WP: Dean courts party insiders – Hillary Clinton reportedly intrigued

[pruner]

Dean Courts Party Insiders
Strategy Evolves As Support Grows

By Jim VandeHei and Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page A01

…

After threatening earlier this year to send lawmakers scurrying like "cockroaches" if elected president, Dean is aggressively pursuing key House members -- black lawmakers in particular -- and promising to raise money for as many as 20 congressional candidates.

…

Still, many establishment Democrats are warming to Dean, in part because there is a growing perception he is pulling away from the pack -- even though most voters have not tuned in to the campaign.

"There's a sea change going on," said former DNC vice chair Lynn Cutler, a Dean supporter who attends the meetings with lobbyists.

At Tuesday night's book-signing party for former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, Cutler said she was inundated with requests from Democrats who formerly were cool to Dean but now want to help him out. A former Clinton Cabinet secretary is expected to endorse Dean this week, and one friend of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said the former first lady sounds increasingly intrigued by Dean. Clinton did not want to discuss her relationship with the candidates, her spokesman said.

…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33342-2003Dec3.html

[killbotfactory]

1. There goes the "clintons hate dean" meme

Another one bites the dust.

[Cha]

2. The "cockroaches" know who they are...

and they would not be the ones who Dean would come courting! }(

And I wonder who the "former Clinton cabinet secretary" is?

[tsipple]

9. Robert Reich?

Just a wild and totally uninformed guess. Reich is from Massachusetts and is Clinton's former Secretary of Labor. He also ran for Governor of Massachusetts and lost.

[Khephra]

42. IIRC

Reich has signed up with the Kerry campaign.

[slinkerwink]

3. that's AWESOME!

This is exactly what Clinton did in 1992, he aggressively courted members of Congress to help him with his presidential bid.

[slinkerwink]

4. :kick:

[WillyT]

5. One Smart Campaign, Eh ???

Go Doctor Dean !!!

:bounce:

[liberalnurse]

6. She knows where her bread is buttered.....

And its topped with Creme' Fraiche from Vermont...:)

:bounce: :donut:

[slinkerwink]

10. isn't it maple syrup?

;-)

[ozone_man]

62. We're on the Quebec border.

She can have maple syrup if she prefers.

[NNN0LHI]

7. SELLOUT!

Just kidding guys. It is a very smart move on Deans part.

Don

[Closer]

8. "A Sea of Change"

I like that.


We're about to get a NEW leader of the Democratic Party, folks!

[opihimoimoi]

14. Mynah Mattahs, a Pacific Rag from the Hawaiian Islands does it again

Called the Dean/Clinton ticket last week.

Dean, you GO man

[Gman]

11. Dean is still a boorish ass

with an incredible temper. That's why I can't support him. If he gets the nomination, I'll vote for him then go home and watch all the formerly blue states turn red states on the map.

McGovern, Dukakis, Dean... when the hell will people learn?

[NNN0LHI]

13. Why not let us know how you really feel about it? n/t

[Hep]

15. Do you know something we don't

about his temper?

[PBinOregon]

16. I'm Really Not Sure

..where you get this impression. I have followed politics passionately for decades now, and worked on a number of campaigns, ran for Congress here in Oregon in 2002. Dean is an excellent candidate for our party. We have other great candidates as well, but no one who is motivating our base like Dean is. We've been waiting for this kind of energy and passion for decades. Why in God's name would you want to belittle it?

[slinkerwink]

17. lots of DUers here belittle Dean's success

because they wish their candidate had Dean's success.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Yea. Start painting with a wide brush. Good way to make friends...

...and influence people.

Don

[Forkboy]

25. It's true though Don

:shrug: Shit,I wish my candidate was doing that good.

[NNN0LHI]

28. What is true? Some DUers attack Dean? Is it also true that some DUers...

...are not here to support any Dem candidate no matter who it is. I thought you knew that already though?

Don

[Forkboy]

38. Sheesh

why the edginess...I was just pointing out that what he said was true.Cripes.

[Eloriel]

30. The ones that "learned:" weren't voting any more at all

And Dean is the one who's brought them out.

