Stand Up For Dean and the DNC

YEAH, what they said...

Stand Up For Dean and the DNC
(posted June 9 12 AM ET)
(minor edits June 9 11 AM ET)

PAUL BEGALA: ...ABC News has a new poll out. Here's how they described part of President Bush's support.

The only population groups in which majorities say the president is concentrating on issues important to them are Republicans, Evangelical White Protestants, Conservatives and better off Americans.

That's even more narrow than Dean's characterization. It's just the truth.

DANA BASH: You're talking about the substance, though.

BEGALA: Right.

BASH: But the issue here also is the messenger, right?
-- CNN’s Inside Politics, 6/8/05

If the Democrats in Washington aren’t going to stand up for their party chairman, then it’s up to us.

After Howard Dean noted that the Republican is “pretty much a white, Christian party,” Democrats seemingly couldn’t wait to rush to cameras and criticize the comment, leaving Dean on out a limb to defend himself.

This disloyalty builds on the bad precedent set over the weekend by Sen. Joe Biden and fmr. Sen. John Edwards, both who knocked Dean for saying a lot of Republican leaders have never made an “honest living.”

Oh, Edwards was sure to blog a day later to insist it was the awful media that unfairly blew up his comments.

Biden was sure to go on Imus to insist that he thinks it’s OK if Dean is a lightning rod.

Similarly yesterday, Dems like House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chris Dodd were sure to claim that they were just criticizing the comment, but they still support Dean.

Please.

They all have done nothing but feed the GOP narrative that our party leader has contempt for voters.

For example, Dodd said to CNN, “You don't criticize the electorate.” That’s what Republicans want people to think Dean did, not what he actually did.

Instead, they could have stood with Dean, put Dean’s words in proper context, and amplified the message Dean was trying to send, not the message the GOP is trying to send.

They could have taken a cue from CNN’s Paul Begala, perhaps the only Dem who did just that.

When asked about Dean’s “white Christian” comment, his first response was, “Duh...I think it's news from nowhere.”

He continued:

...A gaffe in Washington is when someone makes a mistake and tells the truth.

[The truth is,] the Republican Party is 82 percent White Christian...

...It was an unremarkable comment for the Democratic chairman. But we've all got our panties in a wad about it.

While Dean shows no fear in standing up to these attacks, these other Dems cave in the media glare.

And some Dems are caving without any media glare.

According to ABC’s The Note:

...some Democrats believe Dean's ascension to party chair has generated unusual ill-will among some of the party's top fundraisers.

While The Hill, in reporting that three DNC fundraisers quit on Dean because of his focus on cultivating small donors, said:

Democratic fundraisers say that there is growing concern over what they call Dean’s lack of attention to major donors and that donors are much less likely to give money if they don’t have sufficient opportunity to meet with the party’s leadership.

All LiberalOasis can say to that is: Halley-Frickin-Loo-Yah.

Dean is attempting to fully put the party in the hands of the people and minimize the influence of corporate interests.

And the big money guys don’t like it.

Another part of Dean’s strategy is to empower the state party operations.

Alternet (via Mathew Gross) reports that effort has gotten off to a good start.

Further evidence of that came from Fox News’ Mara Liasson yesterday:

I’ve spent the day calling state party chairs...to find out whether...there was any disenchantment or disappointment in him from outside the Beltway.

Those are the people who elected him...the congressional wing of the Democratic Party never liked him...

...And I haven’t found it...The people that I talked to today say:

“Look...he’s come out to my state...rural parts of my state. We haven’t seen a DNC chair in these parts for a long time. He says he’s going to pay for X number of staff people...he’s a refreshing voice, he’s honest...”

But Dean can’t succeed in empowering us in the grassroots, if we don’t empower him.

The Doubting Dems are fueling reports that Dean’s fundraising is lagging.

Media Matters shows how that is a “baseless claim,” but perception becomes reality.

Just like in the presidential primaries, the media won’t respect Dean until the money is unequivocally on the table.

When the media attacked Dean then, supporters responded by fueling Dean’s coffers.

Dean is under attack again. Let’s respond by filling the DNC coffers.

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