Blue Mass Group

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truthout Editorializes: DNC & DCCC Worked Well Together

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“How About State Legislatures, Rahm? Democrats nearly doubled the number of states where they control both the legislature and the governor’s office. Fifteen state governments are now solidly blue politically, seven more than before the voting. Ten state capitals are fully in Republicans’ hands, down from 12. The other 25 states have divided government.

“Emanuel and Schumer Deserve Credit, Too. Much has been made about the battle between Dean and the Netroots v. Emanuel and Schumer. In the end, they all did their jobs, and the Democrats prevailed. The DCCC and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) pumped enough money into the key races in the last month of the campaign to guarantee victory. Now if they could just see that by pumping money and staff early into all 50 states, Howard Dean gave them more key races to work with.

“Lesson Learned. The lesson learned should be that the DNC should continue to build the party from the ground up in all 50 states, expanding the playing field, while the DCCC and DSCC should continue to target the key races, giving the final push to victory.”

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  1. Came out looking like a genius.  I recall reading NY Times Sunday paper talking about Dean’s strategy could destroy the Democratic Party.  This article was in October!  (I checked and it’s archived now, $$, oh well.) I recall reading that article gave me a cause for concern for the first time.  I always liked the idea that Dems battle on every front and not leave any state unchallenged.  Give credit to Clinton too, everywhere he went a couple extra mil was available for the state after he left.  I still think the DSCC did what they normally do and it worked this year, but they can learn from Howard Dean.

    • But its fun.

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      Carville Says Dems Should Dump Dean over “Rumsfeldian” Incompetence
      By Scott Shepard | Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 12:00 PM

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      Democratic strategist James Carville says his party should dump Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic Party because of incompetence.

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      Carville, during coffee and rolls with political reporters today, said Democrats could have picked up as many as 50 House seats, instead of the nearly 30 they have so far.

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      The reason they didn’t, he said, is the Democratic National Committee did not spend some $6 million it could have put into so-called “third tier” House races against vulnerable Republicans.

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      Carville said the other Democratic campaign committees had borrowed to the hilt.

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      He said he tried to meet with Dean to argue for additional spending for Democrats in the final days of the campaign, but Dean declined and gave no reason why.

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      Asked by a reporter whether Dean should be dumped, Carville replied, “In a word, do I think? Yes.”

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      He added, “I think he should be held accountable.” He added, “I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence.”

      • and pushing their agenda, which is Hillary and top-down control. Looking at the money Rahm dumped from the DCCC into various races at the end shows a very mixed bag indeed, but there wouldn’t have been nearly as many races that could be flipped were it not for Dean and others working on the ground in so many states and districts.

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        Schumer at the DSCC, on the other hand, is crediting Dean’s 50-state strategy as being one of the major reasons we have a Democratic Senate right now.

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        I’m rather fond of the point being made elsewhere that Carville was pushing hard for Zell Miller to be VP in 2000. Talk about a strategy being Rumsfeldian in its competence…

      • I agree with stomv downthread: DNC, DSCC, and (last and least) DCCC all did their jobs.  If ninnies like Carville would just shut their pieholes and stop making shit up about how the Dems should have won 50 seats … honest to God.

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        Also, listen to Carville in the same meeting:

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        “The biggest danger for Democrats is that we do what we kind of do sometimes [and] fracture …if it looks like we are kind of fighting and incapable and don’t get anything done, that is our biggest danger,” Carville said.

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        Good advice, Jim.  So shut the &*$% up, already!

        • Oh but the 50 state strategy was your nut job Dean’s baby.  Shumer put him in his place and blew it off and now who’s BMOC…….Shumer.

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          This crowd just can’t give credit where credit is due.

      • When was the last time that Carville has been relevant?

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        Here’s all you need to know, from US News.

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        Two of the big losers were the husband-wife team of James Carville, the irascible Democrat consultant, and Mary Matalin, the far-out conservative Republican.

        After the election, Carville said that GOP National Chairman Ken Mehlman had done a better job than his own party leader, Howard Dean. Huh?

        Mehlman is out of a job and his committee sponsored some of the most hateful ads of the campaign. Dean’s get-out-the-vote effort worked, and he’s a winner. Carville needs a sabbatical.

        Matalin had figured to work in a presidential campaign for Allen. He is a forgotten man for 2008. She still does political work for Vice President Cheney, even more unpopular than President Bush. And she predicted in the Washington Post that the GOP would retain control of the House and Senate. She must have been polling on Mars or Pluto.

      • but hey, if bachman-turner-overdrive can still tour year after year on the fumes of ‘takin’ care of business’, i guess that carville can still get some people to listen to him on account of ‘it’s the economy, stupid.’

        • Geez I didn’t realize there was such a learning curve among some here.  Your simply framing him as a one hit wonder because he is not as liberal as you.  The fact is contrary to what you wish to think is that he was only involved in 92.  Did you ever stop to think thats all he wanted.  Blows your assumption apart.

        • Carville happens to be the only boy that’s won you a presidency in 16 years.  No one that is worshiped here has done so.  And don’t offer up the liberal KOS junk.  You know darn well none of that can get you 51%.  Its only about winning.  Something the extreme’s on both ends of the parties consistently fail to comprehend. 

          • Make no mistake about that, how many times have the Dems done that in the last 16 years.

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            Nice quote from Deval today

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            He said Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has already called, intrigued “by the political power of a positive campaign,” and within the letters and e-mails he has read have been suggestions that outsiders are taking a different view of Massachusetts in the aftermath of his election.

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            Deval Patrick and Howard Dean won using the grassroots as a strength, I think they tapped into something here that will be a solid winning strategy.  Just because something worked 16 years ago doesn’t mean that it works today. 

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            What you see here are winners. 

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            You just need to embrace it or get over it.

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            From incoming freshman Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN):

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            On Monday, he attended a new-members reception at the White House, where he met President Bush and political adviser Karl Rove, who was convinced Walz would lose. “He said, ‘we had the numbers on you, we thought we had enough, but where did you find the voters?'”

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            Where did he get the votes?  Poor Turd Blossom didn’t know what hit him.

            • You just have to sweat out that Pelosi can cling on through the prez election without making more of an idiot of herself than she is already doing.  She is a very ripe target.

  2. It’s Dean’s job to grow the Democratic party long term, and it’s Emanuel’s job to maximize the number of House seats gained in the very next cycle.  These missions are sometimes at odds, and hence the friction.  It’s good friction.  I want my party fighting internally — it means they’re working hard, they’re thinking hard, and they are willing to fight for the best.

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    Honestly, I think kos has stirred more of this up than is really relevant.  I don’t give a hoot if Dean and Emanuel are friends today or hate each other.  They both worked on doing a good job, and both did a good job.

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