A message for Hillary, nameless party "strategists," and other enablers of swiftboating:

[Firespirit]

This isn't over.

Our party won back Congress this week, no thanks to you. No thanks to you who laughed at the "nutroots," as you condescendingly call the Internet-surfing grassroots activists of the party. No thanks to you who thought getting the House would be hard and didn't think we had a prayer of taking back the Senate -- and who endorsed sacrificial lamb candidates to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now you want to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/10/135814/54">throw out Dean and replace him with Harold Ford, because -- in your twisted version of reality -- the 50-state strategy cost us seats. No, as you know quite well, YOUR plan would have cost us not just seats, but control of Congress. You would have ceded Montana and Virginia as "safe Republican seats." And with all due respect to Mr. Ford, he has no business as DNC chairman. He is a legislator, not a strategist. The best place for him would be back in Congress in 2009.

We also won't let you or your pals in the media hang John Kerry out to dry. He didn't sacrifice himself for the party. He stepped aside for the party in the final week, because YOU refused to stand by him against the right-wing swiftboating (just as in 2004). We will not forget the early fundraising that Kerry did for candidates such as Webb, bringing them to the attention of the DSCC, which was more than content to sit twiddling its fingers and smear Kerry for not giving his money to the organization. We will not forget the support that Kerry gave to candidates like Sestak, Murphy, Shea-Porter, and Hodes -- and yes, Tammy Duckworth, who is very likely to stage a comeback just like Kerry.

Hillary -- we definitely will not forget how you, who coasted to reelection with two-thirds of the vote, still saw fit to attack Kerry over what you knew perfectly well was a mangled joke. Pronoungate, if you will -- that captures the stupidity and vapidity of the incident. The blogosphere isn't ready to forgive you over it, especially now that your flacks are painting targets on anyone who isn't explicitly in your camp. The joke incident is over. The sole reason why the simpering media are saying it took Kerry out of the running is because they think, or want to think, that he will choose not to run now. I wouldn't be surprised if your flacks fed them that very line. But you see, that isn't how John Kerry operates. He has been slimed repeatedly, and he always comes back. The original swiftboating of 2004 is now regarded with contempt by everyone except for Freepers. Your dirty act will go the same way.

And here's something else. You hoped that he would tuck his tail in between his legs and go away. Well, he won't -- so if you want to run against him based on the joke, you'll have to do your own smearing now. The Republican Party will not aid and abet you, because they have a primary of their own and far bigger problems than taking out John Kerry. I'll grant that the media will likely take every opportunity possible to remind people of the joke, but that won't last long -- because no one will want to hear about it. This will be an issue-based primary, no matter how much you want to make it something else. The American people spoke last Tuesday that they are fed up with smearing, mud, and personality-based politics. They want real ideas and real solutions, and you, Hillary, ain't got those. You want to run against Kerry's slip of the tongue, then YOU will have to bring it up.

Now that the election is over, it would seem that you are ready to fight for the presidential nomination. The Clinton/DLC wing versus the anti-Clinton/DLC wing. All right. We knew it was coming. We aren't surprised. So you think (mistakenly) that you've taken out Kerry, one leader of the people's wing, and now you're after Dean. Well, you'll be proven wrong about destroying Kerry, and if you try to dump Dean after the biggest blowout in recent history, a blowout in which you were CONSISTENTLY on the wrong side, you'll be laughed off the field. The party did not lose control of a single Democrat-held seat at the Congressional or gubernatorial level. Not one. We pitched a shutout. And if you try to throw out Dean because you want to force your candidate upon the party, people will think, "Why should the party get rid of Dean? He led it to a landslide!"

You want a war?

BRING IT ON.

I dare you.