Post: The decision to elect Dean as its chairman sends a message in the view of some Democrats that little has been learned from the losses in 2004.

Excerpts from a 2-11-04 Washington Post article entitled:

Ailing Democrats Put Their Faith in Dr. Dean
Some Fear Choice Will Add to Red-State Blues

[F]or a party grappling with the question of how it can become more competitive in the red states of the South, Midwest and Mountain West, the decision to elect as its chairman a confrontational New Englander with a liberal identity and a penchant for making controversial statements sends a message in the view of some Democrats that little has been learned from the losses in 2004.

His supporters say Dean will rebuild moribund state parties, keep the grass roots energized, raise money, and keep Bush and the GOP on the defensive. Others fear he will push the Democrats' image farther to the left and drive moderate voters into the hands of the Republicans. That is a particular concern among some grass-roots Democrats in the red states.

"I think Howard Dean would be viewed as synonymous with being upper-East Coast liberal, and that just makes the burden on southern Democrats that much more difficult," said James F. "Jim" Kyle Jr. (D), the minority leader of the Tennessee Senate. "Hopefully he will try to be chairman of the entire party and not the chairman of a niche of the party members."

That challenge awaits Dean and the rest of his party's leadership as he makes the transition from more than a decade in elective politics, in which he was often in the limelight, to chief technician of an institution in which he will be expected to get the machinery ready for the elections of 2006 and 2008 while deferring to congressional and gubernatorial leaders and eventually to the party's presidential candidates in 2008.

But as the newest face in the party's constellation of leaders, Dean symbolizes two of the major challenges Democrats have in regrouping after Bush's victory. He represents the antiwar wing of a party debating where it should stand on national security issues, and he offers a secular vision of the world at a time when Democrats worry that they have ceded the values of faith and spirituality to Republicans.

Harold Ickes, deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, supports Dean's candidacy for party chairman but said Democrats must find a way to talk differently about such issues as abortion, gay rights, guns and the environment. "We're on the right side of those issues, but they have hurt us with a lot of people in too many jurisdictions," he said. "We have to learn how to talk about those without ceding our principles."

There is no question that Dean's ascendance worries the party establishment, whose members tried without success to field an alternative for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and they have offered Dean lots of advice.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said explicitly last week that Dean should take his cues on policy from congressional leaders, and yesterday Dean met privately with Reid and Pelosi and pledged to avoid raising issues that were not part of congressional Democrats' agenda, according to a Senate aide. Dean also vowed to spend much of his time in southern and western states.

Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said, "He's got to remind himself, in terms of discipline, that he is the national chair of the party and there are other people in the party that should speak on issues as opposed to the national chair."

Another labor official put it more bluntly: "The question for all of us is, will he act as chairman of the Democratic Party or president of the Democrats, and what makes people nervous is the latter."

[I]f Democrats are looking for an attack dog in their new chairman, Republicans see that as a gift that will keep Democrats in the minority. "This is akin to [the idea] that you've got to get sicker before you get better," said Matthew Dowd, chief strategist in Bush's reelection campaign. "This is the final stage before they realize they've got to start taking vitamins and get healthy again. . . . It's reflective of a problem they have, which is they haven't arrived with a positive, proactive vision."

Outgoing chairman Terence R. McAuliffe leaves a solid foundation, having updated the party's voter lists and technology, renovated the headquarters building, and revamped fundraising. "Never again will money be a crutch for this party," McAuliffe said. "The money problem is now solved for our party forever."