Dean to seek chairmanship of Democrats

The latest polls from Pollingreport.com, re: whom people will vote for in Congress:

Democracy Corps, May 23:

Republican 43%
Democrat 48%

CNN/USA Today/Gallup, May 22:

Republican 36%
Democrat 47%

NBC News/Wall Street Journal, May 16:

(""What is your preference for the outcome of the 2006 congressional elections?")

Controlled By Republicans 40%
Controlled By Democrats 47%

They need to conduct another poll, post the "Dean Scream" moment

By the way, nimh, similar results were obtained in both 2001 and 2004 (Dems leading Repubs in the polls) and, hmmmmm, guess what happened?



PS Democracy Corps? Carville/Greenberg/Shrum! Sheesh.

Dean may be the best thing that ever happened for Hillary - she can ride, Joan of Arc-like,- to her Party's rescue. Any act to the right of Mao will seem positively centrist compared to Dean.

As for opinion polls, The Dems have had the lead in polls and by media punditry damned near across the board since the before the '98 mid-terms. I'd think they'd be suspicious of 'em by now; favorable press and a lead in the polls seems to spell electoral doom for The Dems.

If Dean isn't a spokesman for the Party then what is he?

Anyway, I think most Dems think like Dean and like what he says... I also think that of Edwards and Biden but they are just too smart to echo Dean's rhetoric in the press because they see the bigger picture.

Wolf Blitzer even pressed Dean about his choice of words in his recent statements about Republicans...as Dean uses the broad term of 'Republicans' when he is rambling about this Admin. Dean seemed oblivious that his statements would/could be taken as 'all Republicans'....that's really reaching across the aisle for voters, eh Dean?

And of course he had to mention Rush Limbaugh...Dean still hasn't been cured of his Rush addiction.

Dean's followers are too small in number and too far left (think fringe). It will take huge support from the middle for the Dems to recapture either Congress or the White House. Hillary will do her best to be a convincing 'moderate', but as with Kerry, all one has to do is closely examine her voting record.

True. When the generic question is asked whether they'd prefer a Democrat or a Republican Congressmen, respondents tend to go with Democrat. But if they then look at the actual Republican and Democrat standing in their district/state, they switch to the Republican, instead. There's a lesson in there, somewhere.

The lesson could be that 'all politics are local' as the saying goes

You might want to look up some recent polling data on a certain Senator from W. Virginia....I know it's way, way early (and not even sure he's gonna run), but could be we'll be singing 'Bye, Bye, Byrdie" one of these days

Just saw this on Drudge ... Apparently, Dean referred to the Republican party: 'They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party'...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/07/MNdean07.TMP&o=1

Well, a fair percentage of the Republican party is busy posting on message boards about how this is a Christian country. When it gets near election time, they add "Judeo" onto that, before relapsing into Christian" again after the election.

And there sure aren't a lot of blacks voting Republican, either.

So I don't see what the fuss is about.

Excerpt:

June 8, 2005
Dean is Clearly Still Not Ready for Primetime
By Susan Estrich

In the long run, the critical question for Democrats may turn out to be not what Party Chairman Howard Dean is doing, but what he isn't doing.

The answer to the first question is easy. What he's doing is what he has become know for: shooting from the lip. This is, after all, the man who went from front-runner to also-ran in a matter of weeks, on the strength of a series of mistakes that convinced the most liberal Democratic voters in America that the guy was not ready for primetime. The much-remembered "Dean scream" came after he lost, not before -- he was already dead, politically speaking, by then.

So it should come as no surprise to experienced Dean watchers to hear him say that most Republicans have never earned an honest living. This is what it means not to be ready for primetime. You make the sort of statements that are sure to get attention because they hit flashpoints like class warfare. It's a Republican talk show host's dream.

The reason other Democrats don't say such things is because you don't win elections this way. In point of fact, of course, what Dean is saying is wrong. Most Republicans are not coupon-clippers -- they go to work and earn a day's pay like the rest of us. And hearing Howard Dean say otherwise not only offends Republicans, but also moderates and independents who have no taste for class warfare or the strident liberalism that Howard Dean is selling.

But that's not really the problem with Dean. In seeking the party chairmanship, he promised not to run for president. I'd be willing to bet that Howard Dean will be well out of the picture by the time November 2008 rolls around, having been replaced by someone with less of an appetite for insulting would-be voters and donors.

Source

June 08, 2005
Dean: Dem Poll Workers Can't Tell GOP Voters Apart
by Scott Ott

(2005-06-08) -- Many Republicans probably voted for George Bush dozens, if not hundreds, of times in 2004, according to Democrat party Chairman Howard Dean, "by taking advantage of the fact that Democrat poll workers have difficulty distinguishing individuals from among a crowd of white Christians."

"Thanks to their pale skin, round eyes and khaki trousers, Republicans just blend in," said Mr. Dean. "So they vote, get in the back of the line and vote again. And because they've never made an honest living in their lives, they could do that all day long."

The party chief announced that the Democrat National Committee will invest $50 million in developing protocols to help poll workers tell the difference between one Republican and the next.

