Home > Howard Dean’s accomplishments versus James Carville’s failures

Howard Dean’s accomplishments versus James Carville’s failures

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 16 November 2006
8 comments

Parties Governments USA Mary MacElveen

Howard Dean’s accomplishments versus James Carville’s failures
By Mary MacElveen
November 15, 2006

Newsmax.com reports that James Carville the political has been stated that Democrats should fire Howard Dean as the chair of the Democratic National Committee. In the most laughable statement he likens Howard Dean to that of Donald Rumseld when he said, "I think he should be held accountable. I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence.”

Unlike Rumsfeld, Dean’s mission to retake the House was ‘Mission Accomplished’ in which Democrats took back more than the fifteen seats needed to become the majority in that house. In fact, they took back thirty and Carville now complains that fifty should have been won. If there were a message I could send to Carville, it would be, “We won the House, stupid!”

In Howard Dean’s short tenure as the chair of the DNC he has made more of an impact since Carville won the White House for Bill Clinton and the Democrats back in 1992. Then again, I would say that victory was won by both Clinton and Gore and had little to do with Carville.

It was then in 1994 that the House was lost to the Republicans with their ‘Contract with America’ campaign. It has been that long since Democrats controlled the House. James Carville had twelve years in order to lead this party from a minor party to a majority party and he failed at doing so.

When Carville complained that he tried to meet with Dean in the last days prior to this election in which Dean declined, I am most assured that Dean had more important priorities to attend to then listen to a man that had not delivered any significant victories for the party. He stated that he was upset that in the days leading up to the Democratic victory, he would have advised Dean to spend extra money. Dean is a fiscal conservative and his record as the governor of Vermont proves it. Would his advice if taken bankrupt the party?

On a North Dakota news site, they ran this story: Dean deserves much credit. I want to remind all that North Dakota is as red as they come when it comes to defining how a state votes.

This is what they reported, “Election successes across the country could not have happened without the help of the Democratic National Committee’s 50 State Strategy.” I wonder if Carville is listening to North Dakota as he shoots his mouth off.

This article even states that much of the credit should be given to Chairman Howard Dean and citing the many races won country-wide. They even had this to say of Chairman Dean, “The brainchild was his, and although he came under much fire for it, it paid off with a wave of Democratic success stories across the country.” Are you paying attention, Carville or do you just like to hear the sound of your own voice and see your name in print? Could it be part jealousy that Dean was able to accomplish this in such a short amount of time?

These are the races the news article gives credit to Dean in helping the Democrats win, “Democrats control the U.S. Senate. Democrats control the U.S. House. There are now 28 Democratic governors. Democrats control state legislative bodies 54 to 41. Democrats control state legislative seats 3,964 to 3,307. In North Dakota, we made significant legislative gains (more than we have since the 1980’s).” That is the Dean record accompanied by the thousands of volunteers across this country that helped us “Take back our country”

When Carville had this to say of Harold Ford Jr. who he thought should replace Dean, “Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."

According to the MemphisFlyer.com Harold Ford Jr. issued the following statement, "I have just finished a tough Senate election, and while I care about the future direction of my party, I am not interested in taking over the DNC," He then went onto say, "We are now the majority party in the House and Senate, and it is time to move beyond the politics of the campaign ..." So why is Carville continuing this campaign when clearly the man he wanted to replace Dean with says the opposite?

In speaking of moving on, the American people gave us their trust in leading this country and men like Carville just do not understand that. This is a time for party unity, not disunity in which we put the needs of the people first and leave the vitriolic statements behind. It is about delivering jobs, a real minimum wage, health care and so many other vital programs back to those that have been left behind with the GOP led congress. It is about trying to end the war in Iraq so that we can bring home the fathers and mothers of American children who go to bed each night wondering if they are safe and praying they are.

The only motive I see is that Carville wants the Democratic Party to return to a place in time in which the Democrats suffered defeat after defeat in congress. He has not given us one victory since 1992. That is his record.

http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/15/2503297.html

Forum posts

  • I couldn’t have said it better! Really I couldn’t have! Glad you said it! Also, my biggest complaint about Democrats is that they don’t support each other. If I could see one thing happen differently, (as someone who really doesn’t want to have to pay this much attention to politics but feels forced to with the horrible direction our country has headed into) I want to see the Dems rally around each other through thick or thin... Howard Dean was a worthy presidential candidate but he is proving to be an even more worthy chairperson! James’ is entertaining but really James go play for the other team if you are this dissatisfied with our progress. We want to take it from here and move forward not deal with infighting!

