Vilsack, Dean Jockey for Top DNC Post

[goobergunch]

1 hour, 9 minutes ago
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

WASHINGTON - Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack told Democratic leaders on Friday he may seek the party's top job as the jockeying to replace chairman Terry McAuliffe intensified.

Vilsack, an ally of failed presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites), telephoned several Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) members as he traveled in Europe, seeking their advice and asking them to withhold their endorsement of any candidate until he decides whether to seek the job.

Vilsack said that decision will come after his return from Europe next week, according to three officials familiar with the conversations. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Vilsack's candidacy appeared likely despite several complicating factors.

One is a long list of other Democrats interested in the job, including former Kerry rival Howard Dean (news - web sites) who began calling DNC members this week seeking support. The 400-plus DNC membership meets in February to select a replacement for McAuliffe, who is not seeking another term.

continues at link....

[74dodgedart]

1. I vote for Dean

Brings some energy and understanding of grassroots organization.

[Seabiscuit]

87. So do I

Dean also brings princple and commitment - he's done more for this country during the past two years than any other politician in America. And he's still doing it with democracyforamerica.

[Obviousman]

2. Vilsack for DNC chair: "Let's stay out of power for the forseeable future!

[sweetheart]

57. That is obvious isn't it. Dean, or lose until 2020...

I think they'll be stupid instead, as they party is now on a
deliberate self destruction path. If they repeat the clinton
triangulation mistake again after 3 election losses, i'll
think of voting green. At least i'll feel better about voting
for my conscience, as there is no point in voting for losers
who don't listen.

DEAN DEAN!!! go man! You are the one for the job. I seriously
hope they have the sense.

[WI_DEM]

3. DNC Chair should be a full time, not a part time job

we have alot of work to do and Vilsack is still governor for two more years.

[Leilani]

4. Vilsack, the man who helped Kerry win Iowa caucuses

maybe we should try a new approach?

[goobergunch]

5. Heh

Why I am doubtful that Vilsack would be a good choice.

[Hobarticus]

7. Gov. Schwarzenegger didn't deliver CA, either...eom

[goobergunch]

10. Difference

California has voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 1988. Iowa last voted Republican in 1984.

[Hobarticus]

11. Sorry, not making a connection....

Gore didn't carry TN, his own state, in 2000. Doesn't mean he wouldn't have been a good president.

Vilsack may not be the best choice, but don't dismiss him so out-of-hand.

[IowaGuy]

32. That is exactly why Vilsack should be DNC chair...

he knows how to win in a state like that. Dean completely and totally stepped on his own dick here (My apologies to the Dean supporters, but thats the truth - I actually like a lot of things about him)

[reprobate]

48. He stepped on what? He was assasinated.

He was targetted by the media when he started to threaten the repugs.

Dean would bring a new energy to the party, which it desperately needs. If we face just more of the same the party will need last rights.

Dean will also bring the grass roots out to get involved and start to take control of the party. In my opinion the party is now controlled by the power elite, with little difference from the repugs. We absolutley MUST have new blood from the local precincts to the national leadership.

I truly believe that we will have the opportunity for a comeback. The repugs will destroy themselves with their pandering to the religous fanatics on the far right. Most republicans hate what their party has become, and we are about to see a real war over there, with the result that they will be fragmented.

This will be our time if we are prepared with fresh leadership who the people can identify with.

[pokercat999]

61. Agreed

I'm turning more green every day. What I would really like to see is a LIBERAL libertarian party.

[newyawker99]

68. Hi pokercat999!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[OrwellwasRight]

71. Hello Pokercat!

How will there ever be a liberal libertarian party?

Libertarians are very "every man for himself." If they could, they would eliminate public schools, police forces, and roads.

I mean, I love their stands on gays, marijuana, and abortions, but their central philosophy would prevent them from supporting liberal values such as universal healthcare, universal quality affordable education, affordable housing, labor union rights, environmental protections, etc.

But give me your ideas. I love third parties.

[lojasmo]

63. We didn't win IA

Vilsack stepped on his own D*** when he endorsed a sure loser. (my own prognostication come true *sigh*)

[JohnKleeb]

92. VIlsack endorsed Kerry after he won Iowa

not before.

[lojasmo]

97. Like I said, Kerry didn't win Iowa, even though Vilesack endorsed. N/T

[NashVegas]

84. That's Why He Should NOT Be DNC Chair

Iowa Dems backed the wrong candidate.

[cal04]

6. Conflicting reports abouts this

Dean Denies DNC Chairman Rumors

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean called rumors of his candidacy for chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) “premature,” but did not rule out running for president in 2008 during an appearance in the Kirkland House JCR Wednseday afternoon.

Governor Dean, who rose to national fame last year as the early frontrunner prominence the Democratic primary, was on campus to speak at a study group at the Institute of Politics (IOP) led by Fellow Jeff Amestoy, the former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court appointed by Dean. Before the study group, Dean took questions from members of the Harvard College Democrats and other students in Kirkland.

Admitting that he had a “tough decision to make,” Dean said becoming DNC Chairman could prevent him from another possible attempt at the presidency in 2008.“I haven’t decided to , and it also means that I can’t run in 2008 for President,” Dean said.
When asked to comment on what John F. Kerry could have done differently in his race for president, Dean refused to explicitly criticize the Kerry campaign, saying that every campaign makes mistakes. In reference to his infamous outburst after the Iowa Caucuses, Dean jokingly said it was impossible to find one “yahoo” moment to explain why the campaign failed.

“There is an enormous amount we can learn , but it’s going to be learned privately,” he said.

Dean was more willing to openly criticize the Democratic Party as a whole. In the wake of the party’s presidential, senatorial, and congressional defeats last week, Dean said it was clear that the party needed better discipline.

http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article504433.html

[Hobarticus]

8. Northeastern liberal v. midwestern moderate...

Well, we keep trying to put up northeastern liberals and losing....

Better keep the NE liberals in charge of the DNC.

Wouldn't want to be seen as opening up our appeal to the rest of the nation, no sirree.

Nothing wrong with liberals, but, what's wrong with moderates?

[Sandpiper]

12. Yeah, let's go GOP-lite

It's been such a successful strategy for us:

Lost us the House

Lost us the Senate

Lost us the majority of Governorships

[Hobarticus]

13. Being lock-step liberal has sure gotten far, hasn't it?

Not saying compromise liberal principles, I'm saying to broaden appeal to the middle. It's a different thing.

[Sandpiper]

14. What liberal principles was Kerry running on?

The biggest planks of his campaign platform were:

1) I'll be even tougher on national security than Bush

2) I support tax cuts, but differ with Bush on where they should go


Yessir, what a flaming liberal he was.

[Hobarticus]

16. He was painted as a "NE liberal", whether it was true or not...

And it stuck. I never claimed he was a flaming liberal.

Never mind. It's a lost cause. Let's put another "northeastern liberal" in charge, someone who can keep getting pigeonholed as such, and let's keep losing. Wheee!

[Sandpiper]

17. Nope, let's put another Terry Mac DLC "Centrist" in charge

Our minorities aren't small enough yet!

Yipppeeee!!!!!

[Hobarticus]

19. Just got our asses handed to us because we're supposedly "out of touch"...

...so let's keep doing the exact same thing we did before!

Hate to see any fresh faces in the Dem party, and break up that stranglehold grip on power!

Hooray!!!

[Sandpiper]

20. And our loss came as the DNC was under the helm of a "Centrist"

Corporate, Repub-lite named Terry McAuliffe.

You know, one definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over but expect a different result.

[Hobarticus]

21. How could I have been so blind?

After losing an election in which the Dems ran a perceived as a northeastern out-of-touch liberal, we should actually put in charge of the DNC...

...a REAL northeastern liberal.

Guess all that red outside of the NE doesn't really count at all. They spoke pretty plainly to me, but what do I know?

You know, one definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over but expect a different result.

[Sandpiper]

22. Thank you for helping me see the light

The Democratic Party lost its majorities in the House and Senate after becoming Repub-lite.

So the solution is:

Move further to the right.


I've got an even better idea. Let's change the name of our party and start calling ourselves...

Republicans!

[VegasWolf]

96. Dr. Dean has my vote! n/t

[OrwellwasRight]

39. I've come to see the posts here frequently

boil down to one thing:

should we move to the center or should we move to the left?

Given that the Repubs will paint ANY Dem candidate as an "out of touch" liberal, shouldn't we stop letting THEM define us and dictate our choices and instead just have a little faith in ourselves?

You say that they painted Kerry as a NE liberal because he was a NE liberal. Well, consider this:

1) Kerry is NOT a liberal. The NatJourn rankings are "skewed" in a statistical sense because they omit votes that did not split on or very close to party lines, because NatJourn considers such votes as ineffective predictors. However, think about it, if thee is a very liberal proposal, so liberal that only a few Senate Dems vote for it, it may not be scored at all. Other votes are excluded for other reasons, but you see the possible effects. Kerry is not a complete centrist, but he is not a lefty either. His record is relatively moderate (e.g., Iraq war vote). The Repubs did not peg Kerry as a Massachusetts Liberal because he really was, they did it because it was politically expedient. The word "liberal" to most Repub voters is about as efficient as the sound of a bell to Pavlov's dog. They would have called Jody Joe a NE liberal, too.

2) The Repubs painted Clinton as an "elitist." Yes, Clinton, who may as well have been born in trailer park during a hoe-down, an elitist. Clinton grew up poor, speaks with a Southern accent, and treats women as if it were still the 16th Century. He's about as "good ol' boy middle America" as you can get. They called him an elitist because they could. Again, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it.

