The Democrats Go Dean Crazy; Hil Tacks Right
New York Observer
by Lizzy Ratner and Ben Smith
Soon after Howard Dean took a solid lead in the race to lead the Democratic National Committee on Jan. 31, Senator Hillary Clinton fainted in Buffalo.
Of course, that’s not to suggest that the two events are related. But it can be safely said that Dr. Dean’s recent re-emergence as a Democratic titan—and the most compelling alternative to the Clintons—must have caused quite a bit of agita back at the homestead in Chappaqua. And it locks the former Vermont governor and the New York Senator into an uneasy partnership that will define their party for the next three years.
Dr. Dean won the endorsements of a majority of state Democratic Party officials on Jan. 31 and the next day solidified his lead when the A.F.L.-C.I.O. declined to back a candidate and three of his rivals dropped out of the race. Should he win the final vote on Feb. 12, Dr. Dean will join Mrs. Clinton as two of the most prominent leaders of a party struggling to define itself.
The duo will pull the party between two ideological poles: Mrs. Clinton’s conciliatory, pro-war centrism, and Dr. Dean’s strident rejection of George W. Bush’s White House. But if Dr. Dean wins, he might be put in the unlikely situation of shepherding Mrs. Clinton through the 2008 Presidential campaign.
The two are already signaling how differently they will approach retaking the White House.
"We cannot be Republican lite if we want to win," Dr. Dean said, sounding the defiant themes that defined his run for President as he stood before a cheering crowd of D.N.C. members that had gathered in New York last weekend. "We can talk about our faith, but we cannot change our faith. We need to be people of conviction."
Mrs. Clinton has been talking about faith too, but in a very different way. Her new status as the nation’s first Democrat has made her characteristically cautious musings on such controversial subjects as faith (she’s "a praying person") and abortion (she wants to seek "common ground") big news.
"I’m very happy if they put on the front page all the centrist things she’s been saying consistently for the last 10 years," said a Clinton aide.
Even as Dr. Dean seeks to define a clear Democratic message, Mrs. Clinton is perfecting a new Clintonian magic trick. Her husband moved right while appearing to stay still. She appears to move toward the center, when in fact she’s been there all along.
Now the symbols of the Democratic Party’s two poles are approaching each other warily. The last time they fought, the Clintons backed Gen. Wesley Clark against Dr. Dean in the Democratic Primary. Both lost.
In New York, they seemed to find an uneasy truce when an old Clinton hand, Harold Ickes, endorsed Dr. Dean, predicting that he’d be a "strong leader."
Mr. Ickes said he’d advised his old ally, Mrs. Clinton, to keep well clear of the D.N.C. brawl.
"I talked to her very early on about this process, when I was thinking of running, and I said, ‘Hillary, do not get involved—this is not a race that you should get involved in.’ I did not talk to her about my endorsement, I did not consult her, and nobody should read anything one way or the other."
The former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party and another Clinton backer, Judith Hope, played down any coming friction.
"It’s fairly clear to me that the Clintons have a good deal more comfort with Howard Dean’s candidacy than they perhaps did in the past," said Ms. Hope, who supported Dr. Dean for President and is supporting him now for party leader. "There are power holders in the party who are very threatened by [him], but I think in the long run they’ll see how healthy it is and how good it is for them."
While Dr. Dean hasn’t moderated his anti-war message, elements of his political operation seem calibrated to please party insiders.
"Dean for D.N.C." is a different beast than "Dean for America," the chaotic hipster cult that served as the governor’s Presidential campaign last year. Sure, there are still plenty of groupies who follow Dr. Dean from event to event, but the groupies are not the ones running the show this time around. Instead, the former governor has hired a cadre of well-connected Beltway strategists who have been running his campaign less like an insurgent crusade than a carefully plotted insider coup.
These strategists include Tom Ochs, who ran the media side of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, and Jim Jordan, most recently seen working for Mr. Ickes at the Democrat-leaning group America Coming Together. The campaign also hired two former D.N.C. employees, Mat Nugen and Jack Kirby, whose years inside the inner sanctum made them valuable guides to the party officials who make up the Democratic National Committee.
"Tom Ochs really is kind of the wizard behind the scenes here," said former D.N.C. chairman Joe Andrew, who hired Mr. Ochs as a senior advisor in 2000. "He is a former Clinton consultant who is running this as a classic Bill Clinton campaign. He is getting the unexpected votes first, identifying conservative members of Congress and rolling them out."
For his part, Dr. Dean "listens more," said a campaign insider. "He’s more focused."
One group clearly nostalgic for the Clintons, however, is the Democrats’ pool of high-dollar donors. As Dr. Dean’s campaign has gained momentum, a growing chorus of these donors has quietly threatened to close their checkbooks.
"A lot of the people who write the big checks are not happy about the Dean situation," said supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who backed Congressman Martin Frost’s failed campaign for chairman. "I think the party should be more centrist."
In an odd complaint, Mr. Catsimatidis lamented the fact that donors had been excluded from the Democrats’ decision-making.
"If you look at the 400 or 500 D.N.C. members, somebody told me that only [a handful] have written a check to the Democratic Party, which is ridiculous," he said. "I mean, they’re good Democrats, but they don’t have a stake. But we who write the checks, we don’t get a vote!"
Dr. Dean and his rivals wooed these local party officials in New York City last weekend during a frenetic two-day meeting at New York’s old Roosevelt Hotel (the Roosevelt, incidentally, long served as the headquarters of the New York County Republican Party). The meeting was the final event before the party gathers to elect its new leader on Feb. 12, and the whole affair had the desperate feel of a going-out-of-business sale.
For two days, candidates roamed the corridors of the Roosevelt Hotel with their entourages of strategists and supporters, courting reporters and cajoling state party chairs for last-minute endorsements. They held open houses in hotel suites, at which they plied D.N.C. members with free food and wine.
Donnie Fowler, a candidate from South Carolina who is still clinging to the campaign trail, guaranteed himself the gourmand vote by serving up Venieros cheesecake and H. and H. bagels. Nancy Jane Woodside, a candidate for vice chairwoman, gave out baggies of grass (no, not that kind) to stress her commitment to the grassroots.
The sideshow quality of much of the campaigning only highlighted the main event: Dr. Dean’s ascendancy. His stardom was clear from the start, as politicians, reporters and even one of his rivals clustered at his breakfast—the biggest and best-attended—amid swarms of Deaniac groupies.
Now the question is whether Dr. Dean’s uneasy relationship with Mrs. Clinton will undermine both players, as it seemed to do in the Democratic primary, or whether they can find a way to help each other. Some Democrats suggest that Dr. Dean will serve as a useful foil to Mrs. Clinton, with his outspoken militancy making her seem all the more cautious and centrist.
Mr. Andrew suggested that Bill Clinton had used just this tactic. "In 1991, President Clinton ran as a counterpoint to the party," he said.
Another insider put it more colorfully.
"Knowing Hillary, she said to herself, ‘Let Dean be the lightning rod that gets the crap, and I’ll be the moderate voice of reason,’" said this insider.
You may reach Lizzy Ratner and Ben Smith via email at: lratner@observer.com and bensmith@observer.com. |
