Former Va. governor urges DNC chairman's firing

[tonysam]

Source: Associated Press

Democratic former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is urging President Barack Obama to fire Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, another former Virginia governor.

Wilder wrote of Kaine, in a column for the Politico news Web site, that "the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee is the wrong job for him."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilder cited Republican victories in last month's Senate election in Massachusetts and in gubernatorial races last fall in New Jersey and Virginia.

"I'm just disappointed in his leadership," Wilder told the AP. "And there are a lot of people _ a lot of Democrats _ who come to me and are disappointed but are not going to speak out like I'm saying it."

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/09/former-va-governor-urges-dnc-chairmans-firing/

---

Wilder's piece for Politico is here:

link

[Bumblebee]

1. he is so right

[havocmom]

3. Yup

[thunder rising]

2. That is the nicest way to put it. It's just the wrong job for Kaine. And, it's costing us.

[dmr]

4. Kaine isn't suited for the job.

we really need Dr. Dean.

[Barbara2423]

30. I agree.

[lsewpershad]

73. That's right.

Dean should have never been replaced.

[movonne]

5. Bring back Dr. Dean...pronto...

[LaydeeBug]

6. BRING BACK DEAN!

or a very close facsimile of.

[RoccoR5955]

15. +10e100! n/t

[harmonicon]

16. +1

[Ken Burch]

22. If not Dean..Jim Hightower!

or maybe Michael Moore. We need a streetfighter who has a way with a punch line.

[Freddie Stubbs]

62. Jim Hightower is not a loyal Democrat

[KamaAina]

63. Nor is Moore

remember, he supported the dreaded R-lph N-d-r... :hide:

[Ken Burch]

72. Michael spent the last days of the 2000 campaign begging Ralph to GET OUT of the race

And he made up for any involvement in Ralph's work by all he did in 2004.

You can't just permanently bar anyone who worked for other parties.

If you did, you'd have to kick out our current senator from Virginia. And Heath Shuler. Both of them were Reaganites.

That's just as bad as once backing Ralph.

[Ken Burch]

71. Jim Hightower was repeatedly elected to statewide office AS a Democrat

And brought in some of the best and more progressive policies on agriculture that we've seen anywhere.

And you can't eternally use the 2000 election to perpetuate a modern McCarthyism.

[tbyg52]

88. Amen to that. AFAIK, he's still an advisor to Kinky.

'Nuff said.

[breadandwine]

33. Aw, who needs Dean and a strategy of 50 states?

Too many people can't even name them all......



Just because DLCers can't count to 50 is no reason to persecute them. Mathematically challenged people have rights TOO ya know!

[Ishoutandscream2]

53. "Just because DLCers can't count to 50..." LOL

Brilliant.

[D-Lee]

38. Oh, so very many dittos -- Love Dean -- nt

and I did donate!

[proud patriot]

40. BRING BACK DEAN NOW ! ! !

:kick: he is why I came back to the Democratic Party after all .

[sallyseven]

65. Times 10 Get rid of him and Sham Emanuel

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Thank Kaine for Scott Brown.

Get him OUT.

[Arkana]

25. Thank Martha Coakley and her utter, utter incompetence for Scott Brown.

The DNC did just fine once they got into it. There's only so much you can do with a candidate that feels like campaigning is beneath her.

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. True enough about Coakley. But

they waited until after Brown gained momentum to try and stop the tide.

Too little, too late.

And now look where we are.............

[KamaAina]

64. Also the Dem heavy hitters jumped on the Coakley bandwagon in the primary

ANY of the other Dem candidates, especially progressive Rep. Michael Capuano, would have whipped Brownnose with the tire iron from his own truck.

[rhett o rick]

77. So the DNC isnt involved in the primary races? If true, seems a terrible mistake. Who knows who

was behind the candidacy of Coakley. I can see CorpAmerica sponsoring crappy Democratic candidates.

[Arkana]

80. Considering most of the people in Washington DIDN'T back

Martha Coakley in the primaries, I'd expect that, well, NO. The DNC didn't get heavily involved in the primary.

And you know what? Do some research on what Coakley has done as AG before you start slamming her as some DLC corporate sellout, even though I know it's tempting.