So maybe your view is a little skewed.

Eloriel

[Cleita]

31. Most of the doctors I worked for had bad tempers.

The bedside manner was for the patients not the staff. It insured that everyone stayed on their toes because when mistakes are made they could be fatal. The temper was always because of something stupid someone did. Only when temper is irrational should you worry.

[CRYINGWOLFOWITZ]

39. you are forgeting ronald reagan's 11th commandment

thou shalt never critisize another democrat

[drfemoe]

61. GHW *U*H SR .. BILL CLINTON

YEAH!!!

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

12. Dean is a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton!

Sorry, I just felt like saying that before the freepers do so I can sue them for stealing my intellectual property when they get around to actually saying and believing it.

I can see her endorsing Dean at the convention next year and actively and openly campaigning for him and the freepers will still say she's running.

[slinkerwink]

18. and Clinton will be Dean's VP!!!!

;-)

[pruner]

19. I've bee pondering this scenario since the Jefferson Jackson dinner…

the more I think about it, the more I like it.

:)

[Closer]

21. I have too

You can't help but wonder.

I think the Clintons are seeing that Dean is unstoppable at the moment, and if they want a piece of the action, they better hop onboard.

[slinkerwink]

23. yeah, but seriously, I think that Clinton won't be Dean's VP

but she'll go balls out to help the campaign out.

[Closer]

27. Slink

I don't think this will be the ticket either. I'm just saying the thought HAS crossed my mind.


No, the ticket will be Dean/Graham, like it or not.


Considering Joe Trippi made several phone calls to Graham when he was mulling retirement, I think it's pretty obvious who Dean will choose.

[slinkerwink]

29. and the fact that Graham's daughter is working for us in Florida

pretty much says it.

[Closer]

33. Exactly

I'm not too thrilled about it either, but... we'll see what happens.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

47. Dean's VP

There was a guy on the Blog awhile back who posted a great story about being at a lunch with Dean and he asked him who his VP was going to be and Dean said, "Who do YOU think it should be?" I love that story.

A lot of people have said Graham, seems to go with the common wisdom, but I'm not wild about it. Would like to see him stretch a little on it. Not all the way to Hillary, that's too much of a stretch.

Still thinking Dean/Clark would be unbeatable.

[artr2]

64. Dean /Graham is my dream ticket

Having Sen. Graham as my senior senator for many years now, He has impressed me with his ablities. Did you know that the would go out and work with regular people in their jobs? We will make one hellava VP

[unfrigginreal]

65. I really hope you're wrong about that Closer

I absolutely love and respect Graham but I don't see what he brings to the ticket. If we had a snowball's chance in hell of taking Florida it would make sense but I don't see how Florida goes Dem no matter who the Candidate or VP Candidate is.

[janx]

24. Slink, Dean has always respected Senator Clinton.

That's why I never bought into the rumor that somehow "the Clintons" were behind Clark or any of that nonsense.

She was one of the first people he checked in with before making the decision to run. Some Clinton advisers have consulted Dean.

The only Dems who showed some alarm at his campaign (if we can even believe this) were power-broker Dems in D.C., but it wasn't necessarily because of their connections to the Clintons. It was more likely their own insecurity and power greed.

[CRYINGWOLFOWITZ]

41. and that dean would gut and remake the DNC

these people don't want to lose their jobs. but the DNC needs a retrofit, it isn't working well anymore.

[Guaranteed]

58. Nahhh...too good to be true....

Dean's VP will have intelligence connections. If he gets elected he's going to have to join forces with the CIA to beat back these Republiclowns.

[mmonk]

20. Dean/Clinton

works like oil and water. It's a good strategy to try though.

[pruner]

26. Dean & Hillary worked together on her failed health plan

I'm not really sure whether this supports or dispels that notion (re: oil & water).

;)

[mmonk]

35. me either

though its hard to see a DLC'er with Dean together on a ticket.

[HuckleB]

56. Why?

.

[Adjoran]

32. Hillary for Veep? No way!

Any Democrat who needs help in New York might as well stay home. We lost it only in the Nixon and Reagan landslide years since Kennedy. And she wouldn't be much help for Arkansas or Illinois, either. Her main advantage would be in motivating the base, but if we have to worry about that by next July, we lose.

