Herding Donkeys. Dean's Samoa trip, the Kaine introduction, and the snub by 3 WH staff.

madfloridian

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Wed Nov-24-10 12:17 AM
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Herding Donkeys. Dean's Samoa trip, the Kaine introduction, and the snub by 3 WH staff.

Edited on Wed Nov-24-10 12:26 AM by madfloridian

I guess I should say incoming staff. I posted about this in early 2009, and I was told in pretty angry words that I was just wrong. I feel this is a pretty clear indication it was meant as a deliberate snub.

From Herding Donkeys by Ari Berman, pp 205, 206:

On January 7, White House political director Patrick Gaspard, a former top labor organizer from New York, called DNC executive director Tom McMahon. Gaspard told McMahon that Obama planned to name Virginia governor Tim Kaine as his new DNC chair and wanted to make the announcement at the DNC the following day. Gaspard asked if Dean would be around. Dean's planning to be in American Samoa, the last U.S. territory he'd yet to visit as DNC chair, McMahon responded. (He'd logged 741,000 miles on the job.) Should he postpone his trip?

If he's already planning the trip, don't tell him to cancel, Gaspard replied. It would be better, in other words, if Dean wasn't there. Administration officials didn't want Obama to face any questions at the press conference about why Dean hadn't received a plum position in the White House. One snub led to another.

Gaspard, ironically, worked on Dean's campaign in 2004, but now served a higher office. "The decision was made by Rahm and Plouffe and (deputy chief of staff) Jim Messina", said the senior transition member. "I was specifically told by a senior administration official, 'It comes from those three guys. They specifically want to do this to Dean.'"
Even the new Camelot wasn't above a little revenge.

Karen Finney, Dean's communication director was in the back of the room. She was upset. Obama complimented Dean, and thanked him for working with Rahm. Finney wondered, according to Berman, why he could not have said that with Dean beside him.

Here is Berman's take on the snub, and I wholeheartedly agree. From page 207:

Dean's snub didn't matter because of one man's bruised ego or thwarted ambitions. Rather, his shabby treatment would come to represent a broader abandonment of the party's grassroots base, especially as Obama packed his White House with well-worn veterans of previous administrations who embodied longevity over innovation and connections over change...

In January 2009 there was a post about Jim Dean's defense of his brother. He made it very clear that Howard would have changed his schedule.

Jim Dean says his brother would have rescheduled his trip..if he had been invited to the press conference today.

If he had been asked to go to that event, he would have been there,� Jim Dean, the chairman�s brother, noted twice in an interview.

..."The fact that Dean wasn�t even included in Thursday�s ceremonial � and very public � transfer of power from him to Kaine only underscored his isolation.

"The snub today was no accident," said one Dean ally. �I guarantee you he would have rescheduled his trip if asked to attend. It�s easy to (screw) over people when you are riding high in the polls, let's see how many people are singing his praises in six months."

There were other comments as well at Daily Kos and Rolling Stone quote from Tim Dickinson.

CHEERS to Tim Kaine. As with all of Obama's appointments, I'll give the new DNC chair a wide berth, but I have to say that not inviting Howard Dean to attend the passing of the baton yesterday was tacky (it's like 44 is daring us to not like him). Rolling Stone's Tom Dickinson says that Dean will be a hard act to follow:

Dean never had a high charisma quotient but his vision thing was off the charts. In many ways Obama is the Facebook to Dean�s Friendster. He took the grassroots/online formula that Dean innovated in 2003 and turned it into the killer app of 2008. Obama�s formidable campaign machine also steamrolled along the 50-state path blazed by Dean as DNC chair.

Here�s hoping Dean lands somewhere quiet and consequential, where his over-the-horizon thinking can be leveraged and his unsmooth demeanor will matter not.

Quite frankly, I am getting a little weary of charisma right now. I am tired of smooth talking meant to pacify all sides. I am longing to hear some real "unsmooth" talk right now...lacking in charisma but full of passion. I miss it. It will take that to win again.

I have had to set Herding Donkeys away for a while, will read more of it later. It simply brings back so many overwhelming memories of our enthusiastic work from 2003 with the campaign, and 2005 on while he was at the DNC.

Berman is right. The snub of Dean that day was a kick in the gut to progressives. I feel that kick again the more I see what is happening to education.

There seems to be no indication that there is any renewed awareness of the voters who enthusiastically brought the wins in 2006 and 2008. That's a shame.