A NOTE on Terry McAuliffe, please read

[ShaneGR]

First off, while the guy didn't have a great year in 2002 I do believe he's made great strides in his strategy change for the upcoming elections. I don't know how many of you have seen the DNC's emails but the tone is DEFINITELY very angry and very aggressive. www.dnc.org..... In fact, that Drudge Report article is COMPLETELY false as I saw Dean and McAuliffe greet each other in Ohio and DC and BOTH times they were VERY friendly with each other. Just an example, not as nice because they come in HTML format:

George Bush Thinks You Are Unpatriotic
Dear ********,


We've seen it over and over again: George W. Bush is using the patriotism of the American people to cloak his right-wing agenda, an agenda that hurts average Americans. They wrap themselves in the flag, dismissing the criticism of their worst policies as unpatriotic. According to Bush and the GOP, you aren't a patriot if you:

Think eroding our civil liberties is a cause for concern.

Don't support massive tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of working families.

Believe the American people deserve to know whether President Bush misled them about Iraq's threat to our nation.

Care about protecting our environment.


The Bush Administration and the GOP Questions Your Patriotism
"There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that. There never is."
White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer, 9/26/2001

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies."
Attorney General John Ashcroft, 12/6/2001

" need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions."
Vice President Dick Cheney, 5/17/2002

"Those comments may not undermine the President as he leads us into war, and they may not give comfort to our adversaries, but they come mighty close."
Dennis Hastert, 3/18/02

"This destructive rhetoric does nothing more than demoralize our troops and second-guess our commander in chief."
Tom Delay, 3/20/03

Think eroding our civil liberties is a cause for concern.
Don't support massive tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of working families.
Believe the American people deserve to know whether President Bush misled them about Iraq's threat to our nation.
Care about protecting our environment.
President Bush and the Republicans are wrong. Real patriotism is more than photo-ops and platitudes. Real patriotism is fighting for real families every day -- and we're taking this month to showcase the real patriotism of Democrats.

July Is Patriotism Month
Real patriotism demands action. As we celebrate 227 years of American independence this month, the DNC will deliver to you new tools, new action items, and new messages from Democratic leaders that will help you accomplish the real goal of all true patriots: beating Bush in 2004!

The Bush administration is putting our freedoms and our values at risk -- the very things that make this country great.

Working together, we can defeat Bush in 2004 and restore what he has torn down. Keep an eye on your inbox this month for more news and tools that will help lead us to victory, including ePatriots, our new grassroots victory team.

Enjoy celebrating your patriotism this Independence Day and beyond!

Sincerely,

Terry McAuliffe
Chairman

[Eloriel]

1. You mean

now that he's found out it sells?

DEFINITELY very angry and very aggressive

Bully for him. Better late than never, I suppose.

Sorry, I ain't no fan of the money man.

Eloriel

[alaine]

2. Yeah, one thing that really surprised me when I first

came on here was that there wasn't more talk on this site about McAuliffe, good, bad or indifferent. I honestly don't know how he still has a job, he's obviously a great fund-raiser but since he's retired who is he serving?

I am on their e-site, though and I do the all of the "take action"s.

[ShaneGR]

3. actually

The tone of the emails has been like this for months and months.

[Pastiche423]

5. No they haven't

I've been getting their emails for over two years. Their new and improved "angry" and "aggressive" emails began at most six weeks ago. (I've kept them all.)

And let's see.......... how long has Dean been agressively speaking out?

It's a little too late for me to give a poop about the DNC. The mid term election was their last chance to gain my support and they failed horribly.

[blm]

9. "how long has Dean been agressively speaking out?"

Since the antiwar movement grew.

Before that he governed for 11 years as a compromising centrist who often aligned with the GOP and directed his agressive barbs only at the liberal Dem legislators in Vermont.

[Jim Sagle]

4. One mistake some folks may be making is to mistake

the DNC for the DLC.

[ryharrin]

7. Maybe, but I think people realize that

DLC= actively working against liberals DNC= Not doing much of anything recently.

[Capn Sunshine]

6. I think folks here know the difference

It's solely the fault of the DNC that they had no articulated message in 00.

I think that McAuliffe's time has come. I agree, he brings in the bucks, but after a battle is lost , the generals take the heat.

My question:
Who replaces him?

[grasswire]

8. somebody with some moral authority

....that comes from being clear of ties to mega-corporation. Preferably someone who fought for civil rights progress and stood for the Constitution.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

10. Terry McAuliffe, The Notorious Bagman

At one point he was quite effective at bringing in the corporate bribes, er, I mean contributions. Campaign Finance Reform fixed all that. Why is he still here?

[InkAddict]

11. The Bigger Questions is

why did Drudge drop the developing story about Paul Redmond's resignation in the middle of his investigation of the Inslaw case and replace it with the McAuliffe dribble? Inquiring minds what to know if they've been right all along!

[julka]

12. here's the answer to your question

Am I overly suspicious? Or is Matt Drudge taking his, shall we say, talking points directly from Karl Rove? Or maybe from Karl Rove, via Ed Gillespie, long-time GOP operative, money-shoveler and incoming chairman of the RNC? Drudge has an over-the-fold headline this evening which claims that there's some sort of super smackdown brewing between Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe.

For all I know the two may hate each other, I have no idea. Dean has pissed a bunch of people off in DC.

But look at the key quote in Drudge's 'story' about Dean's alleged intention to fire McAuliffe.

"We'll make a change there immediately ," a top Dean source said of the DNC leadership. "I think it is important, as does Howard, to mark a new beginning, cut ties from the past."
This 'quotation' suggests a pretty short list of possibilities. Either people in the Dean campaign are incredible morons or this is a bogus quote.
Why?

How exactly is Dean going to clean house after -- presumably -- winning the New Hampshire primary? Even though a presidential nominee controls the party apparatus after he gets the nomination, there are a number of reasons why they seldom install their own chairman at the DNC before even winning the presidency. But they certainly don't -- or rather can't -- fire the chairman of the party during the middle of the primary campaign.

Why?

Basically for the same reasons that I've so far refrained from firing New York Times Executive Editor Joe Lelyveld or the fact checker of Ann Coulter's ridiculous new book Treason (of which we'll be saying more soon): because I can't.

Who really gave Drudge that 'quote'?
-- Josh Marshall

some guy from the DNC was on Press/Buchanan a few minutes ago, discussing this very story. he said the SAME thing as Marshall, and they all LAUGHED at him!!!!! Press included!!!!


so the pugs can just make up any old story, put it out there, and it runs as if gospel. when the truth is told, it's RIDiculed. that's preCISEly why Gore lost in 2000. the pugs lied their asses off about just about everything, and the media served as their steno pool, with most dems acting like the Dukakis campaign, forgetting how Carville/Begala/Steph handled the propaganda camppaign aginst WJC in 92. if this continues, there's NO chance at all next year