Howard Dean: One year as DNC chair

[mojogeorgo]

Last night, in the Sunday Night Mixed Bag thread at Howard-Empowered People, I noted:

By the way, I was reminded, when I went to visit the "About the Chairman" page, that a week from today will be Howard Dean's one year anniversary as Chair of the DNC. We should do something nice for him.




Some people have offered suggestions here, http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/2006/02/sunday-night-mixed-bag.html
the most obvious choice being that a lot of us buy Democracy Bonds on that day.

I think that's a great idea, especially given all the garbage stories that are always being circulated about fundraising being down because of Howard. I also think this deserves to be an interblog effort, so I am crossposting this far and wide, I'm going to put up a brainstorming thread under this image over at Howard-Empowered People. It will be in the left sidebar.



Since anyone can comment without having to log in for an account, it seems like a convenient way for us to share our ideas/pool our resources, etc. (And we have a dedicated team of troll stompers in the event that people show up to trash Dean rather than offering ideas.

Yeah, I know some people say that isn't free speech, or it's stifling dissent, or some such thing. But honestly, if we were planning a birthday party for Uncle Herbert , would we put up with people wandering in off the street just to say, "Uncle Herbert's a jerk!" So, we're just not going to put up with that kind of nonsense.

By the way, I've asked Demetrius to come up with a special anniversary graphic that we can use, but until he gets a chance to do that, we're going to use the one you see above. 'Cause I like it.

And besides, it's seasonal. :-)

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/

[EST]

1. Way kool!

I'll keep track.

[Southsideirish]

2. I've heard Ed Schultz pass along that garbage that fundraising is down

implying its Howard's fault. What a gasbag!

[Wordie]

3. Dean has been GREAT for the Democrats. Congrats to him on one year!

Recommended.

[cindyw]

4. I understand that Dean has helped raise more money, but how much

of that is left for use? My understanding is that while Dean has raised more, he has also spend all of it. Anyone know about this. This was my main concern on having him in charge. He did this same thing during his campaign. Can someone calm my concerns that this is being done now now?

[Debi]

5. Yeah, that Damn Howard went and gave the money to local parties

to start and sustain grass roots organization rather than hoard the $$ so we look good in the press.

This isn't his presidential camapaign (and remember, he didn't control the purse strings there and blew a gasket when he found out how much had been spent - he's tight w/a dollar).

Dean is running a 50 state strategy and that is going to cost money, the best thing we can do for him is to give more and give often.

Oh, yeah, and ignore the negative crap you hear spun about him....M,kay?

[madfloridian]

6. That is the right wing DLC meme.

Don't fall for it. If you can pay to get search privileges here, you can do a search on my username....and get all kinds of info. I am accused of posting too much about Dean

Actually he has put money into the states...about 9 million so far. Schumer praised him about the way he is building the party at state and precinct level.

I have posted so much on this...I hope you can find it.

[RazzleDazzle]

7. Accused of posting too much about Dean?

I hope you promptly ignored such trash "advice." To my knowledge, there are no rules here, and no one else I've ever seen in all my years of lurking, and my months of posting, has ever been accused of anything similar. Well, they probably have, but it's NOT the norm, as you well know.

It was just a way for them to try to get you to STFU. THEY'RE the ones who should STFU. I hope you will post even MORE about Dean as a response. The nerve!

[Debi]

8. Hmmmm, how did I know I'd find you here....n/t

[IronLionZion]

9. I enjoy your posts on Dean

Since he is the chairman of the DNC, you go right ahead and post as much as you want to. :patriot:

[calimary]

10. Good to hear. I'm glad establishment Dems like Schumer are seeing

that, and saying so. That's EXACTLY what Dean is doing. Building locally, at the grassroots level. The positions that - as one DUer here recently said - are positions "nobody cares about" like school boards and such.

LOOK, GUYS: THAT is how ralph reed and those schmucks who now run our country did it. THEY started locally and built by grabbing victories in little bitty local races that nobody cared about or paid attention to. From THAT, they were able to build a power base, and a farm team whose members were already in the system and could seek more prominent positions in later elections - because they had a springboard from the little nothing seats (that nobody cared about) they'd won first. From there, they were able to rise through the ranks and build their own organizations and funding/support structures and alliances with others of their ilk, and look where they are now.

Granted, it took 'em awhile. But they did it. At the rate we're going, I'd suspect it wouldn't take us 30 or 40 years as it did with them, but this is a very slow process nonetheless.

Another WUNNNNNNNNNNNNderful thing Dean has done is to boldly go where no Democrats had gone before - to visit lonely, neglected Democrats in the Sunbelt and the buy-bull belt, places like Louisiana where our colleagues had been left alone to starve and thirst because some other state was considered more important. Those Democrats who kept screaming "HEY! WE'RE here too!" were finally heard. I forget where I read it but the fundraising and attendance at one of those meetings where Dean finally showed up to meet-n-greet with the neglected ones was the hot ticket in town, standing room only, and record-breaking money-raising where they had next to NOTHING in their warchests. He breathed new life into these withering groups to whom no other big-name Dems had paid much attention. For example, in the waning days of the last campaign, why did Kerry keep cycling back to Wisconsin and Ohio and those other places in the upper midwest over and over and over and over and over, when there were Democrats in North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and elsewhere who were crying for him to come talk to them. WHY? Because they were already written off - assumed lost. WHAT A WASTE!!! Why should they bother if they're being treated as nobodies who don't matter? DEAN HAS CHANGED ALL THAT. A few blessed drops of water on those little neglected acorns down there in the South and we'll be sprouting some mighty oak trees in a few years.

Yes, it'll take some time. But it is the work of the saints, and of the salvation of this country.

HOWARD DEAN UNDERSTANDS THAT.

Thank GOD!!!!

on edit -

And by the way, I'm one of those angry Dems who attended those "Listening Events" held by the DNC last year, when they were considering a new chair to replace Terry McAuliffe. They had all these other people running. We showed up in downtown L.A. at the meeting there, and there were probably three or four HUNDRED people cramming into that meeting hall, every seat taken, people standing along all the aisles and spilling out into the outer room. We all felt the same, with rare exception. In fact, it was something like 396 to 4 demanding that Dean be named the new chair. People stood up and threatened never to donate another dime to the Democrats unless they started fighting back, listening to us activists on the front lines, and doing something besides bending over and saying to bush and his fellow bullies - "thank you, sir, may I have another?" We pushed for Dean because we knew what he stood for, and that he was a fighter, and because we recognized how badly we needed him.

And we won. We ALL will, eventually, thanks to the work, the groundwork he's laid, and the guts and backbone he's shown to us all.

[cindyw]

11. Thanks for the info.