Dean, or whoever wins the nomination, will have to play for a key state or constituency. The veep will probably come from a state we lost in 2000, but could win this year. That puts the following in running on that basis: Gephardt, Clark, Edwards (assuming none of them win the top slot), Graham, or Bayh. The other possibility is Bill Richardson, who would appeal strongly to the Hispanic communities in Florida and other southern and border states, and of course sew up New Mexico.

[CRYINGWOLFOWITZ]

43. Mary Landrieu needs to be the VP

she won her senate race in Louisiana in 2002. we need LA to win, and LA is one of the most progressive, and winnable, southern states.

[Marines for Clark]

34. I think that the Clintons are anti-Dean

I heard that the Clintons who runs the DLC are anti-Dean so I don't see that happen.

[slinkerwink]

36. nah....they aren't anti-Dean

Clinton himself complimented Dean on his health care program for children at the harkin steak fry, and Clinton said that she knew a little something about a governor from a small rural state also on the JJ Dinner.

[Marines for Clark]

37. All speeches were written by each cand. camp

Did you hear that all those speaches were written from each cand. camp at the JJ dinner even Hillary said that afterward.

[HuckleB]

48. Uh huh.

She and her staff didn't review them beforehand, of course, since she never bothers to prepare for anything.

:eyes:

[Marines for Clark]

40. Here is the artcile if you don't think that the Clintons are anti-Dean

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Randi_Listener]

44. Looks like....

....about 50 lines of dogshit to me.

[Closer]

45. LMAO

Sometimes, you just gotta go there, don't ya. LOL

[HuckleB]

46. Article?

Where was it published? It looks more like a heresay piece, and I don't see where it even intimates that the Clintons are "anti-Dean." They might favor another candidate (something which may have already begun to change as noted in the WP piece), but that's a long way from being "anti-Dean."

[janx]

49. Clintons are pro-Dean.

Do you have a link to this article?

[Marines for Clark]

50. another article

Safire: Power centers of Democratic establishment want Dean to fail
Posted by ed. on November 12, 2003, 4:24 pm
Administrator Editor

Never Love a Stranger
(By WILLIAM SAFIRE, The New York Times) -- WASHINGTON — Both power centers of the Democratic establishment — the Kennedy left and the Clinton middle — are frantic at the prospect of losing control of their party to Howard Dean. They fear a McGovernesque debacle that would hand the G.O.P. a super-majority in the Senate.

Clintonites were first to take the Dean threat seriously. As reported gleefully in this space (full disclosure: I'm rooting for Dean's candidacy in hopes of the debacle), the Clinton crowd surrounded ex-Gen. Wesley Clark with Clinton managers, spinmeisters, pollsters and fund-raisers and marched him into battle against Dean.

The Clinton political strategy was, as usual, astute: let Dick Gephardt slow Dean down in Iowa, then push Clark hard enough to upset Dean in New Hampshire, or at least attract enough of the isolationist vote from Dean to let John Kerry squeak through.

Of course, if the national economy had gone south, Hillary would have gone South with Clark on her ticket to take on an unemployment-ravaged Bush herself. But with the economy surging and Democrats robbed of their central issue, Hillary can wait till 2008. It is in the Clintons' interest for the 2004 Democratic nominee to lose respectably, not in a landslide, laying the basis for a 2008 comeback that would be impossible if Dean were in the White House.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[HuckleB]

51. That's a Safire column. He WANTS to promote the possibility of division.

Everyone knows that the Clintons have ties to the Clark campaign. They have ties to many of the campaigns. Again, that doesn't make them "anti-Dean." Geez. Safire even continues to offer lame comparisons of Dean to McGovern. It's clear that Safire didn't do his homework on this piece. He's grasping at straws. Now that it appears the Clintons may be warming to Dean, perhaps you are too?

[Moderator]

60. Marines for Clark

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source and provide
a link back to the source.


Thank you.

