we elected Howard Dean in VA, and MT, and RI...YEEEAAARRRGHH!!!

"At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up from our people."
-- Howard Dean

The myopia of James Carville's impotent ranting over Chairman Dean is obvious enough from the netroots standpoint, as we are all well-acquainted with his contributions to the state party coffers and organization, as well as the 50-state strategy, that "take the fight to the Republicans" mentality.  But Dean's victory is far more complete than that, far more than everyone else realizes.  

Follow me below the fold to take a look at some "funny" similarities...

What was it that was appealing about the Vermont governor in 2004?  Do you remember?  

a) He was "moderate" in the sense that he was able to find common ground with, and work effectively with, not just liberal Democrats but also centrists and even conservatives.  His work with the NRA on wildlife preservation was one of our favorite talking points.  

b) He was anti-Iraq War.  Deaniacs in 2003 tended to be of that rare breed of Democrat that opposed the Iraq debacle from the get-go, and Dean's willingness to question the motives, the evidence, and decision for war at the time and in the face of opposition from establishment Democrats won him vicious derision from DC and from the media pundit class (you remember the vitriol with which his "I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness. . ." line?)  In fact, perhaps his greatest speech was the one Glenn Greenwald highlights from February 7, 2003 (note to media-hacks and James Carville: that would be one month before the invasion of Iraq).

c) He was a populist.  Dean's speeches were fiery, emotionally charged, and full of rhetoric about changing NAFTA and bringing jobs back from overseas.  They were about punishing corporations that move overseas to evade taxes, and about taking back tax cuts for the rich.  In fact, of the two candidates who eventually overtook him, one did so on this very issue: John Edwards.

d) He was a partisan Democrat.  In this Howard Dean was virtual alone in 2003, and in 2004, as well, until Kerry et al. figured out that Dean was winning voters on it.  Dean's appropriation from the late Paul Wellstone that he represents "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party" rallied the base in a way that Lieberman's and Gephardt's sheepish overtures to the GOP nauseated and demoralized the very crowd the party relies on most for its ground ops: liberal activists.  While Democrats with the presidential itch were practically falling over themselves to kiss W's ring, Dean was rabble-rousing with such statements as,

"The way we're going to win elections in this country is not to become Republican lite. The way we're going to win elections in this country is to stand up for what we believe in."

 Is it any wonder that the '90's and opening years of this decade were characterized by lackluster Democratic electioneering and Republican encroachment before the good doctor gave the party a spine transplant?

Dean was a unique character in 2003.  This combination of qualities was not the model Democrat at that time, and some of these qualities, like early opposition to Iraq and open partisan, were hardly even found on their own before the Doctor made them sexy.  I submit to you that this election was a vindication not only of Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, but of his political philosophy and model of the ideal Democrat as well.

Don't believe me?  Then take a look at the candidates we elected on Tuesday.  First, even the sickening "conservative Democrat" spin in the media, it is true that many of the winners could be described as "moderate," at least in the sense of having a history of working with Republicans and/or sharing some positions with them.  Jim Webb was Reagan's Secretary of the Navy.  Claire McCaskill worked in a GOP-led state government as auditor while Jon Tester led the statehouse of a deeply conservative state.  Many of the new House Dems are conservative on social issues, like Heath Shuler, Joe Donnelly, and Brad Ellsworth.  In fact, it appears that most describe themselves as "moderates."  

Second, they're (like the rest of America) staunchly anti-Iraq War, and in favor of changing course.  Remember how I said Dean was a rare breed in opposing the war from the start?  So was Jim Webb.  Current opposition to the war, meanwhile, was virtually universal among the Dem candidates this year, and it's conventional wisdom now that Iraq was a mistake (it's opposed nearly 2-to-1 in the last poll).

Third, according to MSNBC, they're distinctly populist in their economics.  One could look at Jim Webb (who's issues page from the campaign website mentioning economic fairness twice).   Or Claire McCaskill.  Or Sherrod Brown, who is said to have beaten Mike Dewine nearly on that issue alone.  Or Heath Shuler  Same with Donnelly.  And need we mention America's first Socialist senator, Bernie Sanders?

Fourth,... do I even need to prove that our current crop were as partisan as they come?  The constant railing against the national GOP and Bush as corrupt, incompetent, callous to working families, delusional on Iraq, failures on the economy, and on and on.  Webb, again, is exemplary in this respect, having excited Kossacks and others from the beginning in his strident and bellicose rhetoric toward George Allen and the GOP.  My own candidate's central slogan was "restore commonsense leadership to Washington."  

What Carville and his (few) buddies in Washington need to figure out, and fast, is that the people didn't just vote for Dean's party: they voted for Dean.  They voted for a Howard Dean for Senate in Virginia.  They put him in the Senate in Missouri and Montana and Ohio and Rhode Island and Vermont.  They put in the House 3 times in Pennsylvania and at least once in New York and Florida.  Hell, they nearly elected him in Wyoming and Idaho!  Howard Dean is now not only the former governor of Vermont, but the current governor of Michigan and New York and Massachusetts and Maryland.  He's in countless positions in statehouses all over the country.

Howard Dean has become the soul not only of DailyKos, but of the grassroots Democratic movement everywhere.  Pundits and DC pols and has-been Zell-loving strategists can recriminate him all they want, when his ideas are present at the ballot box, Democrats win.  And the national party ignores that fact at their peril.