Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is actively lobbying Democratic National Committee (DNC) delegates to select former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as their next chairman.
The endorsement of the leading antiwar presidential candidate by one of the Democrats’ most prominent early supporters of the Iraq invasion signals a rehabilitation of Dean’s image in the House and greatly increases his prospects of leading the party, many Democratic lawmakers and aides said.
Several lawmakers said support by the hardscrabble, old-school Vietnam veteran, who endorsed former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) in the presidential primaries, would compel the DNC to take a second look at the firebrand governor and not simply write him off as an extreme avatar of the party’s antiwar wing.
At Dean’s request, Murtha wrote to Pennsylvania’s seven delegates to the DNC last week explaining why he is endorsing a candidate with whom he shares so few positions.
“I am not with him on all the issues, but he understands the party’s problems, what we need to do and how to get there,” said Murtha. “And he has executive experience. … A lot of people in the party don’t understand just where we are. We need a change. We need something different.”
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