[rhett o rick]

82. I have read both good and bad re. Coakley. But that's beside the point.

What went wrong? That's the question. Who failed? Did the DNC fail? We need to know what went wrong so to prevent future occurrences.

[leveymg]

60. Thank Max Baucus (and Harry Reid and Rahm E) for screwing up HCR, turning off the base

Kaine at least recognized and admitted that the primary source of the Party's malaise is mismanagement of major legislation and policy. Maybe, that's why they're going to scapegoat and can him.

[Wizard777]

8. Bring back Dean!

[HipChick]

9. Wilder is right

I hardly see Kaine..

[burning rain]

10. Buy that Wilder man a beer!

:beer:

In Tim Kaine have a chairman who can't even hold up his end in a debate with Michael Steele--and that's pathetic. But then, he wasn't hired for having any ability or political acumen, but simply because the administration wanted an abject toady as DNC chair.

[wisteria]

11. Massachusetts and Va had good, but ineffective candidates running on the Dem side

and Massachusetts had local Democratic problems.
It appears the media has done its job and now we have Democrats attacking Democrats, and everyone in a tizzy over the November elections. What we need to focus on is bread and butter issues and making the electorate see that there are better times coming soon.

[sulphurdunn]

66. ??? from Va.

How can a good candidate be ineffective? I met, campaigned for and voted for the Democratic candidate from Virginia, and I can't even remember his name.

[Jefferson23]

12. Getting rid of Dean, big mistake.

[euphoria12leo]

58. No one got rid of Howard Dean

he stepped down. I assume he no longer wanted the job. Maybe he'll change his mind if asked.

[Jefferson23]

69. He stepped down as a result of the friction between himself and Rahm,

in effect, getting rid of him. Obama evidently did not embrace Dean's 50 state strategy over Rahm's approach.

It is true that Dean spoke of serving one term, but it is important to recognize the conflict between the two men as a catalyst to Dean leaving.

Unfortunate also and telling that Obama did not at the very least offer Dean a place in his administration. Instead of incorporating his obvious
strengths in fighting for health care insurance reform, Obama did nothing.

[DarthDem]

13. Seconded, or Twenty-Fifthed . . .

. . . or millionthed. :)

I don't blame Kaine entirely for the losses in NJ, VA, and MA, because our candidates were terrible in all three races. However, he could have acted very swiftly and decisively in December to get Coakley off her rear end and go campaign, not sit back and coast. I think any effort then, as opposed to the ninth-inning effort we got, would have saved her. In fact, you can go deeper and make an argument that if Kaine had throw more DNC support (and I understand that the DSCC is not the same thing) behind her in December, a lot of voters in Mass. would not have been motivated - - as I suspect they were - - by the Dems' sense of apparent entitlement to the seat.

[No Elephants]

43. Coakley's campaign claimed she disappeared after the primary bc she had to fund raise. If true,

that is very much the fault of the DNC. The DNC should have made sure that the 60th vote had all the money (and coaching and support from national Dems) she needed. (And I was very much against Coakley in the primary.)

Still, I do think Coakley was just a lousy candidate, all the way around.

[tabbycat31]

86. NJ would have easily been won with a different candidate

but it's very hard to win an election when you are running an incumbent with an approval rating below 50%.

[Wabbajack_]

14. DIdn't Wilder refuse to back Creigh Deeds?

[Blue_Tires]

17. yup....

he's right of course, but i do question his motivation for saying this after backstabbing a democratic campaign in his own state...

[AspenRose]

39. Deeds ruined that campaign all by himself

Wilder is offering tough love, not knives in the back.

[Blue_Tires]

47. it was a bad campaign, and Deeds probably would have lost anyway, BUT

in a race like this when the party needed to show some solidarity (and get some popular momentum behind an average candidate), Wilder and a few prominent democrats chopped the wheels off the wagon...

And him bringing this up publicly is interesting as well...Because it's not like he couldn't go down the street and talk with Kaine personally...

Like I said; he's right of course, but I find his motivations spurious...

