Dean's Day One News (UPDATED)

Cokie Roberts sends this toxic Valentine to Dean and the Democrats with her "Political Wrap" today on National Petroleum Radio's "Morning Edition." Ron Brownstein's column, not a news article, in today's LA Times, "Democrats Seek to Outmaneuver Republicans by Imitating Their Strategy," seeks to explain what's going on at the DNC. Executive summary: "Plenty of Democrats still worry that this drive for greater unity and ideological consistency, if it becomes a lurch left, could hurt the party by repelling voters in red states whom the next nominee will need to win the White House. For now, these doubters are reassuring each other that a presidential candidate determined to court the center (paging Sen. Hillary Clinton!) can redirect the party in 2008. Maybe. But right now, the loudest voices in the Democratic Party belong to those clamoring less for another Clinton than for their own Bush." I'll hate myself in the morning, but here's Zephyr today, giving advice to Howard Dean without deigning to say his name: "Zack Exley recently wrote a great piece addressed to the next DNC chair about how he should use the internet. It is largely focused on ground-game advice about how to win elections using technology. It's a brilliant piece, important and very concrete, and I will urge the next DNC chairman to read it, ask his staff to read it, and quickly develop a plan to implement something along those lines." Like Zephyr, her current effort is grandiose, self-important, self-promoting and contains some good ideas. Since I have already soiled my hands this morning, let's see what a certain Mr. O'Reilly has to say about the Good Doctor: "...why did the party turn to a man with so many negatives? The answer is that Dean can fire people up. And that's no small feat in Democratic circles. John Kerry was the ultimate party pooper. He had all kinds of trouble getting folks, including the Democratic choir, to sing along. "Stodgy" is probably the best word for Kerry. The Dems badly need charisma; Dean has it. But all in all, Howard Dean will probably hurt his party. He is generally intolerant of red state values, and Republicans will seize upon this to serve up Dean, Hillary and liberal extremism in one puffed-up soufflé." That's pretty much the same argument that Cokie made. Update: Tom Curry at MSNBC must have overslept, because he just posted, "Why Dean dominates the Democrats." Choice quote: "Once Howard Dean applies the same techniques that he used during his campaign to the word ‘Democrat’ and turns the DNC into the primary place fighting the Republican agenda, that is a party that can do extraordinary things,” said Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democrat Network, who ran against Dean for the chairmanship." First lie against Dean to be repeated since he became DNC Chair: "Former Vermont governor Howard Dean was recently quoted as saying he hates all Republicans and what they stand for." Of course, he never said that. He has a record of working with like-minded Republicans in Vermont and elsewhere. And only an imbecile would write-off a big chunk of the electorate with a comment like that. I am anticipating that this lie will be repeated, repeatedly. Update: Ray Minchew sets the record straight on this quote: "It’s being mis-quoted as “I hate Republicans” when he said “I hate THE Republicans” – clearly referring to the party, not the people." Thanks, Ray.