Nation-Building

In the January/February issue of Washington Monthly, Amy Sullivan wrote a devastating and eye-opening piece on Democratic consultants and their history of being rewarded for repeated failures. Hansen and Mellman are joined by the poster boy of Democratic social promotion, Bob Shrum. Over his 30-year career, Shrum has worked on the campaigns of seven losing presidential candidates—from George McGovern to Bob Kerrey—capping his record with a leading role in the disaster that was the Gore campaign. Yet, instead of abiding by the “seven strikes and you're out” rule, Democrats have continued to pay top dollar for his services (sums that are supplemented by the percentage Shrum's firm, Shrum, Devine & Donilon, gets for purchasing air time for commercials). Although Shrum has never put anyone in the White House, in the bizarro world of Democratic politics, he's seen as a kingmaker—merely hiring the media strategist gives a candidate such instant credibility with big-ticket...

The answer is "yes," if you have insurance with Providence Mutual. An 80-year old retired pediatrician has lost her insurance coverage due to her hometown "political activities" - activities which included hosting fundraisers for Howard Dean. An excerpt from the Concord Monitor: Helen Johnston is an 80-year-old retired pediatrician who hardly considers herself much of a risk for being sued. That's not how her insurance company sees it, however.... Johnston is losing extra coverage she bought years ago while she still practiced medicine - not because she's a retired doctor, but because she is active in Francestown politics. The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. sent her a letter last month notifying her it is not renewing her $1 million umbrella policy next month because of "the political positions the insured holds." "If she was just a retired doctor, it wouldn't be an issue," said Dale Groves, vice president f...

Political Wire reports that polling of 40% of DNC delegates reveals that among those with a preference (including 1st and 2nd ballots), Dean is leading the race for DNC Chair with about 40% of the total (or 74 total votes). This is a significant plurality given the number of candidates in the race. Dean's closest competitor is Rep. Martin Frost of Texas with about 30% (or 50 total votes). Encouraging news, but we still have a long way to go between now and February 12th. You can read more analysis of this by Jerome Armstrong at www.mydd.com . USA Today also has a brief article on the DNC race and the impact that technology and Dean's message has played in the race. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2005-01-13-dnc-tech_x.htm

Howard Dean formally announced his bid for DNC Chair yesterday by circulating a letter to his supporters around the country. See http://www.blogforamerica.com/ for specifics. He's also been making the rounds at regional DNC events to outline his prescription for what ails the Democratic Party. Check out the televised discussion on C-Span. They seem to be running it regularly. Here's an excerpt from his announcement: "The Democratic Party needs a vibrant, forward-thinking, long-term presence in every single state and we must be willing to contest every race at every level. We will only win when we show up and fight for the issues important to all of us. Another integral part of our strategy must be cultivating the party's grassroots. Our long term success depends on all of us taking an active role in our party and in the political process, by volunteering, going door to door and taking the Democratic message into every community, and by organizing at the local level. A...

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 fer...

As noted in Part I of this series, long hours of driving around listening to talk radio has--if I say so myself--made me a connoisseur of this medium (or, for the French-averse, aficionado ). For purposes of s***s and giggles, I developed a Ten List of talk radio programs, ranking them from worst to first. My criteria for judgment is the total package: content, presentation and entertainment value. Talk shows compete with the other stations on the dial, both against music and other talk formats. If the program doesn’t get your attention or if the presentation puts you to sleep (not a good thing for commuters), then content quality of the show is wasted. The worst talk show fellas were covered in Part I, and this one will hit the Middle of the Pack. Another thing. If I haven’t listened to it, I can’t comment on it. I literally heard Air America for the first time just a few days ago. Al Franken was on and he was grousing about the Democratic Party not being liberal enough...

The defining characteristic of our political system as structured by the Constitution is the checks and balances that each of the three branches exert upon the other. For example, Congress may seek to impeach the President, and even remove him from office. The decision to impeach President Clinton, for example, while unquestionably an excercise in raw partisan power, still was well within the prerogative of the legislative branch, and so could not be termed an abuse of power per se - it was actually an expression of the functioning of the government and an illustration of how those checks and balances operate. Today, Senator Boxer (D-CA) joined in the objection to the slate of electors from Ohio, and I feel that while there is unquestionably a partisan element to the action, that partusan element reflectsthe neccessity of a political opposition - especially when one party is so completely dominant over all three branches of government. This filing of an objection has been ch...