    • Well just my opinion on this, but I think America is seeing less and less support for parties as such and is giving more support (or non-support) for politicians as INDIVIDUALS based more on their individual stands and voting records. There appeared to be some text book cases this most recent election. For too long Americans have been played against each other through the two-party divide and conquer strategy, having to side with one party or the other through right or wrong instead of going with the issues. I don’t care if it’s a Dem or a Repub, a Libertarian or Green— or who ever— if they fail to stand FIRM for American’s rights and freedoms, then nobody should support them either. And if they are so lame as to support a war based on TOTALLY FAKE REASONS, that has reportedly killed hundreds of thousands of totally innocent people, then neither will they get my suport or vote EVER. Votes should be earned not just given away and those that can’t or won’t perform their job need to be reminded IN PUBLIC and if that fails to work then they need to be REPLACED.

    • You hit it on the nose when you said "James go play for the other team..." In fact, he DOES. Not only is he married to Mary Matalin, one of the most visciously cold-blooded Republican operatives/spokespeople I’ve ever heard, but also, James is part of an insidious sect within the Democratic Party called the DLC, the Democratic Leadership Council. Notice how closely the name DLC mimics the official name of the party, the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, comprised of leaders of every State party infrastructure, and the only group to pick the Chair and other leaders of THE Dem party. That’s no coincidence, it’s because the DLC wants everybody to just assume they are the official spokespeople empowered to lead the party, and they are not at all. They are a sub-group, self-appointed, and very conservative. They are the group that keep trying to push the Dems to the right, and if you want to know why, just take a look at their origins and their funding. This article is from before the 2004 election (e.g., I’m pretty sure Gore is no longer a member), but gives you a very good idea of what this group is about and who is behind it. http://www.realdems.org/theprogressive.htm "The DLC Takeover" from The Progressive.

  • It’s reasonable to believe that Carville’s comments are based on more than just jealousy and a desire to see his name in print. As a paid political consultant, his financial future depends on whether someone, anyone, believes that his advice is worth paying for. Claiming that he could have obtained even better results for the Democrats, despite the lack of any evidence to support that claim, and keeping his name in the public eye as a supposed expert, are two ways in which he can hope to persuade some future candidate to pay for his advice.

  • Great article! Putative "Democratic strategist" and Dean basher, James Carville has done nothing for the Democratic Party since participating in Clinton’s 1992 campaign. And he didn’t do much for the Democratic Party prior to 1992, as he was campaign manager to Lieberman’s predecessor in Democratic Party bashing, Zell Miller.

    Since 1992, Carville took his dog and pony show (Begala, Shrum, Greenberg, et. al.) to Boliva, where he worked for the reactionary former president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (a/k/a "Goni") who was elected President in 2002 with only 22% of the vote, then Goni was chased from office two months later for his arrogant, anti-worker, anti-peasant, pro market capitalism and International Monetary Fund policies. Goni’s opponent in the 2002 election, Evo Morales, lost to "Goni" by 1%, then went on to take the Bolivian presidency with 54% of the vote.

    Carville’s most recent foray into anti-democratic politics is in Venezuela, where he has been hired by Manuel Rosales, darling of the Bush anti-Chavez faction, who is opposing President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela’s December, 2006 election. At last count, Chavez was ahead of Rosales in the polls by a 22% (35% of likely voters) lead.

    Carville’s favorite slogan, "It’s the economy, stupid", will hardly work in Venezuela, where the economy is booming — growing at 12% a year. In addition, Chavez has brought healthcare, literacy, low cost food and job training to the millions of Venezuela who had access to none of these prior to Chavez’s first election in 1998.

    Knocking grass roots based DNC chair, Howard Dean, after the enormous success of Dean’s 50 State Strategy in 2006, while aiding the Bush administration’s candidates in the Bolivian and Venezuelan elections, suggests that Carville is not a Democrat. His campaign history since 1992 also suggests that he is not much of a strategist.

    November 17th is Governor Dean’s birthday, a good day to donate to the DNC in his honor and in spite of James Carville.

    • Can the person who stated that James Carville was contracted by Rosales who is running against President Chavez of Venezuela please post a URL in which this information can be read?

      Thank you,
      Mary MacElveen!

  • Carville is all hot air.

  • Howard Dean’s inside, behind closed doors organizational and apparatus orchestrations are remarkably effective and competent. He gets the job done in vital ways, such as raising money, rallying the troops, finding newcomers, raising interest and excitement in local and national races. Like with everything, there is some bad that goes along with the good. The bad is that he is a huge lightening rod to GOP/Neo-Con/Conservative talk radio. There is constant Dean bashing in the right wing radio, always hitting him below the belt. Next, Dean’s TV interviews shows the sassy and arrogant side to him. Who can forget the speech where he said the DEMS need to get those Southern Redneck voters into the DEMO camp. His tongue again got him into trouble, not too much unlike John Kerry’s botched stupid military joke. Substantively, he sells on national TV interviews his certain ideas and policies that stur unnecessary opposition and major questions worrisome to the middle, swing, and independent voters that will be crucial for 2008 to elect a DEM Prez. Personally, I would like to see a political make-over to tone down his behavior in order to capture those key voters the DEMS need in 2008.