So why does the Globe refer to Internet organizing and fund-raising, staged protests, sloganeering — as coming uncomfortably close to those actions of the political fringe - and a bad mark on Dean?
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/01/18/dnc_to_choose_whether_dean_is_past_or_future?pg=2DNC to choose whether Dean is past or future
By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | January 18, 2005
WASHINGTON -- While George and Laura Bush are rushing from parade to parties to balls on Thursday, with most of official Washington joining them in the traditional bipartisan display of unity, Howard Dean will be cohosting ''un-inauguration" house parties of disgusted Democrats across the country, collecting money to oppose Bush's policies.
A year ago this week, the former Vermont governor stood on an invisible mountain of endorsements, Internet-fueled fund-raising, and magazine covers as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, only to watch the whole thing collapse with a major defeat in the Iowa caucuses that seemed to destroy him along with his hopes. (A David Letterman spoof of Dean's famous ''scream" during his Iowa concession speech had his head exploding.)
But Dean never stopped working and organizing, and now he's mounting a credible campaign to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And he's making the same intriguing offer he did a year ago -- taking the fight to Bush -- albeit with vastly lower stakes. Though centrist in his background and credentials, Dean is a partisan tiger on the campaign trail. Like the people of Iowa a year ago, the 447 voting members of the DNC are deciding whether to indulge their inner anger at the White House and toss him into the national ring.<snip>