Friday, April 21, 2006

"Breakfast with Mr. Dean"

"Dean speaks with The Prospect about Iraq, national security and the Democrats’ new voter database.

On Wednesday, April 12, we held our third Prospect breakfast, this one featuring Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. Journalists in attendance included Michael Tomasky and Mark Leon Goldberg from The American Prospect; Jane Mayer, The New Yorker; James Fallows and Josh Green, The Atlantic; Thomas Edsall, The Washington Post; Ari Berman, The Nation; Walter Shapiro and Michael Scherer, Salon; Jules Witcover, Tribune Media; Amy Sullivan, The Washington Monthly; Ellen Ratner, Talk Radio News Service; Terence Samuel, AOL.com; David Grossman, politicstv.com; Matt Stoller of MyDD.com and Josh Orton, Air America Radio. A full transcript follows."- from The American Prospect.

Appetizer:
"the Republicans keep pounding away, “we don’t have a message, we don’t have a message” -- it’s repeated in journals of all sorts. It’s not true. But it takes a long time when you’re not the majority party and you don’t have the President to get up and do something in an hour to set the agenda for a week. It takes a long time, and it takes discipline. And I think it takes 435 congressional candidates in 435 districts saying this four times a day for 200 days in a row. That’s how you get the message across. It is dull, it is tedious, it requires absolute discipline. I think we’re making progress but that’s what keeps me up at night. I want to cross the finish line; I want to get a majority in the House because I think that’s something we can build on."

It was a very long and comprehensive discussion. I guarantee you will leave the table with a full stomach.

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