My, How Time Flies

Has it really been a year since the netroots chose up sides over who would succeed Terry McAuliffe as DNC Chair? Kos posted this assessment that I think is worth reproducing here:

Dean flops as boogeyman
by kos
Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 01:54:57 AM EST

We're now at the rough one-year anniversary of the DNC chairmanship battle, in which us netroots hooligans helped propel Dean to the top of the DNC. We outmaneuvered Kerry, who wanted to install Vilsack and then Sheehan by fiat. We outmaneuvered Reid and Pelosi, who wanted Tim Roemer. We outmaneuvered Mark Brewer of the Association of Democratic State Chairs, who wanted to Donnie Fowler. (Here's Ryan Lizza's take on the whole affair.)

This was the first tangible "victory" for the netroots in its struggle for supremacy of the Democratic Party. But I don't bring this up to gloat. Rather, I bring it up to point out how little of the Dean Doomsday Scenario actually played out.

More specifically, the notion that Dean would be a boon to Republican propaganda efforts has completely falled flat. Remember those? Dem insiders were quaking in their shoes, Republicans were salivating at the chance to remind America how far-left and craaazzzyy those Democrats were with Dean at the top.

Yet you don't hear Republicans trying to make hay of Chairman Dean anymore. Why would they? Middle America proved, yet again, that they could give a rat's ass about who runs the political parties, whether it's Dean or the GOP's closeted homosexual robot. And while those early attacks on Dean fell flat with the general American public, Dean supporters responded with cash. Every attack on Dean suddenly became an impromptu DNC fundraisier worth tens of thousands in the bank.

Republicans aren't stupid. They're corrupt, craven, opportunistic and generally unpleasant, but they aren't stupid. So it wasn't long before the anti-Dean attacks ceased. (Well, Liddy Dole includes Dean in her fundraising emails, but given her fundraising performance thus far, even the GOP base couldn't give two shits.)

While the true measure of Dean's success will be the 2008 elections (rebuilding the party takes time, regardless whether we make gains in 2006 or not), the early praise from his fiercest Democratic detractors and the unilateral ceasefire from the Republican side proves that he's not the Scary Liberal Boogeyman many feared he'd be.

Hooray for the Hooligans! One commenter recalled how the Virginia GOP tried to use Dean in our elections this year:

January 11, 2005
It appears that some in Washington still fail to acknowledge that just two months ago Virginians overwhelmingly rejected the liberal beliefs shared by Tim Kaine and the national Democrat Party.

Tim Kaine needs to explain why taking millions of dollars from the DNC, where Howard Dean is the clear front runner to become the new Chairman, doesn't put him at odds with millions of Virginians who in November clearly rejected their liberal policies.

February 12, 2005
"The election of Howard Dean to lead his Party is yet another indication that the Democrats are out of touch with the beliefs and values most Americans hold dear. "

In Howard Dean the Democrat Party has chosen a leader whose support for higher taxes, abortion on demand, and assisted suicide does not square with the values held by a vast majority of Virginians. "

[...]

Tim Kaine has now been reunited with his true political soul mate. (LMAO. Ed.) And, it will take a massive political makeover for Tim Kaine to hide from Virginians his pro-tax, anti-death penalty liberal positions. As liberal as Howard Dean is, Virginia's Tim Kaine goes one step further in his strident opposition to the death penalty even for the most heinous crimes."

February 18, 2005
The Chairman of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), Howard Dean, said at a recent meeting of the Democrat Black Caucus, "You think the Republicans could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here."

Today, Kate Obenshain Griffin, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, called on Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine to tell Virginians whether he supports the racially insensitive remarks made by the DNC Chairman, especially given the recent press reports of the $5 million the DNC plans to provide the Kaine campaign:

"As the Democrat Party is overtaken by the national leftist liberal establishment, their policies of anger and pessimism are becoming clear. The intolerable remarks made by Howard Dean expose the fact that the Democrat Party takes minorities for granted. "

I call on Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine to immediately denounce the divisive remarks by the Chairman of his Party. The failure of Tim Kaine to condemn Howard Dean's remarks can only be interpreted by all Virginians as an explicit endorsement by the Democrat Party of Virginia of such discriminatory beliefs."

I call your attention to the liberal use of the word "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" when referring to the party. No matter how hard they tried, the Virginia GOP couldn't get any traction linking Tim Kaine to Howard Dean.

PS--Check out this photo.

Alternate link for comments