So what's the point of my diatribe? That the repubs are going to say mean, false, and politically effective things no matter who we pick, so why don't we pick somebody we can believe in and go from there?

Since Terry McAuliffe has proved himself hopelessly incompetent and Daschle (centrist till death) couldn't even get re-elected, let's go with people who STAND for something instead of just attempting to be as inoffensive as possible. Bush is the most offensive person I have come across in my lifetime and he still manged (possibly) to get the majority of the country to vote for him.

So let's be bold!!!

[crispini]

98. Um, only political junkies know or care

who the head of the DNC is, IMO.

I agree that Kerry was painted as a NE lib, and I think we should consider a non-NE candidate for 2008, but I think Dean's fire and energy and grassroots organizing ability makes him a natural fit for DNC chair.

I think of Dean almost as a populist. And we need more populists in this party, that's for sure.

[bemildred]

101. I think the notion that people vote for candidates based

on what state or region they are from is ridiculous and contrary
to observable fact. For the most part it appears to be that voters
vote the way they are propagandized to vote, and that changes from
election to election based on the desires of the ruling class.

[Jim Sagle]

34. Chickenshit bullshit. We didn 't lose, it was stolen.

[pokercat999]

62. The middle (in this context)

keeps moving right! To be in the "middle"now one would have to be a conservative repug from about 15 years ago.

[Liberaltarian]

76. "Lock-step liberal"...??? since when?

puh-lease...the idiot geniuses at the dlc have taken this party so far to the right, that we have to go left just to get back to where the center should be.

[JNelson6563]

80. Um, "lock-step liberal" is an oxymoron

FYI. Thank for the chuckle though.

:toast:

Julie

[Seabiscuit]

88. ... and gave us 8 years of the moronic, demonic, smirking chimp

[wickerwoman]

41. Dean isn't a liberal.

He's pro-gun and fiscally conservative.

And I thought we were done myth-busting when he lost the nomination.

I'm getting misty...

[Stinky The Clown]

44. Dean? Liberal?

I still don't understand how this can be said. He was, in fact quite a moderate. His only "liberal" position of which I am aware is his opposition to the War in Iraq (tm)

[w13rd0]

9. Who was that guy...

...that "ran" against McAullfie? I know he passed away, but from what I'd heard, he would have been better than Terry, in the org aspect if not fund raising. We need someone that can do both. Fund raising and message delivery and coherence...

[jefferson_dem]

27. Maynard Jackson, former Mayor of Atlanta

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0603/jacksonindex.html

[Nicholas_J]

15. Vilsack

Or anybody not from the Northeast. Absolutely necessary for the Democratic Party to shed the Northeastern elitist image, and become a party of Middle America. THe party has to break from any conection with Northeaster liberalism and move its center to the midwest, to counterbalance the southern conservative bloc.

Dean represents not something that can revitalize the party, but a sort of mobization of a small part of a group that didnt know anything about the party to begin with.

The last leadership position Dean held for the Dem,cratic Party resulted in devastating losses at the state level in governors.

[Native_Iowan]

29. This Native Iowan Says DEAN!!!!

With all due respect to Mr. Vilsack, a fine man and the first Democrat in my lifetime to live on Terrace Hill, what this party badly needs is less triangulation and more authenticity.

Folks, forget all the mainstream media crap about whether to go left, right, or middle. This obsession with points on a spectrum ignores the deeper issue. The real battle for the soul of the party is no longer between "centrist" DLCers and lefties - that is so 2002! It is in truth, a battle between those uber-strategic, hyper-slick, triangulating, change-from-the-top-down insiders marooned on the sturdy but obsolete U.S.S. Big Dog and the leaner, but meaner PT-Howard Dean and its grassroots crew who want to not only win, but to change the world.

Eleven years ago, I moved here to Washington, DC a committed "New Democrat" believing that "practical" public policy grads like myself were the future and with little respect for the uber-idealistic grassroots crowd. I still lose patience with their sometimes stubborn impracticality, but they have won my respect for their tireless work. Furthemore, a decade of growing disillusionment with the mechanisms of 'insider Baseball' has culminated in the full realization of the utter inadequacy of the govern-by-numbers approach to quell the most reactionary administration in American history.

My biggest beef with DLC rule of the Democratic party is not their basic centrism -- we have them to thank for instilling liberalism with a big dose of fiscal responsibility. No, my biggest beef is that they have unwittingly killed the passion and spirt of this party. Frankly, Bill Clinton coasted on the strength of his personality and some pretty good fiscal policies, but his two-term administration lacked the vision and spirit to to build a permanent new base.

I did not support Howard Dean in the primaries. I supported Wes Clark then John Kerry. But even then, I recognized Howard Dean and his crowd for what they were - the future - heart-and-soul - of the Democratic Party. The time is now to embrace that future!

If you've haven't already noticed, Howard Dean is neither a centrist nor a leftie. He is a blend of both. But what he is, is a fighter who can restore the best traditions of the party. The slick business model embodied by Terry McAuliffe, though not a complete failure, has run its course. We need serious people who can inspire with and work with the grassroots - who, with luck, are the once-and-future soul of our party.

[Nicholas_J]

37. Its not that Dean is neither a centrist, or a leftie, or a conservative

Its that he has a reather long timme reputation of being whatever the crowd that he is talking to wants to hear. A number of articles out of Vermont from people who had to deal with both members of goverment and members of organization stated this firmly.

Leaders of the Vermont Sierra club put it like this, Dean will tell you just enough of what you want to hear in prder to make you beleive that your fight is his fight, but when it actually comes down to putting his signature onto a piece of legislation then you find out that he is really not very distinguishable from Republicans. Vermont Political Science professors pretty much nailed Deanb down as a Rockerfeller Republican closer in political stance to Rudy Giuliani than to anything that the Democratic Party has to offer.

Dena is primarily a political chameleon who is basically Republican in nature, just as his father was (Deans dad was and important campaigner in New York State for Nelson Rockerfeller)but given that there was no room for him to run as a Republican in Vermont , the party being all sewn up and unwuilling to accept some upstart who newly moved into the state, Dean decided to run on the Democratic ticket. Deans alliances with Republicans in Vermont were much hated by most Democrats in the state, who felt that he didnt just reach across the aisle, but he jumped across it and stayed in all but name.

The result of Dean's leadership of the Democratic Party in Vermont in name, but not in spirit has led to the completel fragmenting of the Democratic Party and Progressive groups in Vermont. The party itself at one time comprised 59 percent of the population. As Dean refused to work with Vermont Democrats, particualarly the liberal wing of the party, many Democrats aandoned the party to join the Vermont Progressive Party, which is the largest state level third party in the United States, capturing 25 percent of the vote in every election since Deans last term in office as governor. In essence Dean shattered the his states Democratic Party. Republicans have been able to take over the legislature and hold onto the Governors office with 41 percent of the vote. Democratic Candidates get about 34 percent, Progressives 25 percent. We do not need Deans sort of ideas for th Democratic Party. It would divide rather than strengthen the party.

Now we do owe Dean much in the way he utilized the Internet to mobilize younger voters, and in the fact that he pointed the Democratic Party towards attacking Bush on a number of issues, thourt in the end, I do not know if such a strategy was effective and in fact, may have actually ended up costing Kerry the election. But Dean has built a political career on being a divider, not a uniter. As the Veront Democratic Party was moving to the left, Dean was moving to the right. But looking at the legislation hetried to pass, the legisislation that he promoted as governor, and the legislation he opposed, his actual behavior as a candidate is far closer to the platforem of George Bush than itis of anything the Democratic Party stands for. Listening towhat a candidate says about thmeselves is not the way to tell anything about that candidate. Looking at wht they have supported is.

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nicholas_J]

81. Sorry

Uncle Ho was what Ho Chi Minh was called. I just decided to bouble up on the Ho's

I have been around DU for several years and studies Dean record as Governor for most of them.

There is not one thing that he supported or claimed he would do as presidential candidate that bears much of a resiemblence to his tenure as governor where his tax cuts favored the rihj (the poos and middle class payed 50 percent more in statesa taxes that the rich) The major environmental organizations like Sierra Club all oppsed his environmental ideas, He opposed virtually all politically progressive legislation that Democrats worked for, and never met a big business that he didnt like. As governor, the liberal democrats considered him arrogant and totally unwilling to compropmise on anything. Overall his health program was a simple shift ofcoverage from disabled people and elderly people on a fixed income, to the children of familes more able to afford insurance. Overall Dean is the quintessntail politician who will say one thing to one group, and someting else to another. Even his stance on civli unions was based on attemptoing to ge political capital and avoid harm to his career. The history of his decision is fraught with political opportunism and based on hbeinbg given few chouices but to sign the legislation and then worry about how to minimize its effects on his next run for office.

The fact are that while Republicans are a minority party in Vermont, they have won every election because of the bad blood Dean created on the left. It is something that will take decades to fix, if it is ever repaired.

In personality Dean resembles George W. Bush in is completel unwillingness to compromise with liberals and progressives. A lartge amound of Deans support in Vermont came from moderate Republicans rather than progressive Democrats. REpublicans for Dean was an organization established by 30 of the states leading Republicans.many of who were high ranking executives in the energy industry and the pharmaceutical industry. These people managed to rape the state six ways from Sunday in the Hydro Quebec Dean which was a Vermont scaled Version of the Enron rip off in California. They overcharged Vermont for energy to the point that the stte will be decades in paying it off. Deanveven had his Cheney like secret meeting with the Energy industry in Vermont with a Ken Lay like figure named William Gilbert.

