(Crossposted from The Field.)
Here's a homework assignment for all the cicadas screeching that outgoing DNC chair Howard Dean has somehow been "snubbed" by Obama: Watch that video above. Because that's exactly what you sound like today.
More smackdown at the jump!
Lordy lord, George W. Bush is seven days from expulsion from the White House, a 47-year-old African-American Democrat - the most liberal of the top-tier presidential contenders in his party last year - is about to take the office.
Obama has nominated 14 of 15 cabinet members, half of whom (seven) are either women, African-American, Hispanic-American or Asian-American. (The empty post, Commerce, initially went to Hispanic-American Bill Richardson, who since bowed out.)
Please do clarify: Was Dean "snubbed" because he didn't get one of the seven positions that went to white men? Or would some prefer that a woman or a person of color be removed to make room for Dean?
There's a sidebar diary at the Daily Kos recommended by more than 200 users that claims that former DNC chair Howard Dean was somehow snubbed by Barack Obama because he's not in the cabinet and he wasn't invited to the 20 minute press conference announcing the new DNC chair.
The diarist wrote:
"Dean was completely passed over for the Cabinet position he coveted (Health and Human Services). He was also shutout from consideration for any other administration post. And there have been allegations that Dean was not even invited to attend the event with President-elect Barack Obama introducing Gov Tim Kaine at DNC headquarters to be his successor, which Dean indicated he would have attended (rescheduling a trip) had he received such an invitation. The shabby treatment of Howard Dean, by the Democratic Establishment is baffling."
That's "Shabby treatment?" Dean not getting a job that Dean hasn't even publicly said that he wanted?
At last week's press conference - it lasted all of 20 minutes! - Obama and incoming DNC chair Tim Kaine made the following statements about Howard Dean:
Obama on Dean:
"He launched the fifty state strategy that made Democrats competitive in places they had not won elections in fifty years... Now is the time not only to build on Howard's record of achievement but to remake the Democratic Party..."
Kaine on Dean:
"Chairman Dean with the fifty state strategy has just done a marvelous job... we've got to be a party that plays everywhere... I've got huge shoes to fill... The Obama campaign was less about the inspiration than about the organization... "
If that's somehow a snub, may we all be snubbed that way!
Part of the rumor-mongering is based on a sole statement by Dean's brother, Jim, who as chairman of Democracy for America (formerly Dean for America) is transparently trying to get his organization back into the political spotlight with these antics. He told Politico last week:
"If he had been asked to go to that event, he would have been there."
That's what Jim Dean said of his brother, stoking the flames of the High School cafeteria crowd that cares more about perceived snubs than almost anything! (And as everybody in those cafeterias ought to know, little brothers never subvert and undercut their elder siblings for their own gain!)
Now, I'm going to call Jim Dean out, because I think he's doing this with very cynical motives. See, Democracy for America, like any other group, needs to expand its potential donor and member base and with a Democrat coming into the White House, that's going to be harder for all the liberal interest groups to do. The last time a Democrat came to the presidency, in January 1993, most of the big liberal organizations ended up having to lay off staff because fundraising dwindled. So Jim Dean is playing a cheap trick to attempt that from happening to his. He's got a "petition" up titled "Reinstate the Fifty State Strategy."
Unlike most online "petitions" this one doesn't tell you how many people have signed it. It doesn't even guarantee it will ever be delivered or that the number of signators will even be announced. Rather, it looks more like a data collection gimmick, asking for your name, your zip code, and your email address! (Don't come crying to me, signer, when you inevitably get fund appeal spam from DFA.)
The entire premise of the "petition" is bogus. "Reinstate the 50 State Strategy?" Well, that implies that the 50 state strategy somehow disappeared in the past four days since Kaine took the helm of the DNC. (Some point to the non-renewal of 200 staff contracts after the November election, errantly, as so-called evidence of a change of strategies. Well, that happened under Howard Dean's watch, not Tim Kaine's, and those contracts - designed by Dean's staff years ago - were signed only through November 2008. But has Kaine made any changes at all in the past 96 hours to DNC strategy? I mean, wow, "silly" doesn't even begin to describe that kind of talk.)
If somebody argued, say, to "reinstate the draft," well, for it or against it, that would at least be a coherent statement, because the military draft was discontinued years ago. If somebody said, "reinstate Dan Rather at CBS," that would be coherent, because he was replaced by Katie Couric.
But you can't, by definition, reinstate something that never went away.
In their statements above, both Obama and Kaine, while praising Dean, praised the 50 state strategy - through which the Democratic Party widened the electoral playing field over the past two national elections - and gave every indication that they plan not only to continue it, but to put even more resources into it. (The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has written that the new crew at DNC represents "the 50 state strategy on steroids.")
Jim Dean's behavior on this is reprehensible and overly manipulative. It cheapens the good history of Democracy for America and turns it into just another cynical beltway political group trying desperately to stay relevant.
But the High School cafeteria antics of those that jump all over those statements to claim Howard Dean was "snubbed" are no less deplorable than the High School cafeteria antics of those who claimed, last year, that Obama somehow snubbed Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor (see the video above). And will go down in history just as embarrassing for them as the so-called Hillary snub was for those that yelled and screamed about it at the time.
Dr. Howard Dean will no doubt appear in public again and announce his next plans. It may be to do something he's been privately planning for a long time. It may be he was never interested in a cabinet post, but in a different kind of challenge. We don't know because he hasn't told us. And those claiming Howard was snubbed are only hurting Howard, by causing the slow class out there to presume he doesn't have any more clout with Obama. That Howard Dean hasn't claimed any snub publicly indicates, to the contrary, that his influence and access with the incoming White House is sound and ongoing.
Yes, Howard Dean's been a grown-up throughout this process, even if his brother hasn't, while over at the children's table they're gossiping that he was somehow snubbed.
So, to those of you that want to rail that Dean was "snubbed," fine, it's a free country. Just please watch that video, above, because you will look as silly six months from now as the "Hillary was snubbed" crowd looks today.
Update: Here's Howard Dean on MSNBC on January 9. Again, if this is snubbed, "snubbed" must be the new winning-the-lottery:
He's obviously a grown-up.
If you want to pay tribute to Howard Dean, be like him.