Just got through reading the big
group-slam on pro-Dean "whiners" who feel, in my mind quite justifiably, that the Democratic National Committe and its chair Terry McAuliffe have quietly gamed the system to Dean's detriment and to the benefit of the establishment-backed candidates, especially Senator Kerry.
Even the mighty Kos chimes in himself:
It's beyond me how people insist on clinging to such blatant untruths like DLC and DNC are the same (they are not!), or that the DNC or McAuliffe somehow tried to torpedo Dean (they didn't), or how the DNC has anything to do with the spineless elected officials (they don't).
[snip]
While some of us work within the party structure to effect positive change, others want to cry and bitch. Fine, that's your perogative. But don't, for a moment, think you are being constructive.
There's nothing constructive about helping Bush win a second term.
I don't believe that many people acutally confuse the DLC (Democratic Leaderhip Council) with the DNC (Democratic National Committee). The DLC is a group that has openly ratfucked Dean and his supporters with divisive and nasty innuendo and outright lies. They are pond scum.
The DNC is a different animal entirely but with the same fresh scent. Did the DNC consipire to take out Dean? Nobody can either prove or disprove that. We do know a couple of things though:
- The DNC is responsible for the front-loaded and condensed primary schedule. This was set up to guarantee the nomination to whoever won Iowa and New Hampshire because of the momentum effect. At the time the system was created Kerry was the frontrunner and Dean, although an asterisk at the time, was the potentially threatening insurgent.
- Terry McAuliffe made a point in May to take a shot at Dean for calling out other Democrats on their Iraq stance, but stood by siliently while Dean was kneecapped in January. Remember the Osama ad? That was paid for by Democrats without a peep of protest from our "impartial" Chair.
To further this point, here's a WSJ Op-Ed which
fingers the Clintons and their loyalists within the DNC for taking Dean out. Of course it's WSJ so take it with a shaker or two of salt. Still it does suggest we who feel that Dean didn't get a lot of lovin from the DNC aren't totally crazy.
An excerpt:
Looking back on the assault on Mr. Dean before the Iowa caucuses, one is reminded of the old joke that politics really is a blood sport, and by caucus day the blood was everywhere and so were the Clintons' fingerprints. I cannot recall such a concerted assault on a front-runner in any other primary season. Dick Morris was, perhaps, the first to claim that Mr. McAuliffe's agents spread negative research against Mr. Dean. Now we have more evidence. Sources in the Kerry camp and the Edwards camp told my colleague "The Prowler" at Spectator.org that much of the opposition research that smeared Mr. Dean in Iowa came from the Clark campaign. "It wasn't just Clark, though," a Kerry staffer reported, "We know of at least two different stories that came from people currently on staff with the DNC, who fed the material to reporters." Says an Edwards staffer, "These are folks who worked for Clinton back in '92 and '96 and in the administration."
Of course, the damaging Dean letter to President Clinton in the mid-1990s calling for unilateral action in Kosovo, which USA Today published just before the Iowa caucuses, could only have come from the Clintons. There is another report that Jimmy Carter's anticipated endorsement of Mr. Dean faded into a photo-op after Mr. Clinton called Mr. Carter. Obviously the Clintons have been very busy this campaign season. This explains to some degree Mr. Gore's endorsement of Mr. Dean and possibly Bill Bradley's too.
So please spare me the abuse if I and other Dean backers can connect the dots in Washington. Our boy got rolled. I don't forget these things easily and if I ever, and I mean ever, have a chance to screw these people any way I can, I am not going to hesitate for a second.
I'm not going to help get George Bush re-elected, but I'm also not going to lift a finger to help these fucks further consolidate power. They're not getting my money or my time. I'll put on a respirator and vote for Kerry if it comes to that but that's all they're getting out of me. Nobody can or should make me feel guilt for that.