When the fiscal problems ohit the state in 2000, Dean fought to prevent raising taxes on the rich, and the solution he offered was simply to cut social benefits to the poor and the elderly. Deans response to Democrats who called this unjust was that the rich were already taxed too much in Vermont.

Ther is simply nothing in Deans pat that in anyway resembles the very cleverly politically packaged platform he used to get the young to support him. It was very similar to Bush's "compassionate Conservatism".

Even the methods by which Vermont got out of its deficit problems whgen Dean took office were not due to anything that he came up with. The tempoaray rise in taxes was passed by his predecessor. Governor Snelling, who didnt want to pass it, but was outflanked by Democrats and progressives. It worked very well , but Dean let it expire rather than follow the recommendations of his ownparty to keep it going. From that point on Dean could only keep the budget balanced by mare and more cuts to social spending. Vermont Democrats fought Dean with th repeated statements that they were not going to balance the budget of the state on the back of the poor and the middle class so that the rich and large corporations could benefit.

In the end, given the fact that Goverment was swewn up by the REpublicans with Dean help,, as Dean favored every pieve of Repuyblican legislation put up to be voted on, many of th most liberal and progressive Democrats simply left office to start lobbying organizations to fight Dean, as he had prevented Democrats form being able to function in Government.

Before supporting any candidate by simply listening to the screed they are selling., it is a very good idea to look at what they DID. And not by listening to them tell you what they did.

Onoe of the key oppoents to Dean as Governor was the liberla political scientist, Garrison Nelson. He gives an accurate history of Deans legislative agenda in one sentence:

s summer, many news stories have identified Howard Dean with the left. But Dean's actual record verifies this assessment from University of Vermont political science professor Garrison Nelson: "He's really a classic Rockefeller Republican -- a fiscal conservative and social liberal." After seven years as governor, the Associated Press described Dean as "a clear conservative on fiscal issues" and added: "This is, after all, the governor who has at times tried to cut benefits for the aged, blind and disabled, whose No. 1 priority is a balanced budget."

http://www.leftwatch.com/articles/2003/000056.html

Lets seem what Busineswekk said about Dean during the election:


AUGUST 11, 2003 • Editions: N. America | Europe | Asia | Edition Preference







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GOVERNMENT

Online Extra: No Longer the OMB's Invisible Man

Who's the Real Howard Dean?

Online Extra: Dr. Dean on the Record

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GOVERNMENT

Who's the Real Howard Dean?
As Vermont governor, the liberal firebrand was a fiscal conservative with close ties to business

Howard Dean has fought his way to the front of the Democratic pack jostling for the 2004 Presidential nomination partly because he has won the hearts of so many liberals with his antiwar rhetoric and shoot-from-the-lip style. But who is the real Howard Dean? Is he the left-of-center insurgent being portrayed in the press or the business-friendly fiscal conservative and pragmatic moderate who governed Vermont for 11 years?...


AUGUST 11, 2003 • Editions: N. America | Europe | Asia | Edition Preference







STORY TOOLS
Printer-Friendly Version
E-Mail This Story
Sponsored by:


GOVERNMENT

Online Extra: No Longer the OMB's Invisible Man

Who's the Real Howard Dean?

Online Extra: Dr. Dean on the Record

• Find More Stories Like This


GOVERNMENT

Who's the Real Howard Dean?
As Vermont governor, the liberal firebrand was a fiscal conservative with close ties to business

Howard Dean has fought his way to the front of the Democratic pack jostling for the 2004 Presidential nomination partly because he has won the hearts of so many liberals with his antiwar rhetoric and shoot-from-the-lip style. But who is the real Howard Dean? Is he the left-of-center insurgent being portrayed in the press or the business-friendly fiscal conservative and pragmatic moderate who governed Vermont for 11 years?

Many who worked with Dean are astonished at his current image and comparisons to liberal icons such as George McGovern. "The Howard Dean you are seeing on the national scene is not the Dean that we saw around here for the last decade," says John McClaughry, president of the Ethan Allen Institute, a conservative Vermont think tank. "He's moved sharply left."

Conservative Vermont business leaders praise Dean's record and his unceasing efforts to balance the budget, even though Vermont is the only state where a balanced budget is not constitutionally required. Moreover, they argue that the two most liberal policies adopted during Dean's tenure -- the "civil unions" law and a radical revamping of public school financing -- were instigated by Vermont's ultraliberal Supreme Court rather than Dean. "He was not a left-wing wacko," says Bill Stenger, a Republican and president of Jay Peak Resort, who says he supported Dean because of his "fiscally responsible, socially conscious policies."

Business leaders were especially impressed with the way Dean went to bat for them if they got snarled in the state's stringent environmental regulations. When Canada's Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. wanted to build a new manufacturing plant on 700 acres of Vermont farmland in the mid-'90s, for instance, Dean greased the wheels. Husky obtained the necessary permits in near-record time. "He was very hands-on," says an appreciative Dirk Schlimm, the Husky executive in charge of the project.

And when environmentalists tried to limit expansion of snowmaking at ski resorts, "Dean had to show his true colors, and he did -- by insisting on a solution that allowed expanding snowmaking," says Stenger. IBM (IBM ) by far the state's largest private employer, says it got kid-gloves treatment. "We would meet privately with him three to four times a year to discuss our issues," says John O'Kane, manager for government relations at IBM's Essex Junction plant, "and his secretary of commerce would call me once a week just to see how things were going."

Dean also wins accolades for his handling of fiscal policy. "He is a very frugal man," says A. Wayne Roberts, president of Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, who worked in the Reagan White House in the '80s. "There is no way in heck he would tolerate a deficit." In fact, Dean resisted pleas from more liberal Democratic legislators to hike spending while pushing through two income tax cuts, paying down the state's debt, and funding the state's "rainy day" reserves. As a result, "we are now one of the few states that is in good shape financially," says Jim Douglas, Dean's Republican successor as governor. In fact, Vermont closed the books on its 2003 fiscal year with a $10.4 million surplus, even as California, Massachusetts, and many other states battle huge deficits

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_32/b3845084.htm


The rest of the article goes on to report about how Dean much self praised heath care program was rather underfunded, and recieved at best mixed reviews


During most of Deans tenure as Governor, he was largely the target of liberal democrats and progressives who could find little good to say about him, though he was the darling of Republicans. The Ultraconservative Cato Institute, gave Dean one of the highest ratings they every gfave to a Democrat, calling him "one of the few good ones" in the Democratic Party. I dont think we need someone worthy of the praise of the Koch Brothers ( largely responsible for helping Bush steal the election 1n 2000). to revitalize the Democratic party and set it on its feet agains after this election. We need sometone who actually is a democrat.


Someone who as has some record of working for the middle clas and the poor, and not someone with a record of favoring mega corporations.

[XanaDUer]

83. He's not a freeper troll,

and Uncle Ho was the name given to Ho Chi Minh.

Also, personal attacks are not allowed here on DU.

[JNelson6563]

59. Excellent post!

Many great points.

:toast:

[OrwellwasRight]

72. I thank you for your insight on Clinton and Washington DLC insiders

and I agree. While I know little of internal Vermont politics andtherefore will not dispute Uncle HoHo's facts, I think your analysis of the Clintonites is right-on. I am now in DC as well, and I am saddened watching our namby-pamby leadership cooperate with Bush and his neo-fascist sycophants on Iraq, on the Medicare bill, and on No Child Left Behind.

As somebody who worked for Jerry Brown in the 1992 primaries, I knew from way back that Clinton was not a true liberal. And I watched sadly as one by one, he kept abandoning his promises (health care reform, BLM reform, equal rights in the military). Yes, he's the only two-term Dem President since FDR, but he stood for nothing. He was pro-NAFTA, perhaps the biggest single environmental and workers' rights giveaway of our generation. He was an anomaly, a charismatic-personality-driven success.

And no one can copy his charisma, so they copy his centrist ways. Election fraud notwithstanding, that centrism has failed to inspire.

I agree that we need a new bold visionary, but I sadly predict that those who think that we went "too far left with that liberal Kerry" will rule the day and we will get Ickes as DNC chair and H Clinton/Vilsack as the 2008 nominees.

If Dean is not the progressive we need, fine. Skip him. But let's press for some progressive, yes?

[Nicholas_J]

85. Yup. the Democratic Party has two choices

To become more and more conservative. or to make a case for the liberal agenda as being the agenda that supports the middle alss and not the multinationals. I find it amusing that in post attacking me as being a troll, they of course, use a Dean quote attqacking the right as verifying Deans credentials as a solid Democrat.

The idea of watching what someone does rather than listening to what they say never occurs to some blind supporters of a candidate.

The prime reason that Dean's campaign fell into oblivion in Iowa was that Gephardt simply re-published many articles pointing towards decision Dean made as governor from mainstream Vermont newspapers. Gephardt himself never had to attack Dean on these things, just point tem out, while Dean was left floundering to recover. Talk is cheap. He can talk all he wants but he will not make a record of favoring big business and the rich at the expense of those who have little, go away. While his stance on keeping a balanced budget is correct, Whose back you balance that budget on is another thing entirely. In an examiniation of vermont's economy duiring the 90's, the years that Dean was governor, the Economic Policy Institute fiugures showed that the poor got poorer, the rich got richer, and the middle calss stagnated. When arguing about this, Dean suporterd had to point out all of the other situations that caused this, but much like Bush, theeffort is to not accept responsibility tfor theactions of the gy who was supposed to be where the buck stopped.

