appease the religious right, but don't do anything about legislating anti-gay or anti-choice amendments or laws).

Let the Repukes have their corporate masters. Let the Democrats go Howard's way.

[Cha]

2. And those are of some of the issues

that Dean got out on Jon Stewart's Daily Show last Thursday..

And we had some on DU complaining that Dean wasn't something enough..it's never enough.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/most_recent/index.jhtml

"One more thing. Washington Democrats tend to see the world through the prism of their own political futures. Those of us west of the Potomac recognize the impulse. But we want a party leader who inspires the Democratic base, keeps it involved and energized, and we want to hear truths because we have faith that straight talk is the best way to talk to Americans. There is more to leading this party than not scaring the horses."