DU Moderator

[Marines for Clark]

52. CBS News article

The Democratic Party: Outside In
Nov. 23, 2003


This commentary from The New Republic was written by Ryan Lizza.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is easy to think the presidential race has reached a tipping point. One week, assured by his supporters that they will raise all the money he needs, Howard Dean skips out of the restrictive federal matching-funds system. The next, he formally accepts the endorsements of the two most politically powerful unions in the country: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. And soon, according to an aide, his campaign will unveil a group of foreign policy luminaries who had been advising several candidates but have recently decided to back only Dean. The Dean campaign seems to be shedding the last vestiges of insurgency, aiming to build a sense of inevitability and end the race early with decisive victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, like Al Gore in 2000.

But, for all of his newfound respectability, the buzz from numerous Washington Democrats in the wake of Dean's extraordinary two weeks has been a hardening of opposition rather than a cascade of previously reluctant supporters endorsing the governor. "My sense is that this isn't tipping anyone towards Dean," says a top Beltway Democrat with ties to the Dean campaign. "The overwhelming majority here in Washington are more worried." Instead of consolidating support within the party establishment, Dean is polarizing it.

The division in the party over Dean is less about ideology than about power. Three years after Bill Clinton left office, he and Hillary still control what remains of a Democratic establishment. Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was installed by Clinton. Most of the powerful new fund-raising groups, known as 527s, and the new think tanks, such as the Center for American Progress, are run by the best and brightest of the Clinton administration. As "National Journal" noted in a detailed look at what it called "Hillary Inc.," the senator's network of fund-raising organizations "has begun to assume a quasi-party status." And some of the best Clinton talent is heavily invested in non-Dean campaigns, especially Joe Lieberman's (Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn), John Edwards's (Bruce Reed), and Wesley Clark's (Bruce Lindsey, Eli Segal, and Mickey Kantor).

Dean, by contrast, has come to represent the party's anti-establishment forces. While the other candidates, especially former self-styled front-runner John Kerry, started the campaign by wooing party leaders, Dean built a grassroots army first -- in part by bashing D.C. Democrats and their disastrous 2002 election strategy -- and is only now leveraging his fund-raising power to win over establishment types. No Democrats closely associated with the Clintons are working for the Dean campaign. In fact, it's hard to find a Clintonite who speaks favorably of the former Vermont governor. This evident schism is not just about Dean's opposition to the war -- or even his prospects in the general election. It's a turf war to decide who will control the future of the party.

This struggle is playing out in several of the party's organizations and constituencies. Indeed, Dean's high-profile labor endorsements -- the cornerstone of the tipping-point argument -- actually emphasize the party's divisions. Andy Stern, the leader of SEIU, is to the labor movement what Dean is to the Democratic Party -- an anti-establishment reformer. When the AFL-CIO failed to adopt reforms recommended by Stern earlier this year, he started a breakaway organization -- the New Unity Partnership -- with several other unions that is now seen as a major challenge to the AFL-CIO establishment. And SEIU is a lot like the Dean campaign. It's the fastest-growing union and one of the most democratically run. It's obsessed with organizing new members to whom it imparts a message of empowerment, unlike the more centralized AFL-CIO. Stern and SEIU, with their emphasis on health care instead of globalization, are the future of the labor movement in the United States, while the industrial unions, which back Dick Gephardt and have been bleeding members for years as they fight an uphill battle against free trade, are the past. SEIU's backing of Dean isn't a nod from the establishment -- it's a protest against it.

The Dean split is mirrored in the centrist New Democrat movement as well. No organization has been more hostile to Dean than the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). In May, Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and the president of the DLC -- the group that served as a policy springboard for Clinton's rise -- wrote their now-infamous manifesto warning that nominating Dean, whom they view as hopelessly left-wing, would bring certain defeat for Democrats in 2004. But, for months, another prominent New Democrat has been making a different case. Simon Rosenberg, who cut his teeth on Clinton's 1992 campaign and now heads the New Democrat Network (NDN), sees Dean as the most innovative and potentially transformative Democrat since Clinton himself. Like Stern, Rosenberg is a bit of a rebel within his own movement. He once worked for From, but his organization is now challenging the DLC and is becoming an increasingly influential player in Democratic politics. Unlike the more top-down DLC, NDN is building a grassroots network of donors and has become a key player in the new world of 527s. "NDN has not endorsed Dean or embraced him, but we have given our opinion that this is a serious campaign that is going to change the party," says Rosenberg.