THis party has either got to revert to its principals of social justice, or we can simply do away witha two party system in reality, and simply have two conservative parties grinning at each other across the aisles of congress As usual Dean's staements about the rigt wing simply to not hold up when compared to his plicy and platform as Governor, which is the onlyl thing that can be used to judge him. He has gained a good deal of political capital by saying what people want to hear. But there is precious littlevto back up those statements.

Again, whilec Denataaught some very important lessons to the Democratic PArty during this election cycle, the history of his political agenda is not the place the Democratic Party needs to be taken. The DLC poster boy while he was governor, in order to get a base following, Dean had to do what he was most famous for in Vermont. Saying whatever needed to be said to get support. He saw a large group of the disgruntles young, angry at the centrist moves of the DLC, and sucked them in by saying exactly what the wanted to hear. But the Dean of the democratic campaign was not a figure whoever existed on the political map. His behavior as governor was solidly conservative. as solid as most of the moderate Republicans in Congress. His opposition to democratic and progressive platforms was legend among liberal and progressives in Vermont. He basicaly had a one issue platform and that was balancing budgets no matter what harm was done along the way. And his economic ideas for balancing budgets were pure trickle down economics at their best (or worse, depending on whether you are trickling or being trickled on). Dean's five wins as Governor of Vermont relied more on Dean's out centristing the DLC than anything else.

As for Clinton, unfortunately most of his failures came from the fact that he had little or no Washington experience. He himself has pointed out that he was so gung ho to try to get his agenda through, that he failed due to trying to push harder than conservatives would take. Had he dealt with part of his platform during the first term as president, and saved some of the more difficult things until a second term where he would have had more political credibiity. His health care program would have had a better chance of getting though in some form, This is the hazard of electing Governors to the presidency. They are impatient to succeed, and so theymake ewrrors allowing them to be shot down.

Dean is simply too muh of the same. Far from ever having been a politician with a real bold vision, he simply rehashed a lot of standared liberal democratic speak, and mixed in the core of his political philosophy, whhich is balacend budgets, balanced budgets, balanced budgets. And if that fails, balance budgets. There is little else to HowardDeans career.

[OrwellwasRight]

86. We seem to agree that true progressivism is needed.

"This party has either got to revert to its principals of social justice, or we can simply do away witha two party system in reality, and simply have two conservative parties grinning at each other across the aisles of congress"

I could not agree more.

As you seem exceptionally well informed, I'd like to know what name or names would you submit as a new voice for the Democratic leadership.

I think that the grassroots might actually have a shot of gettiing a progressive in there (perhaps by getting big money folks such as Soros and the Sabans to offer to withhold contributions unless a non-DLCer is picked?), but I think we need to narrow it down to one or a few names to be effective and not undermined.

Anyway, in your perfect world, who's the man (or woman)?

[Nicholas_J]

104. There are few true progressive in the party with the ability

To sell progressivism to the average American.

One problem is the inability of Democrats to own the language of politics, particualrly progressive politics. All a Republican has to do is compare progressive politics to "Socialism" and we already lose the fight.

Dennis Kucinich is probably the most progressive candidate the party has, But thelanguage he uses much too closely smacks of the dreaded socialism to move people from the center. What we have to do is sell the cenrism of the social values of the Democratic Party. We must make the "values voters" as uncomfortably aware of the fact that they are living off of federal welfare as any welfare queen by pressing the point that they are sponging off of the liberal voters in the blue states. We must not only make them aware, we must do everything
If I had to choose anyone to head up the party, it would be Chris Van Hollen, or someone like him. Its tough because most of our best people are already in office and it would not be possible for them to run the part as well as the government. I would think that Dick Gephardt, strong unionist, and rather progressive in his own way. Some of the other'ss who have lost their seats recently.

Someone NOT in office. My first choice would be Robert Reich. Extremely progressive economist. Very literate and uses very persuasive language to define progressive economics in ways that do not sound socialistic.
Yes, Reich would be my first choice. He was largely responsible for the Clinton economic miracle. If he can bring down his rhetoric to the level of the average worker, he would be excellent. IN fact, he seems to be able to do so in already in many cases. When hw was appointed by Clinton to the Department of Labor I almost had a stroke. His recommendations for shortening the work week, and his desire to rebuild the department of Labor into an agancy which actually was an advocate for Workers and not bigf business stunned me given the massive move to the right that workers rights had been taking. Reich is my first choice now that I have been really forced to think about it.

[Bush was AWOL]

45. Totally agree

I'm emailing my ass of to leaders of this party begging them not to let Dean have this position.

I know of many other long time, loyal Democrats that are doing the same.

We're the party of Jefferson, Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. I'm sorry but those great men have nothing in common with Dean.

[crispini]

99. God, you know who would be GREAT?

Although he'd never get it... but if you want progressive populist grassroots cred, he's got it running out of his ears:

David Van Os.

Never heard of him eh? He was our only D candidate for Tx supreme court. Here's his email on the recent election (no link, I'm sure he wouldn't mind having it reprinted in its entirety):

Edit: Damn, this is good. Think I'll go post this over in Pres Results and see what they say.

Nov.5, 2004

My Statement.

Democrats, this is what your recent nominee for the Texas Supreme Court has to say in response to a lot of caterwaling that has been going on in the email lists and in the national media.

I implore you all to wake up and realize that the theocratists now control every branch of the national government and that their plans are much worse than anything we envisioned 4 years ago. They are serious and ruthless about it. We cannot beat them by trying to appease them, placate them, or reason with them. To them all such attempts by us simply prove to them that we still under-estimate them and that we are still therefore weak and easily rolled under. We must be a resistance party, nothing less. A fierce give-no-quarter resistance party. Anything less betrays the millions of
Americans who are feeling a new cold chill run up their spines today.

Tell me one way, one single way, that the Bush regime has done anything to sincerely compromise or seek common ground with us over the last 4 years and I will tell you that you are blind and deaf because there is no such example. It is just going to be worse now. In fact Bush and Cheney are both now proclaiming a mandate. C'mon folks, you cannot be bipartisan with a rattlesnake. C'mon folks, you cannot expect compromise unless you are demanding it from a position of strength. And we are not in a position of strength because they own every branch of the federal government and they intend to use their control to seek their way or the highway. We have got to
embrace a resistance strategy. Meaning, that we fiercely oppose everything they want to do and use every possible maneuver and tactic to slow them down and cost them as much time and grief as possible. That is what the R's did to Bill Clinton, and look where they are now and where we are now.

We don't have the luxury of any "we're better than them" namby-pamby
foolishness - they are out to gut the Constitution, folks! Wake up and smell the roses! Are we going to resist and fight them over their plan to destroy the dreams of 1776 and 1787 and 1865, or are we going to go quietly into the night with the smug satisfaction that "we are better people than them" while the Constitution dies after a too-short 217-year life span? It has got to be partisan guerilla war now, folks. We didn't choose this, but it is thrust
upon us now, and no amount of wishful thinking about being able to placate them with gracious concession speeches is going to change things.

We have got to slow them down with unrelenting partisan political
resistance. Haven't you learned yet folks that these people are deadly serious about running the show and doing everything their way? Haven't you learned yet that being nice and/or taking the "high road" does not get us anywhere? Give me liberty or give me death and I mean it in deadly earnest, folks. I will live under the Constitution that my daddy at age 19 fought to preserve in France and in the Ardennes and in Germany in 1944-1945 or I will
not live. I will not compromise on the preservation of that Constitution just to accomodate its enemies in the hope of winning an election or two, if in order to win an election or two I must give in or pander to the enemies of the Constitution. If the Democratic Party does not have the stomach to reject compromise with this madness and stand and fight it with ferocity and a backbone of steel, then the Democratic Party will die and it will deserve
to die. And I for one will be ready to replace it with whatever it takes to stand and fight for the Constitution. WHATEVER it takes.

C'mon folks, we are the national descendants of farmers and shopkeepers who stood up on Lexington Green in 1775 and got mowed down by the Redcoat ranks of the Empire, but who by damn did not flinch! And whose courage inspired the birth of a revolution and a new vision for all of humanity. We are the national descendants of numberless individuals who sacrificed in numberless ways for freedom of speech, for freedom of dissent, for democracy, for the
freedom to believe and to NOT BELIEVE, for everything our fathers or
grandfathers willingly bled for in order to put an end to Nazism and Fascism and totalitarianism forever.

If you don't think what is taking place in America today has happened before with ghastly consequences, go check a book out of the library and read in detail about the National Socialist Party's maneuvering of its way into unchecked power in Germany in 1933 and 1934. If you tell me that you don't see parallels in the Bush Republican Party's strategies and actions since 2000, I will tell you that you are a liar. Wake up! We need Democratic leaders who will stop worrying about their personal comfort zones and who
will dammit rediscover the steel fiber that built this nation and dammit stand and fight and resist this madness. We don't need Democratic leaders whose response to the madness is to try to appease it by choosing an anti-choice Senator as the next Senate Minority Leader. Tom Daschle was such an appeaser that he made Neville Chamberlain look like Winston Churchill - but they went out and viciously brought him down anyway didn't they! Did the
appeasement strategy that Gore and Daschle and Gephardt adopted in
December-January 2000-2001 placate Bush? Hell no! Did the sell-out of the Congressional Black Caucus (and of hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised African-American citizens of Florida) on January 6, 2001, gain any slowdown of Bush's agenda? Hell no! Did the Daschle-Gephardt mush-mouthed strategy win us anything in the 2002 elections? Did John Kerry's calculated sellout on Iraq in the cynical construction of a scripted campaign message win the
election for him? Hell no! Did John Kerry's concession-speech sellout of citizens who waited in line for hours to vote in Ohio keep Bush or Cheney from declaring a mandate for their drive for theocracy? Hell no, they did it within 24 hours! Haven't we tried appeasement enough? Folks, haven't you read your history about Chamberlain's attempts to appease Hitler? Haven't we
learned over and over that hunger for power cannot be appeased, but that attempts to appease it only make it more hungry?

