A Snake in the Grass

If you've been playing along with the home version, you know that Ol' Snakehead (James Carville) has been slithering around since election week trying to push the theory that DNC Chairman Howard Dean is bad for the party and did not contribute to the Democratic victory last Tuesday.

Now certainly there's more than enough credit to go around:

First, there was a wave of public revulsion at the War On Iraq and massive Republican corruption.

Second, you had the unions, the party workers, the activists, the netroots, and grassroots who worked their butts off.

Third, Chuck Schumer (chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) and Rahm Emanuel (chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) did their bit to raise funds and cultivate candidates.

Fourth, underpinning all that was Dean's 50 State Strategy which "placed the Republicans on the defensive in once safe districts, forcing them to allocate resources over an increasingly large electoral terrain. The Republicans could no longer pour superior resources into a few seats making them harder for Dems to win."

There was a time when I thought that Howard Dean was condemned to be a modern day Cassandra -- having the gift of prophecy but cursed so that no one would ever believe the predictions. However, things move faster now than in the time of the ancient Greeks so while Dean was, for example, widely ridiculed when he said that America was no safer when Saddam Hussein was captured, the public has come around to seeing the light.

Thankfully, this time around when Dean is being attacked, he has lots of supporters including Schumer publicly backing the 50 State plan; John Conyers saying that Carville is helping the Republicans; The National Journal's Hot Line's wonderful "Dated Kerry, Married Dean" article; England's Labour Party's invitation to Dean to advise them before their next election; and MyDD's threat:"If Howard Dean is ousted as DNC chair, I will start a campaign for all small donors and all netroots activists to stop giving money to the DNC, DSCC, DCCC, DLCC and DGA. This is not an idle threat. Democratic parties and committees will lose tens of millions of dollars every year if they do this. Count on it."

So after all this what does Snakehead Carville do?

He runs his mouth off again to rundown Dean by dissing him on CNN (video here) and telling a group of political reporters about Dean, “I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence.”

So what the fuck is up with James Carville?

I think that Chris Bowers at MyDD nails it:

There are two main reasons why James Carville does not like Howard Dean. The first is that Howard Dean does not trash other Democrats, and Carville prefers Democrats who throw their own party under the bus. The second is that he is a political consultant, and as such many of his friends have gotten rich off of commissions from television advertisements. As far as he is concerned, all donations to all Democratic committees exist so that he and his friends can get richer. Since Howard Dean is spending money on field organizers and grants to state parties, his friends tend to not get rich from the money the DNC raised. This is abhorrent to Carville, since Democratic Party committees exist to make him and his friends rich.

One other thing though. Back in October, M.J. Rosenberg over at TPM Cafe found a troubling incident involving Carville in Bob Woodward's new book:

On page 344, Woodward describes the doings at the White House in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the day after the '04 election.

Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.

So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio to camp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the last thing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.

So what happened?

James Carville gets on the phone with his wife, Mary Matalin, who is at the White House with Bush.

"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to 250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about.'"

Matalin went to Cheney to report...You better tell the President Cheney told her. "Matalin does, advising Bush that "somebody in authority needed to get in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio who would be in charge of any challenge to the provisional votes." An SOS goes out to Blackwell.

The rest is history.

Does something about this story stink to high heaven!

I'll say!

So, want to stand up for Dean and show up Ol' Snakehead?

Tomorrow is Howard Dean's birthday.

Let me suggest a gift that keeps on giving -- send Howard Dean a birthday card with a check made out to the DNC:

Governor Howard Dean
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. S.E.
Washington, DC 20003

Nothing like a little green to help drive out the snakes...

UPDATE:
YOU CAN ALSO SIGN A GIANT BIRTHDAY CARD FOR HOWARD DEAN AT: www.democracyforamerica.com/happybirthday