It would be strange indeed if Obama deliberately snubbed himself.

Hear Hear

You got some typos there dude.

Why does every little event have to be combed over for semiotics? Perhaps Dean was invited and preferred not to attend, perhaps he's going to have a public event with Obama in the near future where he won't have to share the stage, perhaps any number of things.

I'm kind of tired of political coverage that consists of figuring out how to interpret innocuous events as uncharitably as possible. There are more important things going on than people arguably being snubbed, particularly adults like Dean or Feinstein who are fully capable of taking care of themselves.

After just listening to Obama, he seemed more complimentary to Dean than Keane. If there's a rift, they hide it well.

Howard Dean is to US politics as Scott Ritter is to the Iraq war. He was right while conventional wisdom was that he was wrong. When it became clear that he was right, those who established the conventional wisdom were loath to admit it. Therefore, they go on about things as if he never existed.

Two words: Rahm Emmanuel.

Yes, it was deliberate, of course. As I said in the noon campaign post, Jim Dean (yes, relation) of Democracy For America (formerly Dean For America) has announced that the DNC under Kaine has fired all the paid 50 State Strategy staffers that his brother put in place and who contributed so much to the success of the last two elections. Looks like a strong attempt by Rahm Emmanuel, who famously doesn't get along with Dean, to obliterate every trace of his presence within the party. If he succeeds, we'll be back to the memorable, as in nightmarish, days of 2002. See the noon post for a URL to a DFA petition calling on Kaine to reinstate the 50 State Strategy. And please talk to your local and state Democratic officials.

Why don't you call Howard and find out?

I am as puzzled as Steve is. Dean is a man of vision and a staunch and articulate defender of Democratic principles and policies. Yet all he is remembered for is the "scream."

ı have followed your writing for a long time.really you have given very successful information.

It's easy: the dirty fucking hippies like him, and Rahm Emmaneul doesn't.

Jeff, Rhoda and Eric nail it.

All of the above.

I think people need to lay off of the typos. Considering the volume of material that Steve posts in a single day, the occasional mistake is to be expected.

Jeff, Rhoda and tavella have it. There's not a single Deaniac in the new administration and damn few in Congress.

Every fucking one of them laughed at him and fought him and now can't bring themselves to admit he was right, much less give him credit.

Obama can give Dean lip service all he wants; that his choice for DNC chair is dismantling the 50-state strategy proves what Obama really thinks.

Rhoda: "Two words: Rahm Emanuel."

To paraphrase Lord Talleyrand, politicians like Rahm Emanuel learn nothing and forget nothing.

Jeff Eric and Rhoda are right - and also, Dean can be very prickly. He's not warm - he probably is to those he loves.

Seriously, his personality is not ready for prime time in politics for this reason. A Presidential candidate? No thank you. A thoughtful strategist? Yes.

All the better that he found the best role for himself and helped us all.

Great post, Steve. Dean rocks, and people should get over themselves and recognize a winner.

Rhoda took the words out of my mouth. Rahm Emmanuel is still a bastard even if he is Obama's bastard. My guess the Clintonistas lead by Emmanuel still hate Dean for having the wisdom and balls to revive the declining Democratic party.

If it wasn't for Dean, Hillary might be President-Elect but the Republicans would still be large and in charge.

Y tu Steve?

I want to ditto what Mike B. said above.

This is such a non-story.

Seriously.

We all love Howard Dean. He wasn't at the event today. I just don't think it is as big of a deal as everyone is trying to make it be. Seriously.

Here is to hoping that Dean returns to Democracy For America and that he takes the 50 State Strategy people with him. Then I hope DFA becomes the true progressive wing of the Democratic Party and raises hell with the DNC, Blue Dogs, Emmanuel and everyone else in the party who wants to retreat.

Signing petitions against the "Rahm"-ulan/Timmy cartel does nothing; words mean nothing to them, but "money walking out of their tent" will have a much more profound effect. Fortunately, we send our monthly donations to DNC at the end of every month, so they won't be getting the January installments ($50 apiece from the wife and yours truly)---it's going to the Dean gang, along with the following message to DNC:

"NO 50-STATE, NO 50 BUCKS!"

Give me a million progressives and liberals who will send a similar message, and I "gah-rohn-tee" you'll see the Dean strategy back on the front burner PDQ....

Whoa! Is this true?
"...DNC under Kaine has fired all the paid 50 State Strategy staffers..."

A return of the Democratic Circular Firing Squad?

The "massive institutional resistance" was led in large part by Rahm Emmanuel, which is why I'm assuming the snub is intentional. As for the 50 State Strategy staffers, they were fired after the election, supposedly so they could be replaced by Obama loyalists when a new chairman was finally chosen. We will see whether that actually happens. It probably comes down to a turf-war between Axelrod, who benefited from Dean's reorganization, and Emmanuel, who seems to be a proponent of the failed old way of doing things.

I can't imagine either. This isn't one of those obviously answerable rhetorical questions that I tease Stev,e and did Kevin about, and get teased for teasing about. Howard Dean sure has distinguished himself, perfect or not (who is) a hell of a lot better than weaving wank Harry Reid, and maybe Pelosi for good measure. Is he too candid and honest, too progressive, too unwilling to play "games"?

Of course Dean deserves his due. Obama has praised him and his vision. I'm sure Obama will continue the implement the 50 State Strategy. It would be stupid not to. But why are we concerned about who snubbed who? Is that really important? Why do we automatically speculate that Emmanuel had something to do with Dean not being there? I swear we nit-pick at little things so much. Kaine's the chairman, let's see what he can do first. Stop with all this speculating and gossip and who snubbed who and who doesn't like who. It's ridiculous.