Wake up folks! Get out of your comfort zones. This is for real. We have got to resist, resist, resist. It will be hard, it will require sacrifice, it will require the willingness to be a target for an avalanche of right-wing hatred, but it is what the times that we find ourselves in require of us. We did not choose these times but we cannot wish them away. We did not choose these times but dammit we can rise to the challenge that is presented to us. Like it or not, we have no choice.

We need political leaders who will resist, who will fight, who know what is at stake and understand the gravity. The world has been here before. In 1933 the Christian Democrats tried to placate the new Chancellor of Germany, whose National Socialist Party still had less than a majority in the parliament, by joining a coalition government with him. After their accomodation with him gave him the majority government that he needed, he rewarded them by easily exploiting their demonstrated weakness and ploughing them under. You know the rest of the story.

We must demand of our Democratic leaders that they resist, not roll over; the fate of not only America but the world may be hanging in the balance. We must find Democratic leaders who will resist the madness, and I don't mean Hillary Clinton, who has used her every opportunity in the Senate to give Bush everything he has demanded for his murderous and criminal war on Iraq.

In the meantime we must demand that Democratic office-holders resist, resist, and resist. And we must ourselves resist at every opportunity. Below is an email letter that I sent to a religious-right preacher who emailed me through my campaign website demanding to know if I was a Christian if I wanted his vote. A few days later I used the same response as in my email in a debate with Scott Brister on a Christian-right talk radio show, in response to the moderator's and Brister's demagoguery over my opposition to
judges putting the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls. This is an example of resistance as opposed to appeasement. In the debate with Brister, this little speech of mine, the opposite of pandering, put an end to the demagoguery. It surely did not gain me any votes from the right-wing audience, but it damn sure left my enemies speechless and it damn sure cheered up some Democrats, whom I later learned had been listening to the show to see how I would perform, with the knowledge that we don't have to run and hide. This I offer you as one small example of resistance as opposed to appeasement. The subject happened to be separation of church and state this time, but it might be any subject. Regardless of the subject, the point
is to use every opportunity to resist and stop the namby-pamby appeasement. We can all find opportunities to do similarly, and we must take advantage of every one.

I did this publicly on a radio show with a hostile audience, just as I spoke ferociously in opposition to the corporate takeover of our court system in interviews with hostile newspaper editors. The "Christian radio" moderator surely didn't like what I had to say, and Scott Brister surely didn't like what I had to say, and the newspaper editors who called me unqualified for judicial office because I am a "populist liberal" didn't like what I had to
say, but they all went away from the respective encounters with just a little less confidence, just a little less smugness, in the knowledge that they could not intimidate me into pandering or equivocation. Guess what, I didn't melt, but to the contrary grew stronger with every such encounter. As we all will, if we will dammit stand and fight and insist that our Democratic Party and its representatives stand and fight and stop the appeasement!

By the way, the recipient of my below email responded by apologizing all over himself to try to assure me that he didn't mean to offend me. It unnerved him to get a resistant reply that he surely did not expect. In my experience that is what schoolyard bullies always did when they made fun of me for being about 3 feet tall in the first grade and I punched them in the stomach in return. They turned and ran. Extrapolate to the national scene. We are being intimidated by a gigantic schoolyard bully in the form of the Bush regime. If we try to appease him he will just keep bullying. John Kerry's response to Bush's years of lies and deceit and bullying was to stand up in front of the Democratic Convention in Boston and refuse to punch
Bush in the stomach over any of it. John Kerry's response to the SwiftBoat liars was to whine and beg Bush to not be so mean. John Kerry's response to an inappropriate question about faith from the repugnant Bob Schieffer was to pander (instead of stand up for the Constitution and demand that Schieffer withdraw such an inappropriate question). John Kerry's response to the disenfranchisement of Ohio and theft of another election was to throw in the towel as quickly as possible. The Senate Democratic caucus's apparent response to the ghastly onset of theocracy in America is to select an anti-choice Senator to be of all things the leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate. Come on, folks, the above are all examples of pandering, appeasement, accomodationism, and other synonymns of the same thing - none
of which equates to the spirit of resistance that is called for, and all of which did and will lead to nothing but contempt from Bush and Rove for the lily-livered weakness that they represent. All of these are examples of actions that simply feed the beast's lust for more power because they all demonstrate to the beast that its lies, deceit, tricks, bullying, and intimidation will continue to get it whatever it wants. Here's my real-life example of resistance instead of appeasement --

Sir,

I decline to pander to your narrow-mindedness in exchange for a vote. How dare you presume to judge your fellow man on the basis of your own religious preference? How dare you proclaim that in the United States of America one religion (your own, naturally) is the only worthy one? How dare you proclaim that you will evaluate the candidacies of those offering themselves for public service on the basis of a religious test? How dare you flaunt the principle of our Constitution that "there shall be no religious test for public office"!

Sir, you and your kind seek to trample upon one of the cardinal reasons for the creation of the United States of America. You and your kind seek to establish a theocracy based upon, naturally, your own religious doctrine. Would you still be hostile to the concept of separation of government and religion if you found yourself living under the Taliban and required to obey Islamic Sharia Law or die? I do not know why I ask the latter question, because your mind will be unwilling to explore what that could mean for you.

I oppose your efforts to destroy the American Constitututional republic through the establishment of theocracy. I oppose it now, tomorrow, the next day, and every day after that. How is that for the answer to your question?

David Van Os
The Constitution Forever

P.S. I am Jewish. My ancestors were God's conduit for delivery of the Ten Commandments to the world. I grew up learning about the Judaic foundations of Western moral principles and I understand those foundations, and live those moral principles, far better than you ever could. I understand religious persecution because my ancestors suffered it incessantly at the hands of your ancestors. My grandparents emigrated to this country for the precise reason of fleeing from the religious intolerance that you espouse.
For my grandparents, arrival in this wonderful country of freedom of thought and opinion was the realization of a dream that many generations of their forebears had only been able to dream of with no hope of fruition. For the sake of all who have come before me and all whom I hope will come after me, I shall with my every breath oppose your efforts to destroy this freedom through the establishment of the intolerant theocracy that you seek.

[Owlet]

18. For me, it's Dean...

...or Green

http://www.gp.org/

[jimmyp]

52. Yes

I'm with you on this one.

[David Zephyr]

23. Dean Will Build The Party; Vilsack Couldn't Deliver His Own State to Kerry

We need to reach out to the 50% of Americans who do not bother to vote and build a greater Party, not pander to cultural conservatives who are bent on voting against their own self-interests.

[heyphillip]

24. DNC Job

Dean is a bad choice he's to far to the left. Vilseck is excellent in that he's a centrist demorcrate which is what the dems need right now if they nominate Dean they are doomed for 06 and 08.

[JNelson6563]

60. Ignorance abounds in this thread

I thought Dean-haterz went out of style after the primaries?

Do tell us about how terribly liberal Dean is. Post positions please.

Julie

[David Dunham]

25. Many Jewish donors consider Dean anti-Israel and will stop if he's head

Rightly or wrongly, many Jewish donors regard Dean as very weak in his support of Israel and will stop giving if he becomes DNC chair. This matters because contributions from Jewish donors account for a huge percentage of the money the DNC takes in each year.

[KoKo]

26. WHAT??? What does Israel have to do with who heads Dem Party???

:eyes:

[David Dunham]

28. Jewish donors are the biggest source of DNC funds.

That is why having a DNC chair who expresses support for Israel matters a lot. Dean is regarded as at best weak in his support of Israel.

[Rose Siding]

79. I thought evil trial lawyers and limosine liberals were the biggest donors

Oh well, any stereotype in a storm

[Jim Sagle]

35. Chickenshit bullshit.

[ima_sinnic]

54. ooh, I'm REAL scared

flame away, but I am sick to death of Israel and how it decides our elections and everything else in our lives.

[neuvocat]

30. I'm supporting Dean.

eom

[Polemonium]

31. Dean is the only reasonable choice

If the party wants to represent the people again. Rethug lite strategies are not getting us anywhere. We need to keep the grassroots energized, we need to rebuild the philosophy of what the Democratic Party stands for (we've needed this since Carter - Clinton would not have gotten in without Perot). We need to stop creating a waffling platform based on surveys of moderates. You can either ask the sheep (close to half the voters still think there was a connection between 9/11 and Iraq) - you can either ask them where they want to go or you can show some leadership, and take the sheep to much needed water.

[Lizzie Borden]

33. He's NOT too left!

I feel like he has direction and principle. I believe he can energize the base of our party. We can't become any more middle-of -the-road. If we do, we'll BE republicans. And no, I wasn't a Dean supporter.

[Carolab]

36. Where is that petition for Dean to head DNC?

Anyone got a link?

Thanks.

[jefferson_dem]

38. Link here -

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/deanfordnc

[OrwellwasRight]

40. I signed. Thanks! I say Dean or Villaraigosa or

Alec Baldwin or Al Franken.

No more middle men!

[420inTN]

66. signed n/t

[newyawker99]

69. Hi 420inTN!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[420inTN]

77. thank you. n/t

:hi:

[lostnfound]

42. The DNC will get money from me if they select Dean.

The other guy? MOTS.

[OrwellwasRight]

73. MOTS? Little help please.

[CAcyclist]

74. More Of The Same

Def of MOTS

Thanks for posting the petition - I signed.

