DNC: State Chairs revolt against DC consultant culture

DNC: State Chairs revolt against DC consultant culture

According to Oregon's new DNC Committeewoman Jenny Greenleaf, it isn't only bloggers who are unhappy with the "consultant culture" in Washington, D.C. Jenny attended the ASDC (Association of State Democratic Chairs) meeting over the weekend and came to this conclusion:

"The states are revolting against the Washington consultant culture..[ ].. Most of them are just as frustrated with the DNC as bloggers. And they are ON the DNC."

Jenny offers this view for bloggers who believe there's an intent to shut certain people out of the big tent:

"The Democratic Party not a monolithic organization. I guess what bothers me most about many of the diatribes against Party that I read on the ‘net is the sense that there’s a deliberate attempt to exclude people. I don’t think it’s intentional."

See Jenny's entire entry at today's American Street.

Jenny's accounting of DNC Chair candidates' backgrounds and positions is here.

At the Blogging of the President (BOP), D.C. got "killed" in an informal exit poll of DNC members who were at the state chair event:
Howard Dean 26
Wellington Webb 26
Ron Kirk 24
Donnie Fowler 14
Martin Frost 9
James Blanchard 7
Simon Rosenberg 4
Harold Ickes 3.

Leo Hindery has dropped out.

(*poll taken by Jerome and Matt at BOP. Matt likes Simon Rosenberg for the position, and explains why he thinks you should get to "know him" HERE. ).

According to Jerome Armstrong,

"There's something wrong when DNC Chair candidate Donnie Fowler, during his 5-minute presentation on his candidacy, singles out Matt Stoller as an example of embracing the technological ideas that are going to bring this party forward, and then some DNC staffer walks up to Stoller and tells him he's got to leave the room, because he's a blogger..[ ]..Nevermind the bizarre disconjunct of their kicking us out while they eye the DNC coffers from the internet's small donor with greed. Put aside their praise for Terry McAuliffe having figured out how to hook up 2 million new activist small donors, while they kick out the activists that help make it happen. We want to hear what they are going to do to reform the DNC inside the states, because it's inside the states, not just in DC, that this reform needs to happen."

So I took this test...

So I took this test....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convincing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Brownstein: Beinart Analogy Off-Base in Light of Current Realities

Brownstein: Beinart Analogy Off-Base in Light of Current Realities

Ron Brownstein explains how Peter Beinart's recent TNR article fails to address current realities when suggesting that today's Democratic leaders have been weak in coalescing behind a "fighting faith" against radical Islam.

Beinart is a smart and serious student of political history, and his lengthy argument (published in the Dec. 13 issue) is intriguing. But his analogy to the 1940s is imperfect for explaining the situation Democrats face now. In fact, his argument shows how difficult it will be for Democrats to set a new course on national security until they regain the White House.

Beinart may lament Democratic reaction to Bush's mistakes in Iraq, and it may be true that the Democratic party has been recently defined more by its opposition to Bush's choices than by its own alternatives. As more of the grave errors in the Bush administration's judgement regarding Iraq are exposed, however, I think the public will begin to more easily understand that there was valid reason for protest all along. In my mind, if we agree with Peter Beinart, we are agreeing to help the Bush administration cover one of the biggest blunders in U.S. history, which will only serve to further diminish our nation by prolonging a wrong-minded foreign policy. It's important that we move on, but we must move on with dignity, righteousness, and a political mindset that encompasses honesty, respect, and social justice. The Bush foreign policy has done little to forward such notions.

Brownstein speaks about the impotency and futility of Beinart's argument about Kerry's failure to develop a positive post-9/11 Democratic national security agenda. The simple and inescapable fact was this: Bush was the incumbent.

"In American politics, the party out of the White House is defined mostly by its reaction to the president's decisions, especially in foreign policy. Beinart is wise in counseling Democrats to highlight ideas for the war on terrorism that extend beyond criticizing Bush. But Kerry's experience shows that even when they do, the president will still set the terms of debate because he sets the direction for national security policy."