As the party's split into Deaniacs and anti-Dean Clintonites unfolds, one of the most intriguing subplots concerns the machinations of Gore. Immediately after the Florida recount was decided in 2000, Gore's senior aides were purged from the DNC and Clinton's were installed. Some ex-Gore staffers are still bitter about the coup, and several express admiration for what Dean is doing.

The two men have a strained history, but lately Gore is sounding more and more like Dean. His three most important speeches since leaving office have been harsh attacks on President Bush's Iraq policy and his abuse of the Patriot Act. The two most recent were delivered before MoveOn.org, the Internet network for grassroots liberals, which is overwhelmingly pro-Dean. Some suspect that, just as Dean went outside the Beltway and built his own high-tech grassroots army to bypass the sclerotic D.C. establishment, so is Gore. It's not a bad way for him to exercise influence in the party, if he wants to make a potential endorsement more powerful or if he still harbors hopes of running for president in 2008. "The rest of the Democratic infrastructure is controlled by the Clintons," says one top Democrat.

Perhaps Gore would not endorse the former Vermont governor (though Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, says "they talk relatively regularly"). Regardless, he'll have to choose sides, because the Democrats are splitting into two parties: the party of Clinton, and the party of Dean.

[HuckleB]

53. Again, it's commentary, and from The New Republic, not CBS.

And, as fast as things are moving, it's rather dated in its conventional wisdom, nevermind its overbearing push to create readership via a false divide. Let's get real. These guys agree on the overwhelming majority of issues. If Dean ends up as the nominee, the Clintons and the DLC will be behind the campaign. There is no question about that. They are not "anti-Dean."

[Marines for Clark]

54. ?

You got to face it that the Clintons are anti-Dean. Chris Mathews has mention over and over on his show that Dean is going against the establishment which means the Clintons and The DLC, DNC. The Clintons run the DLC. When was the last time that the DLC said anything postive about Dean? I have given you 3 artcles which are less then 3 weeks old showing you that. You Deanies are so good when you bring up negative articles about Clark but when someone bring up something negative about Dean you guys think we are writting the dam article. Dean doesn't need the Clintons he could do it on his own. He has gotten this far without out them, but Clintons are still the super stars on the Democratic party.

here is the CBS Link
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/13/opinion/printable583484.shtml - 16k - Cached

[HuckleB]

55. Sorry.

I don't post negative crap about any of the candidates. What you've offered is mere heresay and conjecture with next to nothing to back it up, period. And, by the timeline of the campaign now, it IS OLD NEWS, even though its not exactly news. Further, you've repeatedly titled the pieces as something different than the reality. Why is that? Why title it dishonestly? I don't understand. You know that we'll know what kind of piece it is once we click on your post. So why do it? It doesn't make sense.

Anyway, you don't like Dean. Fine. I don't have such negative feelings toward the other candidates. That's just me. But, after all your Googling and mislabeling tomfoolery, I'm going to wait for a legitimate news source to quote Bill Clinton saying, "I'm anti-Dean," before I'm going to take any more of this stuff seriously.

Good night.

[SahaleArm]

57. The Dean campaign is about taking back the 'party'

The DLC, run by the Clintons, currently owns the Democratic party. They most definitely want control after this election cycle so they have two choices.

(1) Fight Dean behind the scenes to ensure party control.

(2) Work with Dean and bring him back to the DLC to remain power brokers.

[rumguy]

59. You're not a mind-reader M f C

What do you know about it? Other than hearsay?

[AmericanDem]

63. More of Dean's flip-flops.

will except matching campaign funds then ops out, tells Bush to unseal records but he wont,selling himself as an outsider now wants to part of the in crowd.

This guy is a cockroach of a poilitican and that is what counts. He is willing to flip on anything he has to, so long as it helps him in the long run.