BlueBus.org

On Republicans and small government from a rally in Boston Monday night:

“They say they want small government, but their government is just big enough to fit inside Terri Schiavo’s bed in the nursing home.”

“My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don’t comment on FOX News.”

- Howard Dean

Heh This was in reponse to Cheney’s attack on Fox News that Dean is “over the top”. Howard Dean must be doing something right if Cheney will slither out from his bunker to attack him.

WOO HOO! Ron Reagan Jr. mentioned my post about Howard Dean on his show on MSNBC last night, too cool!

Is Howard Dean becoming too outspoken for the Democratic Party?

Ron: Whether or not it’s the right strategy, Dean’s plan to fire up the base is certainly having an impact, especially when you look at what some of the liberal bloggers are saying.The blogger at bluebus.org says “Give ‘em hell Howard!” She writes that Dean is doing the right thing, and that it’s about time that control of the Democratic Party is returned.

Thanks for the plug Ron!

Howard Dean has come under fire recently from milquetoast Democrats such as Joe Biden and other DLC cronies. And then it comes out that several fundraisers have quit due to Dean’s emphasis on small, grassroots donors. I think it’s a great thing that Dean is focusing on shoring up support with the grassroots, but of course this focus is going to piss off the corporate donors and the DLC insiders. Liberal Oasis put it best:

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.

Amen. Dean is doing the right thing- the Democratic party will never change unless the focus is returned to the people and not the corporate insiders that have controlled the party for too long. The “liberal media” is in massive spin mode trying to portay Dean as a failure thus far when it comes to fundraising for the DNC. Media Matters showed how this couldn’t be further from the truth; in fact, Dean is outraising every other DNC chairman in history. The knives are out for Dean, whether it’s the “liberal media” or the DLC who are worried their corporate money spigots are going to get shut off. This is our party dammit, and it’s time the focus returned to the grassroots and becoming a player in all 50 states. For too long the DNC and DLC have neglected the rural and grassroots level voters in favor of the large corporations who love to donate large sums in return for legislative favors. Dean is shutting down this practice and is reaching out to Democrats EVERYWHERE. He has a tendency to shoot off the lip, but that’s his job- he’s SUPPOSED be partisan, he’s SUPPOSED to fire up the base. He’s sick of what has happened to this country under the Bush administration, he’s sick of the DNC and DLC having ignored the grassroots and he’s taking the party back. So let’s help Howard give ‘em hell, shall we? Please donate to the DNC today (I have my own donation page here) and add an extra penny to your donation to show your support for Dean.

Leave it to Media Matters to clear up the spin!

BusinessWeek, Fox News made baseless claim that Dean is poor fund-raiser

BusinessWeek reporters Eamon Javers and Richard Dunham baselessly asserted in a June 6 article that Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Howard Dean is not an effective fund-raiser, a claim that Fox News hosts Brit Hume and John Gibson echoed. But in making this claim, Javers and Dunham simply compared DNC fund-raising with money raised this year by the Republican National Committee (RNC), rather than comparing fund-raising by the Dean-led DNC this year with that of the DNC in 2003, the most recent election off-year.

Javers and Dunham began their analysis noting that “[a]fter achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind.” But this creates a flawed standard to evaluate Dean’s success, as 2004 was the first time in history that Democrats had achieved such a feat. Noting that the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005 compared to $32.3 million by the RNC, they concluded that “Dean may yet find ways to build bridges to reluctant donors, but few think he’ll ever be another [preceding DNC chair] Terry McAuliffe, the human money machine whom he replaced.”

But a comparison of Dean’s first three months as chairman shows that he has actually out-raised his predecessor during the same period in 2003. Dean raised $14.8 million between February and April (the latest data available), versus $8.5 million during that period in 2003, the previous non-election year. Additionally, the DNC has raised more in comparison to the RNC over the past three months than it did during 2003. The RNC raised $32.4 million between February and April, about 2.2 times the rate of the Democrats. Over the same period in 2003 the RNC raised $25.7 million, more than three times the rate of the DNC. Media Matters is citing statistics from February through April, rather than the first-quarter statistics that BusinessWeek used, because Dean did not assume leadership of the DNC until February 12.

Javers and Dunham also noted the “bottom line” that Republicans had $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Democrats at the end of the first quarter this year, failing to note that this is nearly double the $3.9 million the DNC had on hand at the end of the first quarter in 2003.

The BusinessWeek article was cited by host Brit Hume in the “Political Grapevine” segment of the June 2 edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume and by host John Gibson on Fox News’ The Big Story with John Gibson as part of a June 2 interview with Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh and Republican strategist Brad Blakeman.

From yesterday’s edition of Meet the Press:

“I am sick of being told what I and what I’m not by other people. I’ll tell you what I am. I’m a committed Christian. And the fact of whether I go to church or not, people can say whether I should or shouldn’t, I worship in my own way. It came out in the campaign that I pray every night. That’s my business. That’s not the business of the pharisees who are going to preach to me about what I do and then do something else.

