Some of my thoughts on various Democratic leader
responses to their Chairman's opinion.
The good:House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said that although she didn't agree with Dean's recent comments, she considered him an effective party chairman.
"That is why the Republicans are so relentlessly going after him," she said.
Take a frown and turn it upside down. That's the way you do it. Even if you can't get behind him politically, support the chairman and end on a positive note.
The bad:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on her way into the Capitol Hill meeting with Dean that he "ought to stick to organization, raising funds and supporting Democrats, rather than creating friction and splitting the party." She added that she would advise Dean to "cool it."
A Feinstein spokesman said after the meeting that the senator had expressed her concerns to Dean, but in a more diplomatic way.
Umm, so you air your dirty laundry and act like a loose cannon in public, and you save the diplomatic response for in private?
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said he didn't think Dean's comments were helpful to the party. But he noted, as did a number of other Democratic senators, that Dean was still new to his job as chairman and had been accustomed to speaking his mind as a governor and presidential candidate.
"This is a learning process," he said. If Dean were to continue to make the sort of comments he has made recently, Biden said, "he might find himself in a real difficult situation. But I think you'll see him be a little more careful in how he phrases things. Do I think this has caused long-term damage for the Democratic Party? No. If it becomes the steady diet for the next three years? Yeah."
Guess what Senator; in the party election, an election where only Democrats get to vote, the party chose Dean, warts and all. This is the diet because this is what real people hunger for, and it's what's on the menu for the next 3 years. Not to mention that the vague threat to "be careful what you say, or you might have problems" is a bit Mafioso; like saying "things happen, sometimes car brakes don't work, or buildings catch fire." What are you trying to say, Senator? He wouldn't have problems if you would support him.
The ugly:
Ford, who plans a Senate run next year, said on the Don Imus radio show that if Dean could not "temper his comments, it may get to the point where the party may need to look elsewhere for leadership, because he does not speak for me."
Ford later told The Times that Dean was "leading us in a direction that makes it difficult to win.... His leadership right now is not serving any of us very well."
"We really don't have a message right now," Ford lamented.
Spoken like a true defeatist and born loser. I want to move to Tennessee just so I can vote against him. Criticising leadership and whinging that you don't have a message is a clear sign that you're not a leader, and even if you had a message you wouldn't know how to deliver it.
Right now, it's looking like a focus of the campaigns on both sides in 2008 is going to be reform; whoever wants to be anointed with the Republican nomination is going to have to at least distance himself from the current administration's hot spots, possibly criticizing the Cheney/Rumsfeld junta, advocating a more balanced approach on stem cells and science; generally a "kinder, gentler" version of the same policies. (Think of a G.H.W.Bush to G.W.Bush's Reagan).
That's why the Democratic platform has to be real reform, not this cavilling "sit left, face right" crap. I'm largely preaching to the converted, of course, but it bears repeating.