A spokesman for the DNC later clarified the comments, noting that, "Chairman Dean intended his offensive remarks to be heard only by party loyalists, not the general public."

Scrappleface.com

It's almost like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

If Estrich has drawn a target on your head, you're gone.

She's a party regular, but didn't drink the Kool-Aid.

It IS a slow mo train wreck.

But, what this will do is AGAIN cause Indies and sane Dems (there are two left) to look at that party---and feel like they want to be FAR away from it.

Dean really has been--and continues to be--a boon to the GOP.

The truly toubling thing here is that its just possible the increasingly evident consequences stemming from the antics of Dean and his looneyleft cohorts could bring The Democratic Party to its senses, and permit the centrists to regain influence, thereby affording the party the electoral opportunities it presently is marching so briskly away from.

Pelosi has now spoken out about Dean's mindless comments.

A muzzle has probably been prepared.

Newsview: Some Democrats Angry With Dean By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - When Howard Dean opens his mouth, Democrats cringe ?- and Republicans pounce. His depictions of Republicans as "pretty much a white, Christian party," with many who "never made an honest living," have prompted top Democrats to beseech him to cool his rhetoric. They also have questioned how much more the party will take from its volatile chairman.

Defenders dismiss it all as just Howard Dean being Howard Dean.

After all, remember the Dean "scream" after the Iowa primary? His political courtship of "the guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks"? His recent suggestion that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay return to Houston to serve jail time?

Dean's enthusiasm ?- the same he demonstrated in his 2004 presidential campaign ?- is helping to energize the party's core, his supporters say. But critics suggested Wednesday that Dean's darts are threatening fundraising and may be driving away the GOP moderates and independents the party needs to court as it rebuilds from its 2004 defeats.

Dean's "white Christian" remarks have drawn sharp criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.

"That's not the way you distinguish someone's politics," said Dick Harpootlian, former South Carolina Democratic chairman. "It forces us to distance ourselves from him."

GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman joked that "a lot of folks who attended my Bar Mitzvah would be surprised" he heads a Christian party.

Leading Democrats, including some with their eye on the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, are increasingly vocal in their criticism of the former Vermont governor's choice of words ?- while praising him as a party organizer.

Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards said Dean didn't speak for them. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in New Hampshire on Wednesday, called Dean's comments "ill-advised."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she disagreed with Dean's line on Republicans, saying, "I don't think (it) was a helpful statement."

When such high-profile Democrats make such comments publicly, "that to me is a pretty clear message that the party leadership would like a change in focus from the party chairman," said Democratic consultant Doug Schoen, who did polling for President Clinton.

"I think it's a question of priorities," Schoen said.

Dean said Wednesday that Republican attacks on him were intended to divert attention from the country's problems and make him the issue instead. He refused to back down from his remarks on Republicans, saying the GOP "unfortunately, by and large" was as he described it.

"And they have the agenda of the conservative Christians," Dean told NBC's "Today" show, ignoring the fact that much of the recent criticism has come from fellow Democrats, not Republicans.

Dean is "the loose canon on the deck of the Democratic Party," said James Thurber, an American University political scientist. "He doesn't have the discipline many in the party wish he had."

His remarks, together with caustic comments about President Bush by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are souring Americans on politicians and "getting in the way of what the Democrats are trying to do," Thurber said.

Dean told a political forum Monday that Republicans are "not very friendly to different kinds of people, they are a pretty monolithic party ... it's pretty much a white, Christian party."

Last week, he told liberal activists, "A lot of them (Republicans) have never made an honest living in their lives." He later said he was talking mostly about GOP leaders.

The torrent of criticism from Republicans, and some Democrats, just shows that Dean "is held to different standards" than other party leaders because of his high public profile and well-known personality traits, said Kathleen Sullivan, New Hampshire Democratic Party chief.

"Howard's been raising money, energizing the troops, organizing the party. Is he passionate? Yes. But I'd rather have someone who is blunt and passionate," Sullivan said.

Despite concerns of some Democrats that Dean doesn't have the polished fundraising skills of his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, Dean outraised McAuliffe in the first three months of 2005 compared with the first quarter of 2003, the last off-election year: $13.8 million to $8.4 million. However, Dean's team is drawing on the benefits of an improved database of donors McAuliffe put together.

While Dean's job doesn't seem to be in any immediate jeopardy, Republicans have been having a field day with his verbal grenades.

"Last week's scandal was Deep Throat. This week's scandal was Dean's throat and apparently Dean likes the taste of his own foot," said Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Said former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler: "If Republicans get mad at what Howard Dean says, that's probably a pretty good sign."
-------------
Latest.

And some Republicans aren't too happy with Tom Delay. This is all so prosaic it almost isn't worth discussing. It's nearly all political gossip on a level not much might than a soap opera. And I exit before I slip off my soap...box.

Thankfully, DeLay isn't the spokesman for the party.

That was supposed to be Dean's job.... But, they say ....he doesn't speak for them.... So, ....what is he doing...?

actually he probably is speaking for them but the ones who plan to run for some political office in the coming few years tend to avoid anything "political" in nature, be they dems or repubs.