You know, I care about values a lot. And one of the reasons that I care a lot is because of my upbringing. And it was a–I grew up in a Christian household. Now, because I grew up–I’m a congregationalist. People say, “Well, those are liberals.” Well, since when do Christians get tagged liberal or conservative? You either believe in the teachings of Jesus or you don’t. I do. And I’m not ashamed to admit it. But I don’t go around wearing it on my sleeve. And I think that’s a private matter. And I’m happy to talk about it. I’ve been through a political campaign. There are a lot of folks to whom, you know, that’s very important. I respect that. But I’m not going to be lectured to about my own private morality and my own private business by people who don’t have the moat taken out of their own eye.”

-Howard Dean May 22, 2005

AMEN!

GOOD! Bush’s little dog and pony show in the form of an “open” town hall meeting is such a joke, and a fraud. The people who are allowed to attend are Republican party activists and it’s scripted down to a T. The President only cares to hear from people who already agree with him.

Dean slams Bush on town-hall meetings

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said yesterday that President Bush’s policy of excluding non-Republicans from town-hall meetings on Social Security reform was “not an American thing to do.”

Dean spoke at the House Democrats’ weekly meeting for 15 minutes and took questions from lawmakers, according to several sources inside the well-attended closed-door gathering. He made the comments about the town-hall meetings at a press conference after the closed-door session.

At the press conference, House Democratic leaders said they were most exercised about Bush’s town-hall meetings, which are open only to Republican voters and party activists.

“We continue to hold hundreds of town-hall meetings that are open to all Americans. … We have honest discussions,” said Rep. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), criticizing Bush’s most recent event, last Friday in Westfield, N.J., which was open only to Republicans.

Alright, it’s time to break out my “Give ‘Em Hell Howard” gear again Dean’s right to call for Minarik to resign, or at least apologize- the comments were disgusting.

Dean: New York GOP chairman must apologize or resign

Howard Dean, just four days into his job as Democratic National chairman, called Wednesday for New York’s state Republican chairman to apologize or resign over remarks linking Democrats to a civil rights lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists.

Calling Stephen Minarik’s comments “offensive,” the former Vermont governor said, “The American people deserve better than this type of political character assassination.”

-snip-

Dean’s call for an apology or resignation came one day after Republican Gov. George Pataki had scolded Minarik for the remarks.

Minarik touched off a firestorm on Monday by saying that in electing Dean as national party chairman on Saturday “the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean.”

Stewart is a New York City lawyer convicted last week of helping terrorists by smuggling messages from one of her imprisoned clients, a radical Egyptian sheik, to his terrorist disciples on the outside. Boxer is a liberal senator from California.

“The Democratic Party doesn’t have anything to do with Lynne Stewart,” Pataki said Tuesday. “Obviously, she was found guilty of a heinous criminal act and that is not something within the realm of appropriate political discourse in New York state.”

“I’m pleased that Governor Pataki publicly rebuked Mr. Minarik for his offensive comments,” Dean said in a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee. “I agree with Governor Pataki and my fellow New York Democrats that Mr. Minarik was completely out of line.”

Mucho congrats to Howard Dean for securing the DNC chairmanship today. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: GIVE ‘EM HELL HOWARD!!!!!

New DNC Head Dean Hopes to Rebuild Party

New national Democratic Chairman Howard Dean (news - web sites) promised Saturday to rebuild the party in the most conservative regions of the country, help develop state and local organizations and let congressional Democrats set the tone on policy.

Electing Dean on a voice vote during their winter meeting, Democrats put the party’s leadership in the hands of the skilled fund-raiser and organizer whose sometimes caustic, blunt comments can lead to controversy. The physician now must contend with a state-by-state political map in which Republican red overwhelms Democratic blue.

“I’ll pretty much be living in red states in the South and West for quite a while,” Dean told reporters. “The way to get people not to be skeptical about you is to show up and say what you think.”

I like what I see so far. Give ‘em hell Howard!!!!

The plan:

-Show up! Never concede a single state, county, district or even a single voter to the Republicans. We must be active and compete in all 50 states and work with the state parties to build a truly national party.

-Recruit, train, and encourage candidates to run for office at every level — building tomorrow’s farm team from the ground up. This was the founding principle behind Democracy for America.

-Actively grow local Democratic committees in local communities. Local neighborhood advocates are our best spokespeople — helping them reach out in their own communities will better articulate our message and enable the grassroots to support state and local candidates.

-Better integrate national and state party operations. Specifically, that means: providing the state party the means to pay for its executive director in every state; building and sharing lists between the national and state parties; and creating an ongoing active presence — a permanent campaign in every state that does not have to be recreated for only four months every four years.

-Develop and articulate core Democratic principles that we all can agree on, that will let people know what our party stands for. We will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing our rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side’s positions. We must say what we mean — and mean real change when we say it.

-Make Democrats the party of reform — reforming America’s financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy.

-Utilize cutting edge Internet technology, not only to fundraise, but also as an effective organizing tool to recruit more supporters, communicate with them, and empower them to lead in their local communities.

-Strengthen the party institutions and leadership institutes so that they rival the Republican machine that currently exists. These institutions must work together in a coordinated way to recruit new talent, develop leaders, articulate our values and elect Democrats at every level.