Has anyone told Howard Dean that the Bush administration’s numbers are careening into the sewer? If he’s not encased in some kind of political amber from 2004, I’m at a loss to explain why else he continues to eat at the Wingnuteria and employ their tactics.
Today, Ampersand drew attention to a Wash. Blade article on Dean’s miniaturized version of Plamegate:
Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean fired the party’s gay outreach adviser Donald Hitchcock on May 2 less than a week after Hitchcock’s domestic partner, Paul Yandura, a longtime party activist, accused Dean of failing to take adequate steps to defend gay rights. […]
Hitchcock’s dismissal came after Yandura created a stir among party activists, both gay and straight, by sending an open letter on April 20 to gay Democrats criticizing Dean and the party for not getting involved in state ballot measures seeking to ban gay marriage.
Ampersand takes the Dems to task for an anonymous smear campaign launched on Hitchcock after-the-fact:
The third DNC insider, however, is hardly a whistleblower, or in danger of being fired for saying something supportive about his boss. He’s not concerned with “sounding critical of Hitchcock”: he is being critical of Hitchcock, after all. He just wants the convenience of slamming Hitchcock without being held responsible. I think it’s likely this leak was set up by Dean’s office. There’s no reason journalists should aid politicians with this sort of anonymous leak. If Dean or other DNC people want to slam Hitchcock, let them do so in their own names, or not at all.
Well, that’s just great. Now the party for which I’m supposed to vote appears to be slashing and burning at the first sign of dissent, too, even if they have to harm a partner to strike back at the dissenter. Way to go, Howard.
A lot of folks won’t tolerate anyone speaking poorly of the Democratic leadership for fear of damaging “our chances.” Based on his recent personnel move, I’d say Dean is one of them.
I don’t think Howard Dean or the DNC are awful people at heart. Unfortunately, I do think they’re so concerned with winning that they’re losing their way. Like a proper tragedy, this myopic obsession may be the very thing that jeopardizes his victory. This sort of behavior will eventually erode credibility, and it appears Dean is still more concerned with pleasing all of the people all of the time than making a difference.
The Dems recently faxed around a press release highlighting Dean’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” which amounted to:
White House = Bad.
Dems = jobs, fiscal responsibility, and honest government.
How do the Dems propose to do this? Somehow, that’s how.
Very inspiring stuff.
Sunday night, Atrios laid out the basic principles he believes most of us in the left blogosphere support, and I think he’s spot on. Which of us wouldn’t stand behind a party promoting gay and reproductive rights, some attention to environmental concerns, specific plans to improve wages (by tying it to CPI) and reduce tax inequities (bring back estate tax, etc.), and a boost to health care access in some form or fashion?
If one of us can articulate a simple set of tangible values the Democrats shouldn’t find it so impossible. We know they are ignoring us while they spew platitudes designed to appeal to the largest possible focus group but I fail so see how that has increased Democratic formidability.
If Dean wants to borrow from the Party of “Win At All Costs,” he should swipe their attention to party-base issues. By promising some very specific attention to the hot-button sore spots of the fundies, wignuts crawled out of the mud to vote en masse in 2004. The Democrats have a number of grass-roots orgs they could energize by promising even a fraction of the things on Atrios’ list.
But our party doesn’t even have to steal from the right wing to do this. All they have to do is release their obsession over finding the winning strategy that’s caused them to act the villain and play the vague, unsatisfying middle so damn much. All the Democrats have to do is be themselves.
Atrios didn’t post his list to create shock and awe — it’s the supposed foundation of the Democratic Party. We’re also in a position to be the unmitigated good guys are far as political ethics go, regardless of your philosophical leanings. But if we alienate our base, fire people because their partners are rightly pointing this out, and continue to cater to some fictional two-dimensional cutout of an American citizen, we will lose.
The Democrats are good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people are ready to like them. All they have to do is stop sucking.
[...] I’ve said it and said it and said it. [...]