The Nation editorial honors Howard Dean today. Also welcomed at Netroots Nation.

[madfloridian]

This was a nice editorial at The Nation. Also the video and picture from Netroots Nation are cheerful. That's good. I think some of our upset at the way Dean's efforts were ignored are turning into a more comfortable feeling....less passion and less urge to take part financially. The party has enough money now, and not so much effort needed by us anymore.

From The Nation, an editorial.

Missing Howard Dean

Where is Howard Dean? Republicans certainly haven't forgotten him, with candidate after candidate for RNC chair and local GOP leaders belatedly praising Dean (after mocking him for years) and calling for their own version of the fifty-state strategy, which revived the Democratic Party across the country, starting at the grassroots--especially in long-forgotten red states, many of which turned purple or blue in 2006 and '08. What was once a controversial point has now become obvious: Dean's trailblazing presidential campaign and tenure as DNC chair laid the foundation for Barack Obama's historic fifty-state campaign. Dean took one of the most thankless jobs in Washington and transformed the way the party did business and won elections, without pomp or pretension, which for a politician of his stature is remarkable.

....."Yet for all his successes, Dean has become a virtual stranger in his own party, with no place in the incoming Obama administration. On January 8, the day Obama announced his choice of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to lead the DNC, Dean was on a trip to American Samoa--the last territory he had yet to visit as party chair--leading to speculation, subsequently confirmed, that he'd been snubbed by the Obama team, even as Obama publicly praised Dean as a "visionary and effective leader." Moreover, Dean has been passed over for cabinet slots such as secretary of health and human services and surgeon general, which concern his original passion and area of expertise, healthcare reform. If Rahm Emanuel, who bitterly opposed the fifty-state strategy in '06, can be Obama's chief of staff, then Dean should have a place somewhere in Obama's administration. That would be a true "team of rivals." It's a distressing sign when Bill Kristol and Obama's conservative dining buddies get treated better than Dean.

...."If he's not on the inside, then we hope Dean will stay active on the outside. His confidants say Dean plans to enter the private sector, teach, give speeches about healthcare reform and help political parties around the world succeed at bottom-up, progressive politics. It's our hope that Dean will continue to oxygenate the grassroots at home.

Like I say he looks and sounds happy, deservedly so.

He was talking economics on CNBC yesterday morning, and seemed to be enjoying it greatly.

Dean on CNBC

We got our Democratic president and congress...gained over 50 in the House since 2005 and I believe 8 Senators and 7 governors. Hubby and I worked the phones for many of them through various groups and more than did our share financially. Now we are fine with moving on without the responsibility of all that. It's kind of a pleasant feeling, but rather an empty one. But that will go away.

Here is another write-up and video clip by John Amato of Crooks and Liars. It is about the Netroots Nation auguration party.

Howard Dean at Netroots Nation: Don't put politics on the shelf

Monday night I co-hosted the Netroots Nation "Yes We Can" party and we had a blast. I met a lot of people that I work with and never see...I interviewed Alan Grayson for about five minutes and he's really funny in person with a dynamic personality that really is going to rock the HOUSE.

Anyway, Howard Dean showed up and we talked for a few minutes about Obama and I thanked him for his 50 state strategy. He was psyched. He went up a gave a speech to the peeps and I was able to record about 8 minutes of it. I'm getting read to leave DC now so I don't have the time to write up a transcript. Please feel free to put some in the comment section. He gets right to the point always.

His message was not to rest on our laurels and continue to be activists, bloggers and organizers.

Firedoglake's emptywheel also had a nice write-up of Netroots Nation events, and Marcy finally got a picture with Dean after all these years.



Thank You Howard Dean, for Showing Us the Way!

When I went to Cedar Rapids to work for Howard Dean in 2004 (when he was still leading in the polls), we moshed him outside of the Jeff-Jack Dinner. But I didn't ask for a photo.

When I went to an ACLU fund-raiser with Dean later that year, I didn't ask for a photo.