[OrwellwasRight]

78. Thank you! nt

[Bush was AWOL]

43. Anybody but Dean

If he is head of the DNC be ready to be mocked and laughed at everytime he appears on the television.

It's sad, but the truth.

[bitchkitty]

56. Well, let's just choose someone

that the media will like! Hmmm, let's see...how about a Republican? Yea, let's get McCain! That's the ticket.

God forbid we should actually make a decision based on a man's capabilities and Party. That would be stupid.

[SoCalDem]

46. Vilsack is a sitting Governor..Dean is NOT..I say DEAN

:)

[Carolab]

47. So what?

Vilsack is a sellout. I'm pissed at him for withdrawing his endorsement of Dean. Plus he is a "career politician". Dean is more of a populist and reaches across from progressives to moderates. He naturally draws people in because he is honest, caring, has integrity and knows how to talk to people in a way they can understand and relate to.

[SoCalDem]

49. I am in favor of Dean...

A dem (even Vilsack) ina red state is preferable to me..

I think Den is JUST WHAT THE DNC needs..

NO MORE McAuliffes.. He always creeped me out.

[Clarkie1]

51. My vote would be for Dean - Who are the 400 who vote on this?

[lojasmo]

64. Here ya go!

link
Redding Pitt
Amy Burks
Hon. Alvin Holmes
Hon. Yvonne Kennedy
Joe Reed
Scott Sterling
Hon. John Davies
Claudia Douglas
Cindy Spanyers
Allimau Scanlan
Deanna Fuimaono
Fagafaga Langkilde
Clara Reid
Martin Bacal
Janice Brunson
James Pederson
Alexis Tameron
Sue Tucker
Ron Oliver
Don Beavers
Karla Bradley
Martha Dixon
Hon. Lottie Shackelford
Steven Alari
Jeremy Bernard
Rachel Binah
Hon. Willie Brown
Hon. Yvonne Burke
Michael Davis
Mary Ellen Early
Patricia Ford
Nely Galan
Alexandra Gallardo Rooker
Inola Henry
Hon. Mike Honda
Alice Huffman
Aleita Huguenin
Hon. Carole Migden
Hon. Gloria Molina
Bob Mulholland
Hon. Kevin Murray
Mona Pasquil
Christine Pelosi
Hon. Nancy Pelosi
Robert Rankin
Garry Shay
Christopher Stampolis
Hon. Art Torres
Norma Torres
Keith Umemoto
Hon. Antonio Villaraigosa
Hon. Maxine Waters
Vernon Watkins
Hon. Diane Watson
Hon. Rosalind Wyman
Steven Ybarra
Chris Gates
Andrew Boian
Julia Hicks
Mary Alice Mandarich
Hon. Ramona Martinez
Jonathan Postal
Hon. Wellington Webb
Hon. George Jepsen
Hon. Anthony Avallone
Bernice Bowman
Ellen Camhi
Martin Dunleavy
Mona Mohib
Dorothy Mrowka
Phil Wheeler
Richard Bayard
Leah Betts
Bert DiClemente
Karen Valentine
Morton Bahr
A. Scott Bolden
Donna Brazile
Mary Eva Candon
Yolanda Caraway
Arrington Dixon
Maria Echaveste
Patricia Elwood
Hartina Flournoy
Harold Ickes
Ben Johnson
Minyon Moore
Mirian Saez
Barbara Lett Simmons
Elizabeth Smith
Christine Warnke
James Zogby
Hon. Scott Maddox
Hon. Clarence Anthony
Jon Ausman
Cathy Bartolotti
Terrie Brady
Mitchell Ceasar
Hon. Joyce Cusack
Diane Glasser
Chuck Mohlke
Lula Rodriguez
Andrew Tobias
Hon. Diana Wasserman-Rubin
Ashley Bell
Carole Dabbs
Hattie Dorsey
Hon. Shirley Franklin
Robert Kahn
Herb Mabry
Richard Ray
Benjamin J. F. Cruz
Isabel S. A. (Becky) Lujan
Michael Phillips
Taling Taitano
Brickwood Galuteria
Stephanie Ohigashi
M.Dolly Strazar
Hon. John Waihee
Hon. Carolyn Boyce
Hon. Gail Bray
Hon. Edgar Malepeai
Peter Richardson
Willie Barrow
Margaret Blackshere
Joseph Cari
Hon. Cardiss Collins
Maria Garcia
Hon. Constance Howard
Hon. Thomas Hynes
Hon. Emil Jones
Thomas Lakin
Hon. Michael Madigan
Hon. Iris Martinez
Hon. John Rednour
Edward Smith
Phoebe Crane
Cordelia Lewis Burks
Robert Pastrick
Mary Lou Terrell
Kipper Tew
Terry Thurman
Hon. Chet Culver
Gordon Fischer
Hon. Michael Fitzgerald
Pat Marshall
Hon. Tom Miller
Hon. Sally Pederson
Ken Rains
Julianne Thomas
Hon. Tom Vilsack
Chris Gallaway
Lawrence Gates
Teresa Krusor
Larry Tenopir
Constance Wray
Moretta Bosley
Bill Garmer
Terry McBrayer
Kerry Morgan
Jo Etta Wickliffe
Patsy Arceneaux
Hon. John Breaux
Hon. Renee Gill Pratt
Jerry McKernan
Mike Skinner
Mary Lou Winters
Dorothy Melanson
William Bryan
David Garrity
Hon. Dale McCormick
Gwethalyn Phillips
Thomas Buffenbarger
Alvaro Cifuentes
Maria Cordone
Hon. Elijah Cummings
John Gage
Janice Griffin
Hon. Sue Hecht
Weldon Latham
Hon. Isiah "Ike" Leggett
Belkis (Bel) Leong-Hong
Richard Michalski
Glenard Middleton
Hon. Thomas "Mike" Miller
Mary Jo Neville
R. Scott Pastrick
Hon. Gregory Pecoraro
Carol Pensky
Michael Steed
John Sweeney
Beatrice Tignor
Susan Turnbull
Philip Johnston
Virginia Allan
Clinton Bench
Hon. Raymond Jordan
Elaine Kamarck
Hon. William Keating
Debra Kozikowski
David O'Brien
James Roosevelt
Alan Solomont
Margaret Xifaras
Mark Brewer
Arthenia Abbott
Lu Battaglieri
Elizabeth Bunn
Debbie Dingell
Joel Ferguson
Melvin "Butch" Hollowell
Hon. Kwame Kilpatrick
Joyce Lalonde
Hon. Christina Montague
Erin Parsons-Wright
Jeffrey Radjewski
Virgie Rollins
Richard Shoemaker
Jim Sype
Richard Wiener
Tarryl Clark
Mike Erlandson
Ken Foxworth
Greg Knutson
Sarah Lewerenz
Jackie Stevenson
Hon. Harvey Johnson
Johnnie Patton
Carnelia Pettis Fondren
Hon. William Wheeler
Doug Brooks
Mark Bryant
Joe Carmichael
Hon. Sharon Carpenter
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver
Sandra Querry
Hon. May Scheve Reardon
Hon. Bob Ream
Carol Juneau
Jean Lemire Dahlman
Hon. Ed Tinsley
Steven Achelpohl
Bill Avery
Kathleen Fahey
Cynthia LaMere
Frank LaMere
Hon. Yvonne Gates
Steven Horsford
Adriana Martinez
Hon. Dina Titus
Brian Wallace
Kathleen Sullivan
Hon. Raymond Buckley
Gaetan DiGangi
Anita Freedman
Mario Baeza
Tonio Burgos
Hon. Joseph Cryan
Alfred DeCotiis
Hon. June Fischer
Hon. Douglas Palmer
Hon. Joseph Roberts
Christine "Roz" Samuels
Hon. Bonnie Watson Coleman
George "Jeep" Gilliland
Mary Gail Gwaltney
Hon. Patricia Madrid
Gloria Nieto
Bill Richardson
Annadelle Sanchez
John Wertheim
Donald Afflick
Hon. Dominic Baranello
Eugene Callendar
Hon. Vivian Cook
Hon. Inez Dickens
Hon. Herman Farrell
Emily Giske
Hon. Judith Hope
Denise King
Maria Luna
Hon. Thomas Manton
Dennis Mehiel
Hon. Clarence Norman
Hon. Roberto Ramirez
Hon. Marguerite Relin
Jeffrey Soref
Marianne Spraggins
Irene Stein
Sylvia Tokasz
Randi Weingarten
Maureen White
Robert Zimmerman
Barbara Allen
Jeanette Council
Hon. Joycelyn Johnson
Jerry Meek
Muriel Offerman
David Parker
Everett Ward
Tom Dickson
Hon. Jim Maxson
Renee Pfenning
Mary Wakefield
Denny White
William Burga
Hon. Jane Campbell
Enid Goubeaux
Lloyd Mahaffey
Hon. Mark Mallory
Ronald Malone
Hon. Rhine McLin
Patricia Moss
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Hon. Mary Ellen Withrow
Jay Parmley
Jim Frasier
Debbe Leftwich
Betty McElderry
Mary Botkin
Hon. Kate Brown
Jim Edmunson
Wayne Kinney
Gail Rasmussen
Meredith Wood Smith
Rena Baumgartner
Anna Burger
Carol Ann Campbell
Hon. Ronald Donatucci
William George
John Karoly
Leon Lynch
Hon. Sophie Masloff
Gerald McEntee
Hon. Jean Milko
Ian Murray
Evelyn Richardson
Hon. T.J. Rooney
Hon. Ruth Rudy
Patricia Scarcelli
C. Delores Tucker
Hon. Roberto Prats
Celita Arroyo de Roques
Hon. Kenneth McClintock
Hon. Charles Fogarty
William Lynch
Edna O'Neill Mattson
Edward McElroy
Hon. Frank Montanaro
Hon. Eleanor Slater
Mark Weiner
Hon. Gilda Cobb-Hunter
Joe Erwin
Donald Fowler
Waring Howe
Carol Khare
Bernice Scott
Hon. Thomas Daschle
Judy Olson Duhamel
Dennis Langley
Hon. Nick Nemec
Sharon Stroschein
Randy Button
Will Cheek
Inez Crutchfield
Hon. Lois DeBerry
Jimmie Farris
Hon. Myron Lowery
Hon. William Owen
Charles Soechting
Linda Chavez-Thompson
Blanche Darley
Hon. Yvonne Davis
Hon. Al Edwards
Jaime Gonzalez
Gabrielle Hadnot
David Holmes
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hon. Ron Kirk
Hon. Iris Lawrence
Sue Lovell
Hon. Ed Miller
Hon. Carroll Robinson
Bob Slagle
Hon. Oscar Soliz
Rosa Walker
Donald Dunn
Jim Humlicek
Mary Palley
Nancy Jane Woodside
Scudder Parker
Linda Almy
Deb Markowitz
Chuck Ross
Allison Sultan
Carmen Gonzalez
Maria "Chi-Chi" Heywood
Derek Hodge
Hon. James O'Bryan
