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Sunday, November 28
Howard Dean Weighs DNC Decision
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 28 Nov 2004 08:47 AM CST
 Howard Dean Weighs DNC Decision
Newsweek
The Vermont firebrand is essentially a centrist—with conviction and passion. He's an obvious choice to lead the fractured party
NOV 26, 2004
By Eleanor Clift
The struggle to be Democratic
National Committee chair is round one of the battle for the soul of the
party. The obvious choice is Howard Dean, who has the clarity of
conviction and the passion that voters hunger for even if they don’t
always agree with him.
Party
activists around the country are furious at the Washington Democrats
for blowing the election. Wresting control away from the entrenched
establishment is their goal. Dean would spark a Red State rebellion
within the party, but the Heartland’s leading contender, Iowa Gov. Tom
Vilsack, withdrew his name from contention after being shown numbers
suggesting Dean would win.
Dean is
talking to a lot of people, and what he’s telling them is that if a
consensus African-American or minority candidate emerged, he would not
seek the job. Clinton Labor Secretary Alexis Herman’s name surfaced,
but she said she wasn’t interested, and so far nobody else has assumed
the mantle. A DraftHoward.com Web site has sprung up, and a Democratic
source says Dean is planning a series of speeches “to position himself
as a centrist.” A campaign aide with close ties to the governor
protests that he “wouldn’t be positioning himself. Remember in Iowa,
the nicks came from the left.” Rival campaigns attacked Dean for once
agreeing with Newt Gingrich that Social Security’s growth rate should
be slowed, and for winning the endorsement of the National Rifle
Association as Vermont’s governor.
Democrats
who have spoken with Dean say he is moving toward a decision about the
DNC post. But they caution that it could go either way. Anybody who has
run for president doesn’t get it out of their system fast, particularly
anybody who came as close as Dean thinks he came. Deciding to lead the
party would probably take Dean out of the running for the ’08
nomination. Maybe that’s why the Clintons are quietly pulling for Dean.
He would be one less party favorite for Hillary to dispose of. It’s not
just his own ambition that Dean is weighing. The DNC job is no nirvana.
It’s a place where he could make a difference, but it’s like any other
Washington bureaucracy, says a Democratic operative. “There is a huge
institutional pull in the same direction—‘We do it that way because
we’ve always done it that way'.”
(click here to read the entire story)
Wednesday, November 24
Howard Dean: Global Suffering Demands Global Response
by
Trish Nelson
on Wed 24 Nov 2004 06:32 AM CST
Howard Dean: Global Suffering Demands Global Response
SitNews.us
NOV 23, 2004
The Third World War
By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
The war in Afghanistan
was a victory for international morality, not only for taking away a
haven for terrorists, but also for ending the brutal suppression of the
rights of women that the Taliban had imposed.
Yet
before we congratulate ourselves too much, consider the tens of
thousands of women and men who have died as a result of a misguided
U.S. policy (the "gag rule") that denies family planning funds to any
organization that, in countries where abortion is legal,
provides abortion-related information or services (using private
funds), along with other reproductive health services. In some
countries, a third of the family planning clinics have closed as a
result of the withdrawal of U.S. funds.
Some
special interest groups are attempting to bring about a total ban on
U.S. funding for family planning services even by organizations
that abide by the gag rule by pumping out phony statistics and
misleading press releases implying that world population growth has
nearly stopped and is about to go into decline. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Net growth has slowed slightly, but the world's
population is still growing by 76 million per year - the equivalent of
adding a new U.S. population every four years.
The human suffering caused by these misguided policies and inadequate funding is staggering:
• 600,000 women and girls die worldwide every year from pregnancy and childbirth.
• 140,000 women bleed to death each year during childbirth.
•
75,000 women die each year trying to end their pregnancies. The
U.N. estimates that worldwide, 50,000 women and girls try to induce
abortions on themselves each day (18.3 million per year). Many of those
who survive face life-long, disabling pain.
•
Approximately 100,000 women die each year from infection, and
another 40,000 women die from the agony of prolonged labor. And those
are only the fatalities. UNICEF's statistics show that for every woman
who dies, 30 survive with gruesome injuries and disabilities. That's
more than 17 million women per year.
Add to
that the exhausting burden of repeated pregnancies and births, and you
have a global picture of suffering that demands global response.
(click here to read the entire story)
Friday, November 12
Lobby DNC Members for Dean
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 12 Nov 2004 06:46 AM CST
Lobby DNC Members for Dean
by Dawn Mueller
Buzz is appearing on the blogs in favor of Howard Dean for DNC chairman.
Kos has
a thread up. The majority of comments are in favor of Dean.
Most of the comments about Vilsack are negative - the feeling is that
Vilsack would not be exciting enough.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/11/17837/845
Kos posted this in response to an ABC News piece speculating on a Howard Dean bid:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=244985
For those who wish to lobby for Dean for DNC Chair:
Daily Kos has posted more diaries on the DNC Chair battle. The following gives the list of DNC members:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/11/203150/32
Please
keep an eye on Daily Kos for new developments. We need to be
gearing up for the battle, right now, if we want to get behind Dean.
Thursday, November 11
DLC's Will Marshall Blames PROGRESSIVES for Kerry's Election "Loss"
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 11 Nov 2004 10:49 AM CST
 DLC's Will Marshall Blames PROGRESSIVES for Kerry's Election "Loss"
by Dawn Mueller
Marshall calls progressive Democrats "anti-American"
The DLC held a forum to do a post-mortem on the election:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6453647/
Sounds
like some have awakened to the fact that the Democratic leadership
needs to get down in the trenches with us common folk, and do some
party-building.
However, Will Marshall specifically pins the blame on the "Michael Moore crowd." He is quoted as saying, "We've got to repudiate the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there, sometimes on our party's left."
The article reminds the reader of Evan Bayh's comment that the
Democratic Party is in danger of being taken over by the far left,
referring to Howard Dean's rise.
I
respectfully suggest that Mr. Marshall be informed that I just spent
three years of my life busting my behind to get the Democratic nominee
elected. If he thinks that you and I are "strident and insulting
anti-American voices," and that we should be "repudiated" because we
oppose/d a war in which over a thousand of our men and women have died;
tens of thousands have been injured; and heaven knows how many
civilians have been killed, maimed or rendered destitute by our
actions...
...then
my reply to Mr. Marshall is that I do not find him to be the unifying
voice of the Democratic Party. Mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers and spouses should not be "repudiated" for trying to prevent
the death of their loved ones on the sands of Iraq, and the endless
draining of our pocketbooks.
I am
shocked that, after all of the Herculean grassroots efforts of everyday
citizens to make the Democratic party DEMOCRATIC enough bring in the
BIGGEST haul of voters a Democratic presidential candidate has ever
won, that a member of the DLC would treat us this way. If Mr.
Marshall has been properly quoted, I believe he owes us a big apology.
I am in favor of Howard Dean for DNC Chair.
Democrats need leaders who are intelligent, principled, care about us
and have the ability to sit down with us over a meal of Hamburger
Helper, without spitting in our faces.
The DLC website is http://www.ndol.org.
There is a link to the CSPAN video of the forum. Will Marshall is
the president of the so-called "Progressive Policy Institute," an arm
of the DLC. You might drop him a line and invite him to share a
dinner of Ramen noodles with you - use the online form, or give him a
call at (202)547-0001.
Dawn M. Mueller
In Iowa News, Gov. Vilsack appears to be considering the top spot at the DNC, too.
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