I knew Howard before his run for the White House, and we remain friends. The "scream," by the way, was deliberately enhanced by the U.S. media. The print media still seemed to like him. TV (as well as a goodly portion of our own party) seemed scared and intimidated by him, and seemed to want him dead and buried, which is pretty much what they accomplished. But his time as DNC chair, with his 50 state strategy, seemed like the golden days of Democrats in opposition. What Howard accomplished in those four years was nothing less than Moses leading the children out of the desert.
I asked him in February 2009 what he would do if Rahm Emmanuel cheated him out of the HHS Secretary position that he so richly deserved. He said that if that happened, he would join some law firm for name recognition (for them) and some steady income (for him), and then spend the rest of his time "raising hell for causes he cares about." Two of the main causes he cares about, other than lending his wisdom to Democratic candidates and the occasional talk show/news show appearance, are human trafficking and environmental issues.
He has already helped organize and participated in a march from Bangkok to the Burmese border to bring attention to human trafficking. By the way, except for me, I don't recall anyone on DU ever mentioning that. And in the early days when Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders was in league with some developers that wanted to build up some park land near the lake, which Howard opposed. Howard wanted the park to remain undeveloped, reserved for public use. Howard won that dispute, and Sanders didn't speak to him for four years. Howard managed to survive the experience.
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