Posted on 02/24/2005 9:29:39 AM PST by bigsoxfan
"We have to grow the Democratic Party... so we can protect the values that bring our Party - and the vast majority of Americans - together."
Howard Dean Chairman, Democratic National Committee
With those and a few other choice words, Howard Dean assumed the chairmanship of his party Feb. 12. While he hasn't had enough time in his new position to do much more than lay-out plans for shuffling offices and leftover staff around Democratic National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill, some interesting trends have already started to emerge.
The first is that he was elected at all. Prior to his selection as party chair, Dean managed to bump up against what some proposed legislation might define as a hate crime when he blithely told a gathering of DNC partisans, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
It's interesting that Dean chose to express his hatred of Republicans rather than the Republican Party. Hating an institution is one thing, but hating individual Republicans, including my daughter who cast her first-ever presidential ballot last November for President Bush, comes off as a little extreme. Given the red-meat nature of his oratory during his 2004 Democratic presidential nomination bid, one might be forgiven for not showing surprise over his expressed hatred.
Dean also managed to bump up against charges of racism when he told members of the Democratic Black Caucus that the Republican National Committee could gather as many minorities in one place, "Only if they had the hotel staff in here."
Racist? Probably not. Stupid and insensitive? Make book on it. While two such inopportune remarks in the closing days of a race for the chairmanship of a national political party would probably sink the candidacy of just about anybody else in just about any other party, the voting members of the DNC nonetheless chose Dean.
Perhaps these are the values the former Vermont governor wishes to protect during his husbandry of the DNC chairmanship. But it's a safe bet the, "vast majority of Americans," are less interested in pure political hatred and bumpkinesque racial stereotyping than meeting the nation's challenges and solving its problems.
It's an equally safe bet that there is a considerable percentage of partisans who share Dean's vision for the Democratic Party and his preferred means of articulating it. In another interesting trend, many of these people seem to inhabit the fringes of liberal activism, but Dean's ascension ushers these fringe elements into the mainstream of his party.
Consider the DNC's blog, referred to as "Kicking Ass." Blogs are all the rage these days, and liberal blogs seem pretty much dedicated to little more than rage, judging by the links the DNC offers to its web visitors.
One presumes the DNC's 'Blog Roll' - a listing of most favored websites that can be visited with the single click of a mouse - is part of Dean's plan for the DNC which includes, among other things, efforts to, "Set core principles that define the Democratic Party and what we stand for and take a bottom-up approach to the development of the Party's message."
At the top of the list of liberal blogs promoted by the DNC is one called 'Roger Ailes,' a reference to the Fox News chairman and CEO. A quick read through this compendium of political wisdom shows the author's propensity for profaninty-laced insults hurled at various conservative commentators. Suffice to say Ailes is not the author.
An entry from the DNC-promoted blog called MaxSpeak referrs to supporters of Social Security reform as "Pension Pimps," while a writer at The Liquid List chimes in on John Negroponte's nomination as national intelligence director by saying, "It's not to late for you young up-and-comers to get yourself involved in some death squad work to ensure a long life of highly-paid ambassadorial positions."
Many more include routine spleen venting over recently released tape recordings of old telephone conversations with President Bush, the Jeff Gannon / James Guckert dust-up and assorted Tin Foil Hat scribblings on a variety of dark and suspicious matters about which all but they are woefully ignorant.
Perhaps these musing constitute the, "bottom-up approach to the development of the party's message," that Dean promises to work for. It may be that these sentiments represent the "core principles that define the Democratic Party."
Maybe yes, maybe no. But the simple fact that this sort of discourse is being actively advanced by the DNC at an institutional level suggests the inmates are running the asylum. This does not come off as a wise step in reconstructing a shattered political party seeking to regain its lost stature.
Howard Dean may hate Republicans, but right now, they aren't his biggest opponent. For a glimpse of that, he'll need to look in the mirror.
MEANWHILE- Schumer is on C-Span trying to justify being an Obstructionist.
He is misquoting judges...and then....as an indicator of his own vision on property rights...tries to imply that it was wrong for a Judge to raise the issue is zoning and land use could be viewed as a problem for property rights.
HEY CHUCK...eminent domain is INDEED the taking of property owners land. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE PROCESS DOES!
As a matter of fact- Webster's dicitionary defines it as
eminent domain- n. Law. The right of a government to take private property for public use.
Schumer(or however that dip's name is spelled) should realize that a Judge who brings up the issue of zoning and eminent domain laws possibly violating rights of property owners.....IS A GOOD JUDGE.
OH..and now Schumer is trying to say that it is wrong for Republicans to want Judges who follow the Constitution in strict form and do not want outside stuff (foreign law and wrong interpretations) into rulings.
How can anybody not see Democrats as a threat to our Constitution???
Dean: "We have to grow the Democratic Party."
I won't say it was the worst thing clinton did, but one of the most ANNOYING things clinton did was to misuse the word "grow," as in "grow the economy."
Used in this sense, "grow" is not a transitive verb. You can "grow flowers," meaning to raise them, but you can't "grow the economy." Instead the correct usage is to say that "the economy grows," meaning gets larger.
This is like that other annoying political locution, "lesser developed nations." The correct usage is "less developed nations." "Lesser developed nations means "lesser nations" that happen to be developed.
Thus saith the grammar police.
Ya' think?
That won't work. Nobody's there. That man is totally 'out to lunch.'
Dean doesn't bother to look in the mirror because he knows he has no reflection.
bttt
Howard, do me a favor....don't protect my interests. I can do it myself. I don't need you--- or the government--- to help me.
I receive the DNC e-mail letter. They're a hoot!
Howard Dean is really hitting the values theme hard. What are the Dems values? Government dependence, promoting class warfare (covetness), the devaluing of human life, the abetting of corrupt CEO's, perjury, obstruction of Justice, witness tampering, abuse of power. These are just a few of the things that the Democrats have shown over the last few years that they value .
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