[SoxFan]

28. Hush! Keep your steenkin' facts out of this!

[bertman]

18. HALLELUJAH!! Someone with Democratic cred finally said it. Thank you, Mr. Wilder. nt

[bottomofthehill]

41. Democratic Cred

This big feeling jerk left the democratic party. HE is a pain in the ass and has been a shill for the republicans as much as he has been an ally to democrats. I think he is an old a-hole

[bertman]

55. He has cred with me (I'm a Democrat) if he says that Kaine is worthless, which he is.

"heckuva job, Timmy. Two gubernatorial races and one senatorial race SO FAR."

[bottomofthehill]

84. Kaine is not doing a good job, but

I dont need to hear about it from self serving Doug Wilder

[bertman]

85. That is a classic Democratic response to someone telling the truth about another Dem.

Kill the messenger. "Oh, we can't have that person criticizing him. He's not the right guy to be calling him out." No wonder we can't get shit done.

[Nay]

74. Yeah, Wilder doesn't have all that much Dem cred. He basically looks

after himself, and isn't terribly trustworthy.

[bottomofthehill]

83. I voted for him, but sadly in hindsight, that is the way I feel about him

[Freddie Stubbs]

67. Someone with 'Democratic cred' would have backed the Democratic nominee for Governor

[SlingBlade]

19. I could recommend an excellent replacement :)

[w4rma]

20. Kaine was an awful pick to replace Dean, but Wilder shouldn't be throwing stones, either.

Wilder, as governor, lost Democratic majorities across the state of Virginia. And he effectively endorsed the Republican in the last governor race. I don't like Wilder. I don't trust the opportunist. I've lived in Virginia all my life.

[defendandprotect]

21. If you want to destroy the Democratic Party, appointments like Kaine will do it -- !!!

Not to mention the many other disastrous corporate picks by Obama --

Let's see . . . did this all happen by accident?

Obama doesn't know the politics of the people he's putting in charge?

Who's kidding whom?

[SoxFan]

23. Wilder is the problem, not Tim Kaine

Tim Kaine supported Creigh Deeds for Governor; Doug Wilder sat on his ass. The Republicans won the closest gubernatorial election in Virginia's history. Who's the real Democrat?
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/state_regional_govtpolitics/article/WILD25_20090924-223004/295380/


Wilder refused to support the 1997 Democratic ticket. Who's the real Democrat?
http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=20653


Doug Wilder discussed the vice presidential slot on Ross Perot's ticket in 1992. Who's the real Democrat?
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1015087.html

Doug Wilder ran for the US Senate not as a Democrat, but as an independent. Who's the real Democrat?

[Blue_Tires]

24. I was about to bring those up

Virginians know Wilder has had a history of "dangling" his official endorsement like bait until the last minute...He just wants to make sure he has a place at the table of the winning side (no matter who it is)...

[SoxFan]

27. He's a political whore

He also ran as the right-wing Democrat in the 1992 primaries, but nobody wants to hear that. As long as he's bashing Obama's guy, he's just dandy. That's life with the Dennis Kucinich Chowder & Marching Society for ya.

[No Elephants]

44. Two separate issues:

1. Should folks take Wilder's word on matters Democratic?

I take it your answer to that wouuld be no. Mine probably would be the same.

2. Has Kaine done a great job so far as chair of the Democratic Party (aka DNC).

You did not address that. My answer, however would be no.

As far as Dennis K., you were the first and, so far, only one on this thread to mention him. Mostly everyone, however, mentioned Dean.

Thing is, the Democratic Party was never intended to be center right or corporatist (nor the Obama Party); and a lot of us like the Democratic, populist wing of the Democratic Party. That is not specific to either Kucinich or Dean.

[Dave From Canada]

32. The Republicans won the closest gubernatorial election in Virginia's history? Didn't Deeds lose by

like 18 points? Is that seriously the closest gubernatorial election in Virginia's history?

[harkadog]

34. The poster thought it was 18 votes.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

29. Good on him! Kaine has been ineffective. Just another DLCer supporting poor candidates.

I like Tim, but this is NOT the job for him!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. Hell yes. Bring back Howard.

Kaine sucks.

