Friday, January 6, 2006

So what's "Crazy Howie" up to these days?

Via Kos, an update on Howard Dean's efforts to rebuild the Democrats.

The National Journal's subscription-only Hotline has a good piece on what Dean has accomplished. The sort of piece you won't see in the WaPo or other publications too busy pushing the "Dean is insane and ineffective" storyline.

With permission from the publication, here it is in whole:


Ha! Fat chance! Go read. Here's a taste:

Dean's defenders say he's making good on his pledge. The DNC has trained 136 new organizers and sent them to 30 states, and by the end of 3/06, party officials say every state's precinct training program will be up and running. In WV, the party now employs four full-time organizers. Recalcitrant county chairs are warming to their presence; one small county that had zero precinct captains in 2004 has twelve today.

"That may not seem like a huge step," says Parag Mehta, the DNC's director of training, "but in that party of West Virginia, where Democrats were afraid to put up yard signs for fear of being taunted, suddenly, there's a Democratic presence."

It sounds to me like he's doing a methodical job of building up the grass roots network of grunts necessary to get Dems elected. This is good.

Now all we need is a message. Dean is leaving that to others. That's OK, but they better get on the stick.

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