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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


11.16.2006

 

Blame it on Dean?

Whoops!

Reports giving credit to Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC, for helping Democrats win control of the House and Senate, plus additional governorships and Legislatures have apparently been greatly exaggerated.

According to a story in today's New York Times, some top Democratic strategists are saying Dean ought to be fired because he is to blame for the party not winning even more seats in the House. The Dems won 29 seats (maybe more once all the reccounts are done) but longtime party stategist James Carville said they could have won 40 if Dean had worked closer with House and Senate leaders. To read the full story click here.

“He should be held accountable,” Carville said. “Do we want to go into ’08 with a C minus general at the D.N.C.?” Carville proposed that Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., who lost a close Senate race, should take Dean's place as head of the DNC.

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg is also quoted iin the Times article as saying if the DNC had just spent a little more money, the party could have thumped the Rs even more. The DNC took out a $10M loan in the last stages of the campaign season, but spent only half of it.

“There was a missed opportunity here,” Greenberg said. “I’ve sat down with Republican pollsters to discuss this race: They believe we left 10 to 20 seats on the table.”

Don Fowler, a veteran party strategist, told the Times it was "nuts" that Greenberg and Carville are attacking Dean.

“Asking Dean to step down now, after last week, is equivalent to asking Eisenhower to resign after the Normandy invasion,” Fowler said. “It’s just nonsense."

Ya think?

-- Sam Hemingway

Comments:
Naturally, Carville and Greenberg are attacking Dean. They are part of the same old boy network that feared Dean in 2004. Dean represents a change from the old regime of the party, and none of the old power brokers wanted to see him succeed. Face it, guys, your time has passed.
 
Look at what happened in the intermountain West - Dems picked up 2 House seats in Arizona, a House seat and the governorship in Colorado, a Senate seat in Montana, and held GOP US House incumbents to narrow margins in Wyoming, Nevada, and New Mexico. Dean deserves the credit for making the Dems competitive again in a growing region of the country - AZ, CO, MT, NV, and NM have 32 electoral votes. With Bill Richardson on the Democratic ticket as VP in 2008, the Dems could win more than half of these electoral votes, even if McCain is the GOP nominee and wins AZ. Hillary needs Dean as DNC chair if she is to win the Presidency in 2008, regardless of what old Clinton hands like Carville and Greenberg say.
 
Carville is right, Dean is a joke. As a Republican I'm glad he is staying at the DNC for '08. Things should have been far worse for the GOP this year and Dean's incompetence let many seats slip through his fingers.
 
Which of Dean's policies make you refer to him as "a joke" ??

Your post was full of hatred, but empty of hard facts.
 
Dean makes me laugh. What a donkey

Leftstream
 
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