Begala makes an asshole comment about the DNC's 50 State Strategy, gets called on it, apologizes and asks an important question: what is the DNC spending its money on other than the 50-State Strategy (since that turns out to be rather cost efficient), and is the spending being done responsibly?
How do Kossacks respond? By calling him a "semi-Dem windbag" who is "accusing Dean of embezzlement" or "corruption", undercutting Dean's leadership, etc.
When the intelligent response would have been, "Thanks for getting on board with the 50-State Strategy, Paul. You're right that we all should be talking about building a coherent progressive message. Howard: what is the $45 million going for?"
Begala is not the anti-Christ, nor is Howard Dean Mr. Perfect. Irrational defense of the DNC is no better than irrational criticism.
Let's review:
- Dean's DNC raised $74 million and has $10 million left on hand. The RNC has $43 million on hand.
- Begala learns about this and goes off on Dean on CNN with a stupid and incendiary comment:
What he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.
- The blogosphere -- see Kos (with Please, someone put Begala out to pasture)-- and Zack Exley (Shame on you, Paul Begala) call him on his stupid, unhelpful attitude.
- Begala offers an honest and thoughtful apology (Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight), saying
First, I should never, ever have denigrated young men and women who are working in the political trenches in places like Mississippi and Utah.
I was being arrogant and flippant when I said they're just picking their noses. Mea culpa. You live by the smart-ass quip, you die by the smart-ass quip.
He then does some research into the DNC finances, and finds that the 50-State Strategy is costing $8 million and the recent gubernatorial races cost $11 million, and then asks the question: what has the other $45 million been spent on?
- The bloggers of Daily Kos go apeshit with the top-recommended Paul Begala's Night of Long Knives (the comments to Begala's latest post are similarly abusive of Begala and blindly defensive of Dean).
And I personally like Howard Dean a lot more than Paul Begala.
But it's frustrating when we act as stupid as the people we criticize.
UPDATE: The original title said "Where's the $45 Million?" which implied I thought it was missing, and then I whined to Teresa that she was being unfair. Sorry.