"Dems 'Frustrated' With DNC Chair Dean's First 100 Days"

[TexasLawyer]

Whaa?

That is the title Drudge gives to his link to a USA Today article on aggressive RNC recruiting.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-19-parties-outreach_x.htm

Posted 5/19/2005 11:16 PM Updated 5/19/2005 11:25 PM



National party chairmen Howard Dean, left, and Ken Mehlman are taking different paths in building their memberships.
AP photos



As Dems shore up base, GOP goes 'raiding'
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — National party chairmen Howard Dean and Ken Mehlman have the same job titles but different jobs. One is on a mission to rebuild, the other to expand.

Their itineraries tell the tale.

Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is courting black and Hispanic voters on a regular basis. Beyond the usual run of speeches, fundraisers and meetings with donors, he has visited Latino neighborhoods and historically black campuses. He has attended black-oriented receptions and ceremonies, spoken to minority chambers of commerce and raised money for Otto Banks of Harrisburg, Pa., a black city council candidate new to the GOP.

Dean, who reaches Day 100 as Democratic National Committee chairman Monday, is for the most part speaking to diehard Democrats who are the backbone of their party. He's addressed Democrats in nine states dominated by Republicans, such as Kansas and Mississippi, and in party strongholds such as California and Massachusetts. He's spoken to labor unions, gay-rights groups and state party chairs — all pillars of the party.

Some Democrats are frustrated by the contrast between the two approaches, even as they praise Dean's efforts to revitalize flagging state parties. "Democrats should be stirring things up, roiling the waters on (the GOP) side the way Mehlman is on ours. He's playing in our sandbox," says Steve Rosenthal, CEO of America Coming Together, a group formed to energize and turn out Democratic voters. Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, agrees that Democrats need to "go raiding behind Republican lines." He says his group and the affiliated Democratic Leadership Council will be doing "some missionary work of our own" in Republican states this year.

Rosenthal, Marshall and others say Democrats — led by Dean — should be reaching out to groups and areas where Republicans have done well: military families, Catholics, evangelical Christians, business leaders, people who live in the "exurbs" beyond even outer suburbs, and people who live in small, "micropolitan" cities. They also say Democrats should focus on black and Latino voters, even though majorities of both voted for Democrat John Kerry for president last year.

<snip>

[mzmolly]

1. Misleading title.

Why? :shrug: It seems the "dems" that are frustrated are the DLC types, and I'm glad they're frustrated. I means were doing something right.

[Seabiscuit]

10. Exactly. DLC'ers will always be frustrated with core Democrats.

They can go fishing ("raiding behind Republican lines") all they like - as if they had anything to offer the fundie types - they've done so for years now and all they've done is lose elections to Republicans.

As if the Repukes had anything to offer blacks & hispanics - other than lies and phony rhetoric.

Fuck Sludge - he'll never be anything but a right wing shill.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Would you change your subject line to the USA Today Headline

instead of Sludge?

Why play into his RW BS?

[TexasLawyer]

15. I wanted to feature Drudge's title

just to grab people's attention on DU regarding what Drudge and other RW-ers are doing-- formenting discord where there is none and trying to smear Dean.

[Pirate Smile]

16. I understand. It seems to work quite frequently.

[displacedtexan]

3. File that headline under...

News from Planet OH, RIGHT SURE!

[napi21]

4. I trust Dean's strategy far more than Drudge!!!!

I think Dean is doing the right thing right now. I've read all his speaches that I could find, and he's starting with the Dems to explain how the great division in the country can be narrowed. I think that's the way to go. When Drudge gets the same kind of receptions to large groups of people as Dean does, I might consider his opinion!

[RubyDuby in GA]

5. Don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm pretty damn happy

with Governor Dean.

GOP trying to blow smoke up our asses and cause division in the party any way they can. They need to fucking grow up! Cocksuckers! <--I am forever indebted to Deadwood for putting this into my vocabulary :)

[merwin]

7. Exactly, just another attempt to CREATE a rift where one does not exist.

[David Dunham]

8. Dean does suffer from occasional potty mouth

[RobertSeattle]

6. 10 out of 10 RNC Staffers who identify themselves as DEMs agree!

[paula777]

9. LOL, exactly!

[Larkspur]

11. I don't count DLC Dems right now as real Dems. They're Repuke-lite

at best.

This article is obviously a smear job on Dean, who will be doing a rare national interview on MTP this Sunday. This article is a hatchet job and the USA Today is willing to use DLC clowns to beef up heir Repuke-like attacks on Dean. I expect Russert to use this piece of crap against Dean on Sunday.

As far as Mehlman,
1) how many blacks and Latinos does he have as his direct reports within the RNC? Dean has consciously been working to diversify the DNC's upper management.
2) The RNC dominates the white vote for now, so they can afford to waste time and money on attracting Black and Latino voters, and I'm sure the only ones he's interested in are the wealthy ones. How many Black and Latino ghettoes is Mehlman visiting?
3) The RNC has a strong party organization across most states, or at least across the states that will give them majorities in congress and electoral votes to win the WH. The Dem Party became too Washington orientated. Notice the DLC clowns, Rosenthal included, who were quoted in this article. They are all Washington Beltway clones.
4) Does Mehlman travel in luxury, a la Terry McAwful? Or does he travel like regular Americans, like Dean does, using the subway and commercial flights?

[Last Lemming]

12. Anyone who can cite

black polling percentages with a straight face 8%, 11% etc. is too clueless to be believed

USA today--it really makes sense that after four years of getting slapped in the face, blacks are gonna discover that Bush was their man all along

get a brain

[wakeme2008]

13. What were all those Dean trips to Red states for but raiding

and IMHO with * 42% rating, alot of votes can be raided from Bush voters.

[Straight Shooter]

14. I'll let my little guy with the sign do the talking for me :)

[TexasLawyer]

17. They're probably more pissed off at Dean today than usual...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1488363

"Tom DeLay is corrupt. No question about it," Dean said Friday. "This is a guy who shouldn't be in Congress and maybe ought to be serving in jail."

You GO, Howard!

[XemaSab]

18. Drudge is right, you know

Dean shouldn't be staying in "safe" states like Kansas and Mississippi, he should be going after the repukes where they live!

It's time to go over to the republican sandbox and start kicking some sand and telling it like it is and calling for the incarceration of DeLay!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

19. This isn't the title of the original article...please don't allow drudge

this platform. Thanks. MKJ

[leesa]

20. I wouldn't take a money bet on that USA Today. I think people

are pretty glad he's there.

[Moderator]

21. TexasLawyer, please edit your subject line

The published headline of the linked article is "As Dems shore up base, GOP goes 'raiding'"

Thank you

[shance]

22. Dean is the last Democratic leader I'd be upset with.

Namely because he's actually a leader.

Its going to take a long time, focus and patience to change gears and directions from where this Administration and corporate interests have steered this country.

And likewise many Democrats have been allowing the agenda the Republicans have been pushing.

[bemildred]

23. Some Democrats think Drudge is a drooling idiot too. nt

[Moderator]

24. Locking

Please feel free to repost with USA Today's title.

Thank you