Dean scream #45,765

One of Dean's endearing qualities during the election was his refusal to silence his dissent from the orthodoxy of the political discourse. That orthodoxy was an artificial one, cemented in place by 9-11 and which Dean deserves due credit for cracking open - today, the political dscourse is back on both thrusters, left and right. Granted it is far more partisan and acerbic, but it is also at least balanced (though the Right maintains certain structural advantages, which are unlikely to evaporate anytime until 2006 at the earliest).

Why, then, does Dean continue to act as if that orthodoxy remains? From the boston Globe:

 

(full story from the Globe below)

At a Democratic convention in Massachusetts, Dean made yet another intemperate remark, this time about Delay. There are some uttterances of Dean that I have defended him for - his remark about voters with confederate flags on their pickups being a notable example - but this one, along with his alleged statement that he hates Republicans, are just not defensible.

Dean's problem is that he get's caught up in the rhetoric of the moment. I supported him for DNC Chair because of the infrastructural changes he will (and has been) bringing to that organization. However, it does have the secondary effect of giving his attack dog side freer rein. That's regrettable, but given that his excellent 11-year record of policy centrism and pragmatism was dismissed during the 2004 race by both sides, and he was cast as a granola liberal, I guess there's not much benefit in his giving policy speeches anymore.

If Dean is a media monster, it is a monster of the media's creation. In the meantime, he will transform the DNC, and that is the real goal here. After all, to quote Douglas Adams:

"His role was not to excercize power, but to drawn attanetion away from it"

And while Dean's critics continue to take shots at him, as they have done for the past three years irrespective of whether he says something dumb (as present) or intelligent (as many many times previous), the DNC will evolve under his guidance into something new, which will be a true force to be reckoned with. A force whose threat to the established order will not be recognized until it is far too late.

Dean rips DeLay at convention

May 15, 2005

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Party, said yesterday that the US House majority leader, Tom DeLay, ''ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence," referring to allegations of unethical conduct against the Republican leader.

Dean's remark, in a speech to Massachusetts Democrats at their party convention, drew an immediate rebuke from US Representative Barney Frank, the Newton Democrat and one of DeLay's harshest critics. ''That's just wrong," Frank said in an interview on the convention floor. ''I think Howard Dean was out of line talking about DeLay. The man has not been indicted. I don't like him, I disagree with some of what he does, but I don't think you, in a political speech, talk about a man as a criminal or his jail sentence."

DeLay faces accusations he may have violated House rules by taking foreign trips paid for by lobbyists. In a separate case, a Texas grand jury indicted three fund-raisers with ties to DeLay on accusations of campaign-finance irregularities.

Dean, the former Vermont governor, lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to Senator John F. Kerry.

RAPHAEL LEWIS AND FRANK PHILLIPS