I continue to be impressed with Harry Reid’s approach to problem solving. For example, the Dems are still dealing with an internal conflict over who (and how) to elect a new chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Part of the problem is naming a new chair who may or may not be able to serve at DNC headquarters full time to manage the day-to-day operations. Reid says: split the job in two.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said party leaders are seriously considering naming two people to chair the Democratic National Committee, a proposal that would help boost Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack’s bid to lead the party’s political machine.
“One of the things that we talked about is to make sure there is somebody there on a day-to-day basis to handle things,” Reid said in an interview. “We have done things like that before.”
Such a scenario would help the Democratic Party’s central fundraising and political arm portray an outside-the-Beltway image while still making sure that the headquarters is run by a hands-on manager.
I’m surprised it’s taken this long for someone to come up with this. While Vilsack and Howard Dean battle it out behind the scenes to see who’ll become chairman, both have a serious drawback: neither live in DC. Vilsack has a full-time job as Iowa’s chief executive, which would appear to interfere with running a national political party’s headquarters, while Dean lives with his family in Vermont, which would be quite a commute.
It’s always been the kind of job that needed two people anyway. One person could be the public face, raising money and giving speeches (a chairman’s job), while the other could actually manage the DNC staff and coordinate efforts with state affiliates (a director’s job). There was never any reason to have Terry McAuliffe take on both responsibilities, so there’s no reason his replacements(s) should either.
While hopefully most will agree to Reid’s approach on this, the conflict over who, exactly, will get the job remains very much in the air. Dean, who initially expressed subtle interest, is now fighting hard for the post, while Vilsack has quickly become a favorite of the anyone-but-Dean camp.
Howard Dean is canvassing opinion among House members who supported his presidential ambitions — and key congressional leaders who did not — in a bid to take over as Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman.
While some of Dean’s House champions said the former Vermont governor’s energy and success at grassroots politics and fundraising is precisely what the party needs to recover from its election losses, others are cool to the idea of the firebrand’s becoming the party’s official spokesman.
Many House Democrats said they thought a Dean chairmanship would drive the party further from the mainstream of American politics. That view was also shared by Republican lawmakers and strategists, who welcomed the prospect of Dean heading the Democratic Party.
Of course, the party may skip both Dean and Vilsack altogether and go with former Clinton Cabinet member Alexis Herman, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Clinton aide Harold Ickes, and the New Democrat Network’s Simon Rosenberg. Stay tuned.