When I went to a another fund-raiser with him in MI, I didn't ask for a photo.

When I saw him speak at YearlyKos, I didn't ask for a photo.

Last night, I got my first photo with Dean (It's a pity I look so crappy).

It was at the Netroots Nation ball. I was coming out of the ladies room and someone ran up and said: Howard Dean is at the top of the steps! Like he was a rock star ... which, in this crowd, he is.

I am glad the netroots are giving him his due, and The Nation editorial was special.

I will never understand the lack of recognition by his party, but that's the way things go when one goes inside as an outsider. One is never really part of things....which is why a person like that can make such a difference.

But when it is time for the outsider to go, the door swings heavily. Hubby and I were talking today about it...we are outsiders here since the primary fiasco. Not really a part anymore of the party locally. Here you gotta go along to get along.

For 5 years we really worked, donated and cared, and it was a good time...and now it is time to realize that the same power base is back in control. And just accept it.

Obama is going to be a great president. I think he can get us back on track. Just a word or two for the one who helped us get here would have kept many from feeling outside again. Simple gestures.

[Taverner]

1. In a meritocracy, he would be king

But alas, our party is not that...

[madfloridian]

2. Did you see the High-Five Inauguration video? I meant to include

it as his having some fun. Funny video.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ae73278a00/high-five-inauguration

[FloriTexan]

3. That was great!

Dean did look like he was having fun. Thank you! :hi:

[madfloridian]

4. Glad you enjoyed it. He was funny...and even Gingrich at the end was funny.

It is so cold here...back in the low 30s, high 20s for 3 nights in a row.

Hope your weather is better.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

5. More senate seats than I listed....

From his speech yesterday:

"We picked up 8 Senate seats in 2008 and 6 in 2006. We won in places like Alaska and North Carolina -- states where no one thought Democrats could be competitive. But we knew better.


We picked up 24 House seats last year after winning 31 in 2006. We had 22 Democratic governors when you elected me your chairman. Today we have 29.


Our Party now controls at least 60 of the nation's 98 state legislative chambers, which will not only impact redistricting, but will make our Party's bench even stronger."

14 senate seats, 55 house seats, 7 governors, and a good majority of state chambers.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Dean helped us take our party from the DLC, and Obama has given it right back to them.

That's the situation. It may be that that is the only way that Obama could get to the White House. With the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, rightwing forces ultimately control the White House, and say yea or nay. They could easily--EASILY!--have denied Obama victory (and I'm convinced they shaved 5% off this mandate, to help keep him in line and prevent any real reform). So I think he made a deal with war/corporate Democrats, who are close to the Bushwhacks on most issues. It is just something we have to live with. We don't control our vote counting any more. But it is a bitter pill, to say the least. I really balked at seeing the worst of the DINOs--Diane Feinstein--presiding over the Inauguration, and Howard Dean nowhere in sight. Feinstein headed to the Supreme Court, is my guess. Jeez. So much for any hope of curtailing corporate power in the courts.

Dean helped give us the power--we, the people, the voters--to put Obama in a position to make a deal, and be permitted into the White House. That's what we accomplished. It is something, but it is NOT democracy. It's more like the late, deteriorating Roman Republic, and we are the plebians--the rabble in the streets. We do NOT have a government of, by and for the people--not yet anyway. We have first to deal with the 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting. (Obama got his jumpstart in the caucus states, where Diebold and brethren do NOT count the votes; then he faced all 'TRADE SECRET' voting, through the remainder of the primaries, and in the general--completely unverifiable 'TRADE SECRET' voting counting in half the states, with only a 1% audit--not nearly adequate--in the rest. And he became more and more of emperor all along the way.)

[madfloridian]

8. Here's a good post from a right wing person...Exit Stage Left

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/blogs/fortyfourthestate/

"WASHINGTON -- Howard Dean made his mark six years ago when he burst onto the Democratic scene as the rogue candidate with a message and a method that no one had ever seen before.

