Dean vs ClarkRosenberg

Is the race for DNC Chair Clark vs Dean redux, with Simon Rosenberg playing the role of Clark this time around?

via Tapped, see below the fold for a transcript extract of Joe Trippi on Hardball with Chris Matthews, where he basically endorses Simon Rosenberg over Howard Dean for DNC Chair. Now, I certainly think Rosenberg would be a solid choice, but what I favor about Dean is his policy positions. Our own Dean Nation alumnus Matt fleshes out the anti-Dean pro-Rosenberg argument, which basically boils down to: Dean's got baggage. But does he? I don't think so ...



- he has lots of perceived baggage as a result of being under fire from both GOP and DNC hackmeisters for two years, culminating in a media-sponsored public assassination (ie, the endless replay of the Rebel Yell). Rosenberg has done good work with the NDN but Dean has the managerial experience of running an entire state government, has done his time in the legislature, and of course been under the most ferocious media spotlight imaginable. As the public face of the DNC, I can't see how Rosenberg can match those credentials. Dean would make a good SAKAL but that could also be a route to obscurity; what Dean does best is inspire ordinary people, whereas a SAKAL's influence would be all Beltway-centric. Fearing "baggage" is just buying into the right's caricature of him.

Related: Don't miss Kevin Drum's pro-Dean argument as well.

transcript of Trippi on Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, we have a fight going on for DNC chairman, are you for Dean, Joe Trippi?

TRIPPI: I'm coming out for Simon Rosenberg, the head of the New Democratic Network. I think he's somebody I think that's going to make a big difference, pull the party together and actually is very savvy about the internet grassroots and I think has proven himself...

MATTHEWS: So you're putting your old horse out to pasture here tonight? You mean you're so down on Howard Dean that here you are on national television dropping him?

TRIPPI: No, it's not about Howard, it's not about opposing him. I think Howard Dean should run for-- if he asked me for advice, he doesn't do that these days-- but I'd tell him to run for the U.S. Senate, to run for President in 2008 if he wanted to, I think he's got a lot of assets. But I think this is, right now, about building this party.

MATTHEWS: Why wouldn't Howard Dean make a good Democratic National Committee chairman?

TRIPPI: I think this is really about pulling all the party elements into one house and moving forward, and really rebuilding this party from the ground up but knowing how to do that. I think Simon-- I've worked with all these guys, all of them, and I think Simon Rosenberg is the best person.

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