Glenden BrownOut With a Whimper
Here at OneUtah, we haven’t talked much about the sad affair of James Carville vs. Howard Dean. In a nutshell, following the election, Carville called for Dean’s ouster from the chair of the DNC to be replaced by defeated Senate candidate Harold Ford of Tennessee. Carville has been soundly rebuked by every wing of the Democratic - including his biggest allies the Clintons. Carville’s attempted coup has ended with a pathetic whimper, and he has been left twisting in the wind. Both Kos and Mydd have commentary. Chris Bowers’ makes the essential point that under Howard Dean, the DNC has empowered the grass and netroots (and small dollar donors) and state parties which is the polar opposite of Carville’s centralized, DC inside the beltway approach. Carville took on the current power structure in the party and lost.
Which begs the question: What was he thinking? James Carville is a loyal, even passionate Democrat, he’s smart, and he dedicated to the Dems winning and winnig long term. The episode should - and probably will cost him dearly. I don’t see Howard Dean as the type to forgive and forget and the netroots have a stubborn, unforgiving streak for turncoats (see Zell Miller).
I’d be surprised if he’s allowed within 100 yards of any Democratic campaign for the next 10 years. This episode should be the final nail in his reputation’s coffin. James Carville - the insiders insider, the poster boy of inside the beltway common wisdom in which George W. Bush is still wildly popular and the Democratic party is run by a bunch of Volvo-driving latte liberals who can only get elected in the socialist confines of two neighborhoods in San Francisco and one in New York City and in which opposing the Republicans on freight affairs is suicidal rather than smart - has demonstrated he is politically tone deaf with a huge blind spot for today’s progressive politics. His attempt to take down Dean was (HOPEFULLY) the last gasp of the DC insiders who have failed to win for the Democratic party with such consistency. The James Carville who wrote the inspiring We’re Right, They’re Wrong has given way to the James Carville political hack.
So what was he thinking? There’s an old rule - stir up the waters to catch fish. The idea is simple - cause a ruckus and see what - if anything - you can get out of the resulting chaos. In an uncertain situation, that can be a successful strategy. The Bush administration has used it repeatedly to great success. Carville may have been testing the waters to see what would happen, to see if the party had truly changed. He may have been attempting to flex his perceived political muscle to place a more amenable DNC chair. He may have been trying to grab power for himself and the class of consultants (ie Bob Shrum) who can’t win elections but can make piles of money losing them. He may simply have misread the landscape and rushed ahead without thinking. He lost his sense of perspective. We’re at the beginning of revolution in progressive politics - not the end. 2006 was a hint of things to come, not a temporary detour. Having tasted power, the people powered politics of the grass and netroots are unlikely to quietly slink away. There’s still a movement of reactionary, right wingers to beat back and progressives are just getting started. James Carvilles’ and his DLC pals are on the wrong side of this fight.
Having been thoroughly and embarrassingly rebuked, he will now have to rebuild relationships within the party and attempt to reform his reputation. Having demonstrated an astonishing blind spot with regard to the political landscape, Carville has succeeded only in making himself look foolish and inept. The netroots - already lukewarm towards him - will have placed him on our shit list and the netroots don’t forgive and forget easily. The state parties will regard him as someone who wants them answerable to the DC, DLC types who have been so consistently wrong it’s impossible to take them seriously. His reputation among party activists has been thoroughly shredded.
From here on out, JC may well be a Democrat of Zell Miller variety - complaining and whining to any all that that party left him. And he’s right - his methods haven’t worked for a long time and the party has moved on. He’ll be known as the crackpot who got lucky in 1992. Which is a shame for a man who gets the big ideas right. But politics is a contact sport and James Carville just took a body blow from which few recover - even his friends have disavowed him. That’s rough.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:06 am
I think Carville’s problem is he cannot admit that the Iraq war is the number one issue in American politics. He keeps trying to push candidates away from what is clearly the most important, most costly, most horrifying and inescapable disaster of the Bush administration. Possibly this has something to do with the fact that his wife, Mary Matalin, was a member of the White House Iraq Group that was in charge of selling the war in 2003. Remember “the smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud”? That was one of WHIG’s slogans.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:40 am
Richard - I think you’ve identified Carville’s big blindspot. He’s reminds me of many Democrats who are so afraid of being called hippies they can’t think about Iraq.
November 21st, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Carville’s got goo goo eyes fer Mary Matlin (GOP apologist and Carvies bride). Never could figure that one out, but they make my head hurt.
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I don’t understand Carvilles push after a huge victory for the Demo’s. Even after the victory the powerful demo’s weren’t even mentioning Dean. It was congrates for Schumer & Emanuel; Dean’s Name not mentioned. ALways an afterthought, when an interviewer would say “What about Dean?”
And then the polictician would say Ya Dean.
After seeing Carville’s wife, Mary Matlin, being interviewed after elections, she was pretty mad. I can see why Carville wouldn’t want a winning Chairman at the helm. Carville must be going through hell.