It probably comes down to a turf-war between Axelrod ... and Emmanuel

Why not Kaine? It would seem that if there's a war between Ax and Rahm, Ax already won by virtue of the fact that Kaine replaced Dean. I'd be curious if the sloppy way Fla and Mi were handled had anything to do with it.

David Mercanus, it's odd for you to finger Dean's presumptive personality issues - don't you know about Rahm's rather serious issues there? And also, how about Dean and Israel policy - a hint there? BTW some say this doesn't prove anything per se, but we need to defend Dean in any case. He's a great Democratic American..

BTW topical from top thread here, check http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/08/AR2009010802866_pf.html about Obama making praise of Dean - but that's easy to do, and not necessarily a hand up about real power and treatment.

Eric:
Yes, it was deliberate, of course. As I said in the noon campaign post, Jim Dean (yes, relation) of Democracy For America (formerly Dean For America) has announced that the DNC under Kaine has fired all the paid 50 State Strategy staffers that his brother put in place and who contributed so much to the success of the last two elections.

Bull. Jim Dean's message doesn't say that, and it's not true. The DFA petition message calls on Kaine to reinstate the staffers, not that he fired them. As was reported more than a month ago, well before Kaine was named, the staffers were let go after the election because that's how their contracts were written, specifically because (since Howard isn't a dick), he didn't try to set it up to tie the hands of his successor. I have this directly from my local 50-State organizer, who was one of the first hired when the program started.

I agree it was dumb to let them lapse, and I would be much happier if Obama had directed him to keep them on the payroll. The program should absolutely be renewed, but skip the self-righteous outrage and the blame-slinging. It's bad enough that we had to go through a round of hand-wringing over this when it happened before finding out the real story, it's ridiculous to go through another round of hand-wringing to try to pin it on a guy who wasn't even in charge when it happened.

David:
Jeff Eric and Rhoda are right - and also, Dean can be very prickly. He's not warm - he probably is to those he loves.

What are you basing this on? Loops of the "scream" tape? In person and in official appearances, he's always engaging and personable.

Seriously, his personality is not ready for prime time in politics for this reason. A Presidential candidate? No thank you. A thoughtful strategist? Yes.

Yeah, a five-term governor clearly isn't "ready for prime time."

I'd like some of whatever you're smoking...

Guys, I'm all for Rahm bashing; in fact, it's my favorite sport outside of baseball season, but could you learn to spell his surname? Especially when a couple of you are posting about him five or six times a day? It's E-M-A-N-U-E-L.

I'm with Steve W. @ 4:48. Sign the petition AND redirect your DNC contribution to DFA, a truly great American group. If you ever have a chance to take DFA political organizing training, leap at it. Worth many time the few dollars you're asked for. it's obvious we need an independent group to counter the DLC. Youth, time and issues are on our side, though.

Redshift @ 5:42, that is what Jim Dean said, although not in those words. My paraphrase, but why let the program "lapse" if you intend to support it? This and the stiffing of Dean for Secretary of HHS and then Surgeon General (he said he wasn't interested after losing HHS, but I think he would have accepted if asked, and transformed the post -- probably the reason he wasn't) speak to the heavy hand Emanuel has had in the whole selection process. Fine, we'll see, I've been saying that since the election, but it looks increasingly bleak.

And, I thought Emanuel was spelled with two m's. Must be a hangover of the Yule spirit, a wish for the opposite of "O come O come Emmanuel."

You're having a lot of trouble with accuracy, aren't you, ericfree? Claiming that Kaine "fired" staffers is not a "paraphrase"; it's a flat untruth.

This whole situation is worth watching and possible cause for concern, but you don't help when you fib about it.

shortstop: What happens to you if you've done a great job, achieved an historic victory, wish to continue working and are told you're no longer welcome? Downsized? Made redundant? Your contract was allowed to expire? Use any term you like -- the reality is, they were fired. And, as Lily Tomlin used to say, that's the truth.

I'll retract the criticism of Kaine, who took office today, if he rehires them, but that's as unlikely as saying he had no knowledge of the situation before he agreed to take the job. It's pretty obvious Emanuel called the shots in the firings. As said previously, it may well come down to a turf war between Emanuel and Axelrod, but the wellknown antipathy between Dean and Emanuel is certainly a factor.

well i have to say that some of the media is giving dean props. i remember on election nite, bill "beat me o mistress" bennett gave major credit to dean's 50 state strategy for obama's win.

and tweety had dean on yesterday or the day before to discuss that very thing.

Well, even though Dean was right about a bunch of basic and central political electoral stuff, the village doesn't like him, so the village says he must be ignored.

Yet another perverse victory for the Democratic Leadership Committee.

I'm wholly with you on this, Steve. And Dean's been given short shrift publicly by Obama, too.

And the reality is Dean's a moderate, despite his being left of the Beltway Bourgeoisie. He's just not a corporate drone like the lot of them.

As much as Newt Gingrich is credited with the evangelo-quasi-conservative-yayhoo style of legislatin', Dean should be granted the respect due a Fighting Liberal Rationalist who reminded the Beltway Dems that nobody loves Republican Mimes.

But it'll never happen. Because the Beltway Bourgeoisie will never be known for their brilliance or classiness. They'll be known for eating cake... from the crack of each others' butts.

I can't figure out if this was a snub or not.

Why? Because none of the stories I've read state whether the making of the 2009 announcement, without the outgoing chair being in attendance, is a departure from how it was done in the past.

Can someone employed with The Washington Monthly research that and respond?

I tried Google, but was unsuccessful in finding any news reports about who was present at past annoucements of incoming DNC Chairs.

Thanks!

Sanjay Gupta, Gurgeon General.