"The Denouement of Howard Dean?"

de·noue·ment; final revelation:

a final part of a story or drama in which everything is made clear and no questions or surprises remain.

Chris Cillizza:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the man regarded by many sharp political operatives as the progenitor of President-elect Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign, finds himself without an obvious next job as his tenure at the head of the Democratic National Committee comes to an end.

Those closest to Dean insist that he has any number of job offers to weigh (although they wouldn't expound on any specifics), is traveling to Europe three times early in 2009 to advise progressive parties abroad about the lessons learned from the 2008 campaign and is speaking out on his pet issue -- health care -- as he did on Wednesday at a speech to the National Institutes of Health.

And yet, it's hard not see Dean as a lesson in how political hardball is played in Washington. Never liked by establishment party figures -- Dean publicly feuded with incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel when the latter was at the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 election cycle -- Dean finds himself on the outside looking in as a new Democratic Administration comes to town.

"Frankly, given all he did, the whole situation is as unexpected as it is disappointing," said one Democratic source who was close to Dean during the 2004 campaign.

The source noted that not only did Dean's own presidential bid lay the technological foundation for the successes of Obama but also that the chairman's unbending enforcement of the rules of the primary -- stripping Florida and Michigan of their delegates and their meaningfulness -- played a large role in Obama's victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I guess it proves that no good deed goes unpunished," said the source.

Less than a week after Obama's victory last month, Dean announced he would not seek a second term as chairman of the DNC -- a decision cast by those friendly to Dean as his own but made with a recognition that the incoming president would like his own pick atop the party.

Dean then made a play to be secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration but was quickly shot down in favor of former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, a confidante of the president-elect.

It's now clear -- with the Cabinet all but filled out -- that Dean won't be a member of the Obama Administration, at least not at a senior level.

So, what will Dean do when he hands over the gavel to his successor on Jan. 21?

It's easier to answer what he won't do -- go back to Vermont where he spent a decade as the state's chief executive. "He is going to stay in public policy," said one source familiar with Dean's thinking. "He's not going back to Vermont."

But, imagining Dean melting into the party establishment in Washington is nearly impossible for anyone who has followed his career in the national limelight.

"Howard Dean was never afraid to challenge the established ways of the Democratic party in Washington," said former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi. "That doesn't win you many friends in this town."

During his 2004 presidential campaign, Dean relished his outsider status -- condemning the senators and members of Congress he was running against in the Democratic primary. And, in early 2005, when Dean made clear he was running for the DNC chairmanship, many members of the permanent political class in Washington searched desperately for an alternative -- only to be overwhelmed by Dean's loyal following among the netroots.

Dean's confrontational style and aversion to fundraising led to clashes with party leader (Emanuel among others) during his four years at the helm of the DNC but, in hindsight, some of his most controversial strategic moves paid off.

Dean was widely disparaged within the party for his "50 State strategy" -- a plan to put DNC-paid staffers on the ground in every state to ensure the party field a competitive slate of candidates. And yet, the 2006 and 2008 elections seemed to justify Dean's decision as Democrats won in places like Idaho, Kansas, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia that, as recently as a few elections ago were considered impenetrable.

"The winning strategy and business plan that Governor Dean put in place helped make Democrats competitive again up and down the ballot from Indiana to Alaska to Mississippi," said Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the DNC.

(Before we receive a scad of emails, we realize that without the funding provided by Obama as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Dean's 50-state vision might have been more bust than boom. But, still....)

That Dean who, inarguably, ushered in an era of person to person politics linked by technology, finds himself as a man without a home speaks to the vast chasm between how he is perceived by the netroots and the party regulars.

Dean is beloved as a prophet by the blogosphere and derided as a flash-in-the-pan by many within the party establishment. The truth, as always, likely lies somewhere in between those two extremes.

Politics is all about comebacks; after all, who would have thought Al "Alpha Male" Gore would become a global warming prophet in the aftermath of his loss in the 2000 election? Dean appears headed to a far less public role over the next four years than he, or his legion of supporters, would have liked. But, a reemergence on the political stage (in some way,shape or form) seems, if not inevitable, than certainly likely.

Howie P.S.: If Howard Dean is feeling any pain, I feel it, too.