The Fall Of The House of Dean

Ever since he came to my attention as a presidential candidate in 2004, I have had a great deal of respect for Howard Dean. I've never gotten over my anger at the media for what I consider their intentional ruin of his campaign by endlessly hammering on the "Dean Scream." What is worse however is what is happening to him today -- being forced out of the DNC by the very establishment he is credited for fathering. Although it is reported that Dean is traveling this week, it is notable that he will be absent from President-elect Obama's press conference where the new DNC Chair, Tim Kaine will be introduced. Back in December, Dean made a "joke" about being passed over for Chief of Staff in favor of Rahm Emanuel, who Dean had already scrapped with over his "50 State Strategy," which Emanuel opposed. The situation stinks of Nancy Pelosi who was desperate to get rid of Emanuel as a potential challenger for the Speaker's gavel. After Dean was forced to capitulate and call for Hillary Clinton to concede the presidential primaries to Barack Obama in June, Pelosi was no doubt peeved when Dean then retreated to the safety of DNC rules and waffled on seating Florida & Michigan delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The initial stripping of those state's delegates is credited with not only an early perception that Obama was winning, but that Hillary Clinton was "willing to do anything to win," and sparked a hysteria-pitch debate about fairness of the primary process, and opened a can of worms in the perennial debate over caucus vs. primary. Bad blood between Dean and Pelosi can be tracked to a March 2003 speech Dean gave where he openly criticized California politicians (explicitly naming Pelosi) and their willingness to "back George Bush 85% of the time." So Pelosi uses Dean to get rid of Hillary, then once his usefulness (long extended beyond normal failed presidential candidates) is expired, she settles an old score with him and gets rid of her newest thorn-in-the-side, Rahm Emanuel all at the same time. And, Tim Kaine gets a nice, shiny prize for delivering Virginia in the General Election. Not to mention that Kaine and Pelosi seems to have been building a relationship since 2006. The Fall of the House of Dean is a decisive victory in Pelosi's war for control of the Democratic Party.

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