[Hippo_Tron]

35. Wilder is delusional if he thinks replacing a figurehead will change anything

The Democratic Party is run by David Axelrod and a few other White House staffers. People don't seem to get that. Kaine isn't even really the face of the party, the President is.

[davidpdx]

89. So your message is that Axelrod is the man behind the curtain?

I agree with the OP Kaine is a terrible DNC chair, but to pin it on Axelrod I think is out there in left field (literally).

[PHIMG]

36. Can DLC Kaine and his evil eyebrow. n/t

[mistertrickster]

37. We all scream for Howard Dean. nt

[democracy1st]

42. K & R

[slay]

45. Howard Dean was not just better - he was INFINITELY better

Fire Kaine indeed. He's a borderline DINO anyways.

[autorank]

46. Wilder was an outstandindg governor. k*r

This is just like him, no b.s.

On a broader point, get rid of the corporate toadies that are everywhere in the party.

It's time to kick some ass.

[24601]

48. Wilder wouldn't be angling for the job would he? While I'm no huge

Kaine fan, wasn't it understood that he was part-time and more of the figurehead until he left office as Virginia Governor? The day to day ops were run by the core professional staff. The problem with dumping Kaine is that it deflects attention completely from the DSSC which was completely asleep at the switch.

[Blue_Tires]

49. no; he's too old

Behind the scenes, I'm betting there was some rebuke from Kaine's office for Wilder and the other dems who jumped ship after the gubernatorial primary...Now Wilder is just grinding an axe AND getting his name back in the news again; so it's 2-for-1

[24601]

87. Thanks n/t

[freddie mertz]

50. Kaine seems to be a colorless nothing, at best.

Why did he get picked, anyway?

A political favor?

Yet another sop to Rahm's DLC pals?

We need a fighter in there now, after all that has happened.

[otohara]

51. Howard Dean Was All Over The TV - Kaine Nada

I loved that HD was always out there fighting -

[izzybeans]

52. Has anyone seen Kaine since he took the job?

[quiet.american]

54. The first time I'd seen him was last week at the DNC Winter Mtg.

He has been MIA, when he should, at the least, have been out there countering Michael Steele's nonsense.

[euphoria12leo]

59. Once i think

It was a forgettable one time.


:boring:

[quiet.american]

56. I am also distinctly underwhelmed and enormously frustrated w/Kaine.

I am hoping he will do the right thing and step down in order to spend more time with his family.

He's let Michael Steele's nonsense go unanswered.

Seems to have recruited some of the worst candidates in the party's history.

Seems to have responded with nothing but silence to hysterical attacks from both the left and right on major Democratic initiatives.

Add to that, was nowhere to be seen on the talking head shows to explain Democratic initiatives, or forcefully combat critics of them.

And gives the general impression that the DNC Chair position is unfilled.

Whatever Wilder's reason for writing this OP, can't say I disagree with him.

[FunMe]

57. While we are at it, dump Rahm Emanuel, too!

He's much a part of the problem as the other CORPORATE WHORES who have infiltrated our Democratic Party.

Let's bring back true progressives and liberals who understand WE THE PEOPLE.

[rem3006]

61. I think John Edwards is available...

uhhhh, on second thought

[yurbud]

68. the entire DLC should leave public office and move where their heart is: K Street.

[Earl Grey]

70. He is correct!

Kaine is just not right for this job. We need a fighter in this position. Someone that will battle in each district. Someone that will recruit inspiring candidates to run. The problem in Mass. was that we ran a lousy candidate and that the DNC didn't take the race seriously until it was too late.

[Blue_Tires]

76. welcome to the site!

[spicegal]

75. I live in Virginia, and I have the utmost respect for Tim Kaine. I honestly do

He was a great governor, and he's a wonderful person. However, I sort of agree that he may not be the best person for the job. I think we need someone more cut throat, more politically savvy (for lack of a better word), and more dynamic. Sorry Governor Kaine.

[progressoid]

78. Well, that's gonna be an uncomfortable governors breakfast.

[AnnieBW]

79. Kaine doing two jobs at once

really hurt the Dems. We need Dr. Dean back, STAT!

[asdjrocky]

81. Kaine has been completely useless in the job.