Hon. Kerry Donley
Barbara Easterling
Hon. Alexis Herman
Hon. Jerrauld Jones
Miguel Lausell
Daniel LeBlanc
Terence McAuliffe
Jennifer McClellan
Mame Reiley
Susan Swecker
Paul Berendt
Charlotte Coker
Ed Cote
Hon. Gary Locke
Karen Marchioro
David McDonald
Hon. Ron Sims
Ya-Yue Van
Jim Bowen
Nick Casey
Alice Germond
Emilie Holroyd
Marie Prezioso
Linda Honold
Stan Gruszynski
Ken Opin
Mary Rasmussen
Tim Sullivan
Paula Zellner
Hon. Mike Gierau
Hon. George Bagby
Nancy Drummond
Vickie Goodwin
Rachelle Valladares
Peter Alegi
Robert Bell
Lois Grjebine
Christine Schon Marques
John McCreery
Ruth McCreery
Ronald Schlundt
Redding Pitt
Amy Burks
Hon. Alvin Holmes
Hon. Yvonne Kennedy
Joe Reed
Scott Sterling
Hon. John Davies
Claudia Douglas
Cindy Spanyers
Allimau Scanlan
Deanna Fuimaono
Fagafaga Langkilde
Clara Reid
Martin Bacal
Janice Brunson
James Pederson
Alexis Tameron
Sue Tucker
Ron Oliver
Don Beavers
Karla Bradley
Martha Dixon
Hon. Lottie Shackelford
Steven Alari
Jeremy Bernard
Rachel Binah
Hon. Willie Brown
Hon. Yvonne Burke
Michael Davis
Mary Ellen Early
Patricia Ford
Nely Galan
Alexandra Gallardo Rooker
Inola Henry
Hon. Mike Honda
Alice Huffman
Aleita Huguenin
Hon. Carole Migden
Hon. Gloria Molina
Bob Mulholland
Hon. Kevin Murray
Mona Pasquil
Christine Pelosi
Hon. Nancy Pelosi
Robert Rankin
Garry Shay
Christopher Stampolis
Hon. Art Torres
Norma Torres
Keith Umemoto
Hon. Antonio Villaraigosa
Hon. Maxine Waters
Vernon Watkins
Hon. Diane Watson
Hon. Rosalind Wyman
Steven Ybarra
Chris Gates
Andrew Boian
Julia Hicks
Mary Alice Mandarich
Hon. Ramona Martinez
Jonathan Postal
Hon. Wellington Webb
Hon. George Jepsen
Hon. Anthony Avallone
Bernice Bowman
Ellen Camhi
Martin Dunleavy
Mona Mohib
Dorothy Mrowka
Phil Wheeler
Richard Bayard
Leah Betts
Bert DiClemente
Karen Valentine
Morton Bahr
A. Scott Bolden
Donna Brazile
Mary Eva Candon
Yolanda Caraway
Arrington Dixon
Maria Echaveste
Patricia Elwood
Hartina Flournoy
Harold Ickes
Ben Johnson
Minyon Moore
Mirian Saez
Barbara Lett Simmons
Elizabeth Smith
Christine Warnke
James Zogby
Hon. Scott Maddox
Hon. Clarence Anthony
Jon Ausman
Cathy Bartolotti
Terrie Brady
Mitchell Ceasar
Hon. Joyce Cusack
Diane Glasser
Chuck Mohlke
Lula Rodriguez
Andrew Tobias
Hon. Diana Wasserman-Rubin
Ashley Bell
Carole Dabbs
Hattie Dorsey
Hon. Shirley Franklin
Robert Kahn
Herb Mabry
Richard Ray
Benjamin J. F. Cruz
Isabel S. A. (Becky) Lujan
Michael Phillips
Taling Taitano
Brickwood Galuteria
Stephanie Ohigashi
M.Dolly Strazar
Hon. John Waihee
Hon. Carolyn Boyce
Hon. Gail Bray
Hon. Edgar Malepeai
Peter Richardson
Willie Barrow
Margaret Blackshere
Joseph Cari
Hon. Cardiss Collins
Maria Garcia
Hon. Constance Howard
Hon. Thomas Hynes
Hon. Emil Jones
Thomas Lakin
Hon. Michael Madigan
Hon. Iris Martinez
Hon. John Rednour
Edward Smith
Phoebe Crane
Cordelia Lewis Burks
Robert Pastrick
Mary Lou Terrell
Kipper Tew
Terry Thurman
Hon. Chet Culver
Gordon Fischer
Hon. Michael Fitzgerald
Pat Marshall
Hon. Tom Miller
Hon. Sally Pederson
Ken Rains
Julianne Thomas
Hon. Tom Vilsack
Chris Gallaway
Lawrence Gates
Teresa Krusor
Larry Tenopir
Constance Wray
Moretta Bosley
Bill Garmer
Terry McBrayer
Kerry Morgan
Jo Etta Wickliffe
Patsy Arceneaux
Hon. John Breaux
Hon. Renee Gill Pratt
Jerry McKernan
Mike Skinner
Mary Lou Winters
Dorothy Melanson
William Bryan
David Garrity
Hon. Dale McCormick
Gwethalyn Phillips
Thomas Buffenbarger
Alvaro Cifuentes
Maria Cordone
Hon. Elijah Cummings
John Gage
Janice Griffin
Hon. Sue Hecht
Weldon Latham
Hon. Isiah "Ike" Leggett
Belkis (Bel) Leong-Hong
Richard Michalski
Glenard Middleton
Hon. Thomas "Mike" Miller
Mary Jo Neville
R. Scott Pastrick
Hon. Gregory Pecoraro
Carol Pensky
Michael Steed
John Sweeney
Beatrice Tignor
Susan Turnbull
Philip Johnston
Virginia Allan
Clinton Bench
Hon. Raymond Jordan
Elaine Kamarck
Hon. William Keating
Debra Kozikowski
David O'Brien
James Roosevelt
Alan Solomont
Margaret Xifaras
Mark Brewer
Arthenia Abbott
Lu Battaglieri
Elizabeth Bunn
Debbie Dingell
Joel Ferguson
Melvin "Butch" Hollowell
Hon. Kwame Kilpatrick
Joyce Lalonde
Hon. Christina Montague
Erin Parsons-Wright
Jeffrey Radjewski
Virgie Rollins
Richard Shoemaker
Jim Sype
Richard Wiener
Tarryl Clark
Mike Erlandson
Ken Foxworth
Greg Knutson
Sarah Lewerenz
Jackie Stevenson
Hon. Harvey Johnson
Johnnie Patton
Carnelia Pettis Fondren
Hon. William Wheeler
Doug Brooks
Mark Bryant
Joe Carmichael
Hon. Sharon Carpenter
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver
Sandra Querry
Hon. May Scheve Reardon
Hon. Bob Ream
Carol Juneau
Jean Lemire Dahlman
Hon. Ed Tinsley
Steven Achelpohl
Bill Avery
Kathleen Fahey
Cynthia LaMere
Frank LaMere
Hon. Yvonne Gates
Steven Horsford
Adriana Martinez
Hon. Dina Titus
Brian Wallace
Kathleen Sullivan
Hon. Raymond Buckley
Gaetan DiGangi
Anita Freedman
Mario Baeza
Tonio Burgos
Hon. Joseph Cryan
Alfred DeCotiis
Hon. June Fischer
Hon. Douglas Palmer
Hon. Joseph Roberts
Christine "Roz" Samuels
Hon. Bonnie Watson Coleman
George "Jeep" Gilliland
Mary Gail Gwaltney
Hon. Patricia Madrid
Gloria Nieto
Bill Richardson
Annadelle Sanchez
John Wertheim
Donald Afflick
Hon. Dominic Baranello
Eugene Callendar
Hon. Vivian Cook
Hon. Inez Dickens
Hon. Herman Farrell
Emily Giske
Hon. Judith Hope
Denise King
Maria Luna
Hon. Thomas Manton
Dennis Mehiel
Hon. Clarence Norman
Hon. Roberto Ramirez
Hon. Marguerite Relin
Jeffrey Soref
Marianne Spraggins
Irene Stein
Sylvia Tokasz
Randi Weingarten
Maureen White
Robert Zimmerman
Barbara Allen
Jeanette Council
Hon. Joycelyn Johnson
Jerry Meek
Muriel Offerman
David Parker
Everett Ward
Tom Dickson
Hon. Jim Maxson
Renee Pfenning
Mary Wakefield
Denny White
William Burga
Hon. Jane Campbell
Enid Goubeaux
Lloyd Mahaffey
Hon. Mark Mallory
Ronald Malone
Hon. Rhine McLin
Patricia Moss
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Hon. Mary Ellen Withrow
Jay Parmley
Jim Frasier
Debbe Leftwich
Betty McElderry
Mary Botkin
Hon. Kate Brown
Jim Edmunson
Wayne Kinney
Gail Rasmussen
Meredith Wood Smith
Rena Baumgartner
Anna Burger
Carol Ann Campbell
Hon. Ronald Donatucci
William George
John Karoly
Leon Lynch
Hon. Sophie Masloff
Gerald McEntee
Hon. Jean Milko
Ian Murray
Evelyn Richardson
Hon. T.J. Rooney
Hon. Ruth Rudy
Patricia Scarcelli
C. Delores Tucker
Hon. Roberto Prats
Celita Arroyo de Roques
Hon. Kenneth McClintock
Hon. Charles Fogarty
William Lynch
Edna O'Neill Mattson
Edward McElroy
Hon. Frank Montanaro
Hon. Eleanor Slater
Mark Weiner
Hon. Gilda Cobb-Hunter
Joe Erwin
Donald Fowler
Waring Howe
Carol Khare
Bernice Scott
Hon. Thomas Daschle
Judy Olson Duhamel
Dennis Langley
Hon. Nick Nemec
Sharon Stroschein
Randy Button
Will Cheek
Inez Crutchfield
Hon. Lois DeBerry
Jimmie Farris
Hon. Myron Lowery
Hon. William Owen
Charles Soechting
Linda Chavez-Thompson
Blanche Darley
Hon. Yvonne Davis
Hon. Al Edwards
Jaime Gonzalez
Gabrielle Hadnot
David Holmes
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hon. Ron Kirk
Hon. Iris Lawrence
Sue Lovell
Hon. Ed Miller
Hon. Carroll Robinson
Bob Slagle
Hon. Oscar Soliz
Rosa Walker
Donald Dunn
Jim Humlicek
Mary Palley
Nancy Jane Woodside
Scudder Parker
Linda Almy
Deb Markowitz
Chuck Ross
Allison Sultan
Carmen Gonzalez
Maria "Chi-Chi" Heywood
Derek Hodge
Hon. James O'Bryan
Hon. Kerry Donley
Barbara Easterling
Hon. Alexis Herman
Hon. Jerrauld Jones
Miguel Lausell
Daniel LeBlanc
Terence McAuliffe
Jennifer McClellan
Mame Reiley
Susan Swecker
Paul Berendt
Charlotte Coker
Ed Cote
Hon. Gary Locke
Karen Marchioro
David McDonald
Hon. Ron Sims
Ya-Yue Van
Jim Bowen
Nick Casey
Alice Germond
Emilie Holroyd
Marie Prezioso
Linda Honold
Stan Gruszynski
Ken Opin
Mary Rasmussen
Tim Sullivan
Paula Zellner
Hon. Mike Gierau
Hon. George Bagby
Nancy Drummond
Vickie Goodwin
Rachelle Valladares
Peter Alegi
Robert Bell
Lois Grjebine
Christine Schon Marques
John McCreery
Ruth McCreery
Ronald Schlundt