Today he left, quietly, with little fanfare and little press, but the party that he built from the ground up will never be the same again, and that is a good thing if you are a Democrat.

Dean literally re-built the Democratic Party, making it a national party again, putting field offices and bodies where Democrats had no business running candidates. He built the party from the ground up, literally, concentrating on races as small as school boards and city councils, understanding that parties are built by having a good bench.

While his powerful counterparts pushed back on his methods, his spectacular wins in the 2006 mid-terms and in November transformed a party that suffered greatly from “battered Democrat syndrome” and a bare-bones 17-state focus into the premier national party in power.

“It was time to go. I put in place what I wanted to do, and now it is time to focus on health care and education policy,” Dean said in an interview right after he handed the national party gavel to Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia."

More at the link.

Not a bad interview at all.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Well, not everybody sat back, but I think Dean is right, on the whole--

my generation (those who came of age in the '60s) fought hard against unjust war, and for social justice and peace, but I don't think we understood very well how strong the forces for unjust war and other injustice really were/are. After the Vietnam War, we should have dismantled the "military-industrial complex" and established a small, truly defensive military force--and we did not, and perhaps could not. Our national political establishment was very smart to end the Draft (after the war). That helped take the steam out of the peace and justice movement. But something else happened, which I think was even more retrogressive, and that is the assassination of our leaders--JFK, RFK and MLK--within five years (RFK and MLK in the same year, 1968). I know that those events caused me serious trauma--I might even call it post-traumatic stress syndrome. What are you going to do when they just keep killing your leaders off? What use is it to be politically active, and try to elect good people?

I remember, also, something that was said to me in the early 1980s, that really disgusted me, but that was probably typical of a certain group of '60s Democratic grass roots activists, who went on to became politicos. Someone with that kind of background, who had risen up to a pretty high position as a political consultant, remarked at a private dinner I attended, regarding Reagan's ascendancy, "Time to make some money." He meant, 'abandon leftist causes, why fight it?, take the opportunity to get your own wad.' I think I was pushing some leftist cause at that dinner, and his comment appalled me. And I have to say that I don't think he was alone. I've seen evidence of that crass attitude in others who have risen up within the party. The Democratic Party of Bill Clinton was virtually unrecognizable to me, compared to the Democratic Party I was part of, as a youngster. Anti-labor legislation like NAFTA, and anti-poor people policies like "welfare reform" became the party's agenda. It may have been politically correct on some social issues--like women's rights--but on fundamental economic issues the Democratic Party ceased to represent the interests of the middle class, workers, the poor and small business--the majority of people in the country. Yet we had nowhere else to go--as the Republican Party moved further and further toward the nutball right, ultimately to fall right over the cliff of fascism, under Bush Jr. I and others kept voting for (and working for) Democrats, for smaller and smaller representation of our interests. (I remember voting for Clinton, the second time around, in the hope of a 25 cent raise in the minimum wage, which had already fallen way behind inflation. That was it. That was virtually the only thing I agreed with him on. I felt that that small increase would mean a lot to the very poor. Scraps from the master's table, is what it was.)

I was very sorry to see Howard Dean leave the DNC. And I have the very strong suspicion that he was pushed out by the DLC, which is back in charge. That is bad news. But I think it's also probable that Barack Obama would not have been permitted to become president if he had NOT accommodated that powerful, retro faction--as I said above. I'm convinced of it, actually. The "powers that be" in this country, and the multinational corporations who are really running things, are not about to let 'we, the people' have our country back. And they've now got 'TRADE SECRET' control of the vote counting. And that's where I think we should start, in restoring our democracy--and the most hopeful venue for restoring transparent vote counting--vote counting in public control; vote counting that everyone can see and understand--is at the state/local level. Congress is not about to do it--they fucked it up, and gave it over to rightwing corporations, in the first place, with most Democrats voting for it.

