Analysis: How Dean may transform Democrats

[TheWebHead]

pretty pro-Dean analysis from Rev Moon's UPI...

By MARTIN SIEFF
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Howard Dean's dramatic emergence as the likely victor to chair the Democratic National Committee reveals a sea change has taken place within the party since its unexpectedly decisive defeat in the presidential and congressional elections three months ago.

The angry insurgency that Dean channeled in 2003, only to see it rejected by Democratic primary voters at the start of 2004, will define the party for the next four years.
...

By turning to Dean now the Democrats are showing that they are determined to answer the Republicans back in kind:

Instead of waffling on Iraq, they are turning to the former Vermont governor who made his name in the spring of 2003 by being the first prominent Democrat to roll up his sleeves and blast the decision to go to war.

Instead of politely ignoring ferocious attacks framed in the politics of personal destruction, they will try to do the same thing to the president and other prominent Republicans.

more...
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050202-031510-6827r.htm

[smartvoter]

1. I'm all for this!!! nt

[WI_DEM]

2. my favorite comment is at the end

"Dean will make the Democrats interesting again, and will free them from the reflextive me-tooism that has kept them on the defensive against the GOP for more than 30 years..."

[CrispyQ]

3. I also like that Dean has read George Lakoff's book,

"Don't Think of an Elephant", about framing the issues. Now maybe we can really make some progress in getting our take on the issues out there.

[janx]

5. DFA Meetups conducted Lakoff workshops

a month or so ago.

[Carolab]

6. Howard Dean has read everything.

There is no one more knowledgeable about political activism than Dean. I'm sure he's also read Viguerie's book.

[Larkspur]

11. He doesn't watch TV, so he's got plenty of time to read

[janx]

4. Wow, you're on a mission!

"angry insurgency" LOL! B-)

[Zensea]

7. Couple of interesting points in there

I hope this isn't the case --
"Instead of politely ignoring ferocious attacks framed in the politics of personal destruction, they will try to do the same thing to the president and other prominent Republicans." I think that's probably something of spin. If you look at how the sentence is constructed it's making an assumption about how the response will pan out. I'm always interested in subtle rhetorical devices in articles. I think that's one of them there to try to lead the reader into believing the Democrats will engage in personal attack.

The attacks should not be ignored, but I hope that the response is not to fall into a frame of tit for tat personal destruction attacks.

Also I was not aware of this --
"... Texas Rep. Martin Frost, whom veteran conservative columnist George Will has been talking up in a last-ditch effort to derail the Dean bandwagon. Frost, the modern incarnation of a "yellow dog" Democrat more acceptable to Republicans nationwide than to Democrats outside his own state, dropped out of the race Tuesday."

Why anyone Democrat would take George Will's advice is beyond me. If I were Frost I imagine I would have thought to myself "thanks, but not thanks George"!

But engaging in guilt by association is not a good thing to do.
Whatever the politics of UPI/Moon (which I don't trust) the author, Sieff looks like an interesting fellow. I looked up his bio --

at http://tinyurl.com/5jvdh

"Martin Sieff has served as UPI's Managing Editor of International Affairs since 2000.

Prior to joining UPI, Mr. Sieff covered the collapse of communism as Soviet affairs correspondent for The Washington Times. From 1994-1999, he served as the paper's State Department bureau chief.

Mr. Sieff — who was born and grew up in Northern Ireland — covered the conflict in Northern Ireland for the Belfast Telegraph and the Belfast News-Letter. He also covered the Israeli-Egyptian peace process for the Jerusalem Post in the late 1970s.

Mr. Sieff has travelled widely — covering conflicts in Bosnia, the Baltic states, former Soviet Georgia and Azerbaijan. He has contributed articles to Commentary, National Review, The Jerusalem Report and The Times of London.

He has received three nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

Mr. Sieff received his Masters in Modern History from Oxford University in 1972 specializing in modern U.S. history and studied 20th century Middle East history at the London School of Economics.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

8. A decisive defeat?

Wow, that's a stretch isn't it?

[Larkspur]

9. Link is not working

Please fix it.

[Melynn]

10. We have the new media

and now with Dean we may have "the new politics". Let's keep the faith. :bounce:

[sui generis]

12. I still have a problem with one of Deans views

He is against gay marriage - with the idea of a "separate but equal" institution of civil unions subject to individual state legislation.

When black people were struggling for civil rights, can you imagine if a politician had proposed a "separate but equal" institution so that the sanctity of the white vote could be upheld? Subject to state restrictions of course.

Howard Dean, if you want to be a real leader, you need to lead on this issue too. "Marriage" is not under assault. My rights to do with my property as I wish is what is under assault, and that has nothing to do with sanctity.

[last1standing]

19. I don't agree with the stance....

But is there anyone running who say's they are for the right of homosexuals to marry?

I'm afraid there's no choice but to take this step now and work for actual equal rights later.

My personal opinion is that gay people should sue the government for reimbursement of taxes as they are not given the full rights of citizenship. That would wake a few people up.

[deadparrot]

13. It's about frigging time.

Look where being soft got us.

It's time we tried something new; it can't possibly be any worse than the state of affairs right now.

[Daisey Mae]

14. I would be so happy with Dean at the helm......

We would have some clear thinking combined with a little reality. Furthermore Dean has more courage in his little finger than............just about anyone in the Democrat Party....No pink tutu there.....We have a whole lot of "fraidy cat" Democrats..... Dean, Boxer and Mark Dayton are not three of them....."

[last1standing]

15. This is at least the fourth right wing rag column you've posted.

Why do you want us to listen to neo-cons? What's your agenda?

[janx]

17. Fifth or sixth, anyway!

:shrug:

[last1standing]

18. I thought there was a rule about posting right wing propaganda...

without notice of what it is. Has that gone by the wayside?

[janx]

20. Apparently so!

I looked for that rule days ago and could not find it.

[MAlibdem]

16. Yup, that's pretty much the game plan.

If they want to play dirty, ugly politics, we can win that, because we don't suck so much in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY.

[BlueInRed]

21. A surprisingly decent article, given the RW source! n/t

[Andromeda]

22. Turn-about is fair play, I always say.

The days of being polite and taking insults from right-wing Republican talking heads is over.

No longer will Dems be content to be the party Repubs love to abuse.

We need somebody with some intestinal fortitude who will put these hypocritical, loathsome, disgusting throwbacks to the stone age firmly in their proper place.

I can only think of Howard Dean.