[OrwellwasRight]

70. Thanks for the list!! I googled for this list for 45 minutes

last night and could only come up with a partial list on Wkipedia. I was seriously disturbed that the DNC didn't have the list on their own site (is it supposed to be a secret, and if so why?).

I am going to link your answer to our aborted discussion from last night so that the original searcher can get an answer (assuming he cares -- people seem to be abandoning their own posts frequently these days).

Again, thanks!

[lojasmo]

94. You're welcome

My vote is for Dean too. He's the only candidate I have EVER given money to (besides my father) He's the first candidate I've ever worked for, or cared about in a primary race.

He gave me the idea that politics can be transformed. Of course, the way this season has played out shows me that it will take longer than I had hoped.....


Dean for a meaningful role in saving the democratic party from itself.

[Piperay]

53. Dean

We need Dean and I will be sick with disappointment if it is anyone but Dean.

[bklyncowgirl]

55. Dean for DNC, yes.

I think that naming the guy who taught the old donkey some new tricks would be great.

I do think, however, that given the current state of the party leadership, that I have a better chance being named DNC chair than Howard Dean.

[w4rma]

58. I want someone who will work his butt off and set down some top-down

authority onto this Party. I don't support *any* current office holders for this job as I don't want them to be thinking about governing, advancing the Democratic Party in their own state and this at the same time. Also, whomever takes this job will be targeted by Repugs and will face a tough reelection battle, just as Daschle because he was Senate leader.

However, if Dean does take the helm he should not allow folks within this party to estrange themselves from the rest of the party and set up shop outside it as I saw happen during the primary. This party needs unity even more than it needs authority. And even more than that it needs hard work and it will take ALOT of folks to do that hard work. I think Gov. Dean can do all of these things.

[LonesomeOne]

65. Let's Hope

They pick Dean. Vilsack is a moron. He has screwed up this state, doesn't keep his word (just ask the teachers here), and is a pandering-to-the-monied-people asshat. Dean at least has a pair of testicles.

[Red State Rebel]

67. Ickes is my bet n/t

[Zorra]

75. I vote Dean. Proven ability to energize, mobilize, and unite people. n/t

[XemaSab]

82. Dean the Man!

Dean's a lot like Clinton in some ways. He's got a lot of charisma and a lot of personality. Also, he's not really that liberal. However, Dean tells the truth (as he sees it), and frankly, these days, telling the truth winds up sounding very liberal.

I'm a hardcore Deaniac because, even though I don't agree with everything he says, I trust him to think things through and come up with a policy that's reasonable.

We're never going to see a politician who agrees with each and every one of us all the time. We don't even agree with each other. There will always be differences between different Democrats and these differences make us vital.

I don't think a vote for Dean for chair is a vote for leftist dogma, or a vote for Vichy democracy. I think it's a vote for energy and passion and, if necessary, confrontation.

I think some people were afraid to challenge Bush, afraid of sounding too "negative" and alienating voters. We'll never win always being on the defensive. Bush played an offensive game (how true that is!), and it got him the presidency.

The continuing success of Democracy for America shows that the average party members want to be active and mobilized. It's always telling what people do when they're out of the spotlight. For example, Carter showed his true humanitarian colors after he lost the presidency in 1980. I think Dean has also shown his true colors through DFA. He could have crawled under a rug after losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he stayed active and kept fighting even when the chips were down.

This is exactly the spirit we need in our national leadership.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

89. Welcome to DU...

and I agree wholeheartedly. Dean sees the danger in our staggering deficit, is fiscally conservative, and supports a balanced budget - wouldn't those positions hold sway with the "true" fiscal conservatives out there? (They'll need a new home after they lose the ensuing power struggle against the far right wackos...) Dean supported military action in Afghanistan, but not Iraq. How is that "liberal"? He supports states' rights with regard to gun ownership. Personally, I'd regulate the hell out of guns, but the Dems need to revisit their position on this (didn't Gore lose WV b/c of the gun issue?). Dean has it right in that none of the insanity in the world will stop until the U.S. is more "even-handed" between the Israelis and Palestinians. It may be unpopular to say, but it's the truth. He's right in wanting to rein in the huge media conglomerates. And right on civil unions. He can organize, raise money, and inspire. Coworkers and friends, previously tainted by The Scream coverage, now say they "get it" and are really paying attention to him. Vilsack is bland, just like Bayh is bland. We need a STRONG personality.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com

"You've got your nuts on the left, your nuts on the right, and you've got me."--Howard Dean

[OrwellwasRight]

95. "We'll never win always being on the defensive." Word.

Single most important consideration,and that's why I think a middle-of-the-roader is not the best pick because s/he'll be too busy being Repub-lite to be on the attack.

[usregimechange]

90. This former Deaniac would sipport Vilsack. nt

[Democat]

91. What about Harold Ickes?

He can bring money and organizational skills that are proven.

[RT_Fanatic]

93. Please, not that snooze

Vilsack. As Lou Reed once said, "Some people are like human tuinals."
:eyes:

[sampsonblk]

100. No Brainer - Dean without question

He's the one that gave ourparty a chance this year. (Clarkie here.)

[Catfight]

102. I vote for a real minority leader, Carol Mosely Brown is my pick. nt

[Leafy Geneva]

103. I no longer contribute to the DNC

All of my political contributions go to DFA or individual candidates.

Now,if they elect Dean as chairman I may have to reconsider.

[RadioLeft]

105. DeanForDNC.us - Let's make Howard Dean DNC Chairman

How about signing the petition at:

DeanForDNC.us

Here's the sad part about this: We ran a petition after Jerry Falwell said "911 is God's doing because we are evil" demanding that Bush condemn Falwell's remarks. We had 30,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. But, at this moment we're at 500 votes after four days. We believe it will take at least 100,000 signatures to get barely noticed.

Is working to get Dean elected DNC chairman a misguided effort? Just curious since this seems far more important than condemning Jerry Falwell.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

106. It's Dean for this Democrat!

We need a real leader at the helm of the party.