Jewish World Review Feb 22, 2005 / 13 Adar I 5765

Jay D. Homnick

JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


DNC: Dean And (we'll) See?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | At my age I don't relish the prospect of Tommy John surgery on my shoulder, so if I must pat myself on the back, I do it very gingerly. But Republican stalwarts everywhere have dispensed with such cautionary concerns. Their patting continues unabated, generally accompanied by this homely lyric: "The Democrats just don't get it." The latest Democrat move derided for its putative unwisdom is the selection of Howard Dean as the head of the Democratic National Committee. This is deemed to be a further retreat from the battleground of moral values as defined by the religious sensibility.

No less shrill a shill than Cokie Roberts declared this week on This Week that Dean was a startlingly 'secular' choice. This sort of thing, they tell us, sends a chilling message to the heartland. It positions the Democratic Party further out of the mainstream. All the old shibboleths are trotted out by the pundits: alienation, extremism, playing to the base instead of to the uncommitted. Here is a rare bit of bipartisanship — how often do Laura Ingraham and Cokie agree?

It occurs to me that perhaps we are in danger of making the common miscalculation of extrapolating from the thinking of the candidate himself rather than surveying the arena with dispassion. Sure, Dean and his band of fanatics think that he will become the king and the kingmaker all rolled into one. But that is not the opinion that should interest us: we should rather be asking what Bill Clinton thinks about this choice. After all, does anyone seriously think that if Bill had gone all out and worked the phones for a different candidate the outcome would be the same? Ergo, Bill does not believe that Dean in that spot hurts the party. As a general rule, Bill's political instincts are more reliable than Laura's or Cokie's.

The fact is that an unemployed Howard Dean was a very big problem for the Democratic Party. His lulu of a ululation cost him the Presidential nomination this time around, but it did not leave him permanently scarred. He still sports a merry band of true believers. His prowess in Internet fundraising and organizing is undeniable. Give him three years to prepare for the 2008 primaries and he may well ride a tidal wave of momentum right into the Presidential nomination.

Furthermore, having him in the role of permanent candidacy would mean enduring a series of horizontal snipes at fellow Democrats. No one gearing up for a primary battle could be expected to confine his barbs to the Republicans. He would have to keep up a fairly consistent barrage of kibitzing his potential rivals for the party nod. Him wandering in the land of Nod and raising Cain among his peers can hardly be a thrilling prospect for Democrats.

The best way to dispatch a nettlesome comrade who has too much power to be ignored is to give him a job which has panache of prestige while essentially leading to a dead end. And since the Democrats do not have the power to name the Vice-President, the next best choice is to make Dean the head of the party. This is one of those great positions that gives an illusion of leadership but mostly means being the lapdog of the Congressional party leaders and the last ex-President.

Almost by definition, being the head of the party means being "a person not of Presidential caliber". Is it conceivable that Terry McAuliffe, having served his term as party chief, might make a run at the Presidency?

Or how about Ed Gillespie, who recently completed a highly successful term running the Republican National Committee, steering it through the reelection of George W. Bush and growing Congressional majorities? Is he a viable Presidential candidate now? I would venture to assert that the vast majority of Republican voters do not even recognize the name of Ed Gillespie.

Donate to JWR


True, Haley Barbour parlayed his leadership of the RNC during its momentous retaking of Congress in 1994 into the governorship of Mississippi. But that is a rare event indeed; furthermore, Dean has already been a small-state Governor in Vermont for multiple terms. If anything, it is a comedown for him to go from real executive power in a state of the Union to a job that is one-third figurehead, one-third bureaucrat and one-third presiding over an entity befouled by the miasma of moribundity.

Here is what the Democrats accomplish by having Dean in that position. 1) His Presidential prospects are finis. 2) He is de-clawed as an infighter among the class of Presidential hopefuls. 3) His fundraising skills must now be diverted away from his aggrandizement and toward the party. 4) Even this mordant secularism that is said to be so abrading to churchgoers will have to be tempered to accord with his role as titular leader of all Democrat politicians.

All in all, I see the Democrats making a fine bargain. To paraphrase the old Henny Youngman joke, they have crowned him a king. "Here, King. Here, King."



JWR contributor Jay D. Homnick is the author of many books and essays on Jewish political and religious affairs. Comment by clicking here.

Up

02/17/05: Has Kofi been percolating too long?
12/24/04: A prima facie case for intervention
11/30/04: Men are from Earth
11/09/04: Nice guys last to the finish
10/11/04: Christopher Reeve, R.I.P.
09/27/04: The trumpet unblown
09/03/04: Justice — Swift and poetic
07/20/04: His Bond is not his word
07/12/04: Hair today, gone tomorrow
07/02/04: An Oval quandary: The Incredible Shrinking President
06/15/04: The man who never went gray
05/25/04: Desert (brain)storm
05/17/04: To be a Jew: What the murderers of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl knew
04/21/04: The doctor is not in
03/17/04: Yanqui go home
02/09/04: Bush's full courting of Meet the Press (and other tales of Kay's treat)
01/08/04: Is taking two tablets bad for your constitution?
01/02/04: Watching the Dean's office
11/21/03: Ronald Reagan — so misunderstood
11/14/03: Mulling (And Culling) The Democratic Field
11/11/03: World Seriously crazy: Grand malay seizures and Gibson screwballs
10/28/03: Bible or Babble in Babylon?
09/05/03: Dubya's last stand?
08/26/03: They don't sue prematurely (Tales Out Of Court)
07/29/03: Equipped with a quip, he gave the Hope
07/11/03: Speaking of Euro mania
06/27/03: The Tempest (not "The Taming of the Shrew")
06/16/03: Iraq and roll
06/05/03: Is Castro convertible?
05/23/03: Taxonomy of senatorial types
04/23/03: The Nutrasweet War against the Axis of Evil: Did Rummy forget?

© 2003, Jay D. Homnick