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Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 12:30pm Democrats Continue Infighting No wonder the Democrats hardly ever win elections. No sooner had the fight between John Murtha and Steny Hoyer been decided when James Carville and Howard Dean started going after each other. Apparently Carville, and many other leading Democrats are upset at DNC Chairman Dean because of the way he distributed money during the mid-term election race. Democrats are in the midst of a circular firing squad and have no qualms about bringing their own people down. Carville now wants Dean to be fired as Chairman.
Howard Dean employed a 50-state strategy in the mid-term elections. What he basically did was spread the money out to candidates in all fifty states, even in races that the Democrats had no chance of winning. He took the long-term view that although the Democrats would not win in the South (and elsewhere) this time around, it would help in the future. He believes that you have to ask someone for their vote before you can receive it.
Rahm Emanuel got into a huge fight with Dean about this well before the election. Since Dean was in control of the money, he decided where the money was spent. He also failed to spend all of the money available to them. The election results show the good and the bad of what Howard Dean accomplished.
Although the Democrats took both Houses of Congress, they lost 14 House seats by one percent. According to Carville and Emmanuel, the Democrats would've won most of those seats had Dean allocated more funds to those races. The GOP spent much more money in those races and won them all. The GOP also won most of the races in the South, where Dean had decided to spend more money.
Now the Democrats did take the House and Senate for the first time in twelve years, so Howard Dean does deserve some credit for that. He also helped raise more money for the party than they ever have before. However, it looks like he screwed up on this one. The Democrats had a chance to take nearly 45 seats in the House, but only ended up taking about 30.
Many in the Democratic leadership now want Dean to be fired and replaced with Harold Ford Jr. That would be the same Harold Ford Jr. who just lost his Senate race. That doesn't seem to make too much sense. Howard Dean made a mistake, but he should not be replaced, at least not yet. If he doesn't bend a little on his 50-state strategy in 2008, then the Democrats will need to make a change, but we are a long way from there. For now, the Democrats should focus on, ya know, running the country.
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