So WE have to fix it, if it's going to be fixed. Ordinary people still have some potential power at the state/local level. I think we have none in Washington, even now--for this and other reasons: our president, our senators, our congress people, are all dependent on private, rightwing, 'TRADE SECRET' code vote counting--and, once they get to Washington, if they are not compromised long before that, with our mindbogglingly filthy campaign contribution system, they soon become embedded in that bubble of corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, war profiteering and corporate...I was going to say, lobbying...but it's more than that, it's rule by outside forces, multinational corporations with loyalty to no one. And if they stray too far from toadying to those powers, they get destroyed (by the media), or dis-elected (by Diebold & brethren). State/local officials are empowered through the same system, but they live closer to the people, need our support more, and some might live right down the street from you (for instance, your county registrar of voters, or county supervisor, who actually choose the voting system; you can go to a county supes meeting fairly easily, but not a Congressional committee hearing in DC).

Hey, how's this for an idea? Our federal government should be mobile. It should move--lock, stock and barrel--to regional federal capitals, say one in the Midwest, one in the West and one in the South, as well as DC--every (say) four years, maybe every two years. The president and congress should be in residence in the regional capitols on an equal basis. Why should the people in Maryland or Virginia have such easy access to Congress, which the rest of us never have? Why should I have to travel 3,000 miles just to go to a congressional hearing--a prohibitive cost and inconvenience? Maybe that's what wrong with our government, fundamentally. The country is just too big for public accountability.

Anyway, farewell, Dr. Dean! Farewell, 50-state strategy! Farewell, to the peoples' party! And hello to what...a bipartisan Forever War and scraps from the table?

[madfloridian]

7. He spoke at Choate tonight.

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=20247292&BRD=2755&PAG=461&dept_id=592709&rfi=6

"Your generation is the first multicultural generation in the history of America, the first generation that sees itself as the way America truly is," Dean said. "He is you, and you are him, and for the foreseeable future this country is going to be looking for Barack Obamas of every sort."

The problem with his generation, he said, is that it actively worked to change the world in the'60s, but then decided to take a "vacation" from politics to settle down, lead lives and raise families, eschewing a life of public service in the process.

"That was a mistake that you can't repeat. We would not have had the extraordinary events of the last eight years if our generation hadn't done that," Dean said."

[blm]

9. The Dems who stuck their necks out are pushed aside so the 'strategist' class can claim the wins

and profit from those wins.

Politicians who played it safe the last 8years and kept a low profile when it came to seriously opposing BushInc are in positions of power that aren't exactly EARNED and they KNOW it but use their media connections to act as if they have been the opposition force the entire time - and they NEED those who REALLY did the heavy lifting all these years pushed aside.

[madfloridian]

10. Reminded me..

The Strategic Class

Note the many names still in the top of leadership.

[madfloridian]

12. Interesting chain of command at the new DNC.

From The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder.

The DNC transition begins

The Democratic National Committee began a four-week-long transition yesterday.

Jennifer Dillon O'Malley, the DNC's new executive director, greeted employees at an all-staff meeting, bringing with her two lieutenants, Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird. Stewart and Bird will run Organizing for America, the presidential incarnation of Obama's presidential campaign. Dillon O'Malley promised the DNC staff that she's committed to continuing Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, although she did not provide specifics. She's begun meeting with current staffers to seek their input. How many will stay, how many will go -- all that is to be determined.

Over the next month, Dillon O'Malley has a lot to figure out. The DNC's internal politics can be tough to negotiate, with state chairs often at odds with each other, with an executive committee that wants some independence, with a chairman, Tim Kaine, who hasn't worked with Dillon O'Malley before. And then there's the White House: the executive director of the DNC will recieve marching orders from senior adviser David Axelrod and the White House political office. Kaine is not expect(ed) to make day-to-day decisions.

WH > Axelrod > Dillon O'Malley > Kaine

Hmmmm...so the chairman is who?