I never heard about this Dean/Robert Rubin confrontation in 2003.

[madfloridian]

This really surprised me. This Greider article was during the campaign, so it is a little moving.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20031215&s=greider

SNIP..."The governor has shown flashes of the same bluntness in his prime-time campaigning. Last summer, he told a revealing story on himself--a conversation with Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary and Wall Street's main money guy for Democrats. Rubin had warned that unless Dean stopped attacking NAFTA and the multinationals for the migration of US jobs, he couldn't raise contributions for him from the financial sector. As Dean told it, "I said, 'Bob, tell me what your solution is.' He said, 'I'll have to get back to you.' I haven't heard from him." What I like so much about the story is that powerful, influential Bob Rubin pokes Dean in the chest, and he pokes him back. Then Dean discloses the exchange to the Washington Post.

In the higher realms of politics, this is not done. But he is not one of them. And this is no longer the era for "triangulation" between the business-financial money patrons and the party's main constituencies. ....."

Several here have criticized me for not making a lot of comments when I post an article. So I will give my opinion. I think it is wrong for the establishment Dems to threaten to withhold financial support from a candidate. This is supposedly a country in which people are free to run for office. So...that is my comment.

[Gin]

1. I saw Rubin on Charlie Rose and he likes all the "free trade" and

makes no indication he wants "fair" trade...he may be a financial whiz...but he will never be affected by all of the trade poilices that are ruining our middle class....so...I am happy to hear Dean gave it right back to him.

He (Rubin) needs a taste of living a middle class life...maybe even in manufacturing.

[madfloridian]

4. And I guess if the main money guy tells you to support NAFTA.....

then you had better do so. I did not realize this happened.

[Jacobin]

2. I like this part:

I said, 'Bob, tell me what your solution is.' He said, 'I'll have to get back to you.' I haven't heard from him."

Rubin had no answer. That answers it for me.

I :loveya: Dean

Man, could we use a Dean candidacy right about now. (running for cover)

[madfloridian]

3. I thought this description was quite unusual and very apt.

SNIP..."Howard Dean is an odd duck, certainly, in the milieu of the contemporary Democratic Party. He is, I surmise, a tough and savvy politician of the old school--a shrewd, intuitive pol who develops his own sense of where the people are and where events are likely to take public opinion, then has the guts to act on his perceptions. That approach--leading, it's called--seems dangerously unscientific in this era of high-quality polling and focus groups, the data interpreted for politicians by expensive consultants. The press corps has not had much experience with Democrats of this type, so reporters read Dean's style as emotional, possibly a character flaw. He reminds me of olden days when Democrats were a more contentious bunch, always fighting noisily among themselves and often with creative results. ...."

[madfloridian]

5. I wonder how much of a role this plays with all candidates.

It may have happened in 2003, but the mind set is probably still in play....to be careful on this issue.