Dean Called Rahm's 'Contempt' For Base 'Devastating And Incredibly Demoralizing': Book Excerpt

A new series of statements from the president and the vice president are casting the spotlight once again on the sometimes fractious relationship between the White House and its progressive base.

On Monday, Vice President Joseph Biden told a crowd of Democratic voters in New Hampshire that the "base constituency" had to "stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives." The point, he argued, is that the legislative accomplishments of this administration were more motivational than a cause for discontent. On Tuesday, the president echoed the point in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he was quoting as saying it was "inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election."

"People need to shake off this lethargy," he said. "People need to buck up,"

Combined, the two statements seem relatively consistent with a somewhat curious tack the administration has taken with respect to disaffected Democrats. Granting a fairly progressive-leaning publication access to the president is a straightforward way to reach progressive voters. Telling them that they need to buck up seems a bit counter-intuitive (though the DNC and the White House have been blasting out the interview to reporters throughout Tuesday morning).

This, of course, has been the dynamic for a while now. And while the president may lament his party's lethargy, he has in some respects his own staff to blame.

This week, Ari Berman of the Nation released his book "Herding Donkeys" that documents the growth of the modern Democratic Party from the nadir of the 2004 election through the triumph of 2008. The majority of the book looks at the efforts by former DNC Chairman Howard Dean to build a national network that could immunize the party from becoming either marginalized or regionalized. But the epilogue charts out how the style of Obama's governance drained the type of voter enthusiasm that, Dean acknowledges, was critical in those efforts.

"The White House began to believe that they could mobilize their supporters without hearing what their supporters really wanted in terms of specific change," Dean is quoted as saying. "The principal problem with OFA is the same one the president's having. You can't dictate to your base what's going to happen. It's got to be a two-way deal, and it hasn't been."

Addressing a telling moment in the health care debate, when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (a frequent Dean critic) called out progressive activists for running ads against conservative Democrats, Berman asked the former DNC Chair for his reaction.

"I'm not looking to pick another fight with Rahm Emanuel, but the contempt with which he held the progressive wing of the party was devastating and incredibly demoralizing," Dean said. "That's basically saying to your own people -- you got us here, now FU."

Dean did not immediately return a request for comment about the most recent round of Obama-Biden statements.

Comments

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

10:05 AM on 09/30/2010

...apparently rahm himself now moderates the huff post comments.
My defense of Progressive Hero Howard Dean has been inexplicably deleted.

[Subway]

08:47 AM on 09/30/2010

If Howard Dean decided to mount a progressive primary challenge to Obama in 2012, I'd be first in line to support him.

[hallowellboy]

09:37 AM on 09/29/2010

Dean has more balls than the red Sox. He should have been President.

[esalter]

10:30 AM on 09/29/2010

I agree, but the one we have needs to buck up and od the things we want. He was elected by the stooges in his cabinet.

[truthglow]

06:15 PM on 09/29/2010

He still can be.

[guveqzero]

09:34 AM on 09/29/2010

Dean is right on. So, why is the President and Vice-president so wrong? They don't even try to be eloquent. Are they are really in the right of center camp? It is the great mystery of 2010.

[meko]

09:55 AM on 09/29/2010

We have two parties - a center-right one and a radical-right one.

We need a center-left one for the rest of us. That 67% that wanted a public option. That 57% that wants out of the war.

That's why I'm voting Green. It'll take time to reach that point where it's viable, but the first step to getting 35% of the vote is showing you can get 10%. And I'm patient.

[esalter]

10:33 AM on 09/29/2010

You're right the administration lost me when it wasn't for the public option. Now the president says that would have meant a fight. What does he think he was elected for. The folks at 1600 better wake up.

[silencenolonger]

08:00 AM on 09/29/2010

What does Rahm care about progressives or any Americans his real bosses are in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. His job is to make sure they get their way. This country will never recover until 5th columnists like him are thrown out of government.

[exPatPatti]

07:38 AM on 09/29/2010

Funny how some Dems criticize the baggers for voting against their own interests, then these same Dems don't vote out of disappointment or whatever, to the same end. Just sayin'

[littlemonster]

07:50 AM on 09/29/2010

Those 'ends' are not the same, and Republicans don't care how bad their leaders screw things up... They have blind allegiance. Big difference.

[guveqzero]

09:39 AM on 09/29/2010

You have to admit, a country where apathy is rampant is a pretty pathetic country.

[Randolph Greer]

06:43 AM on 09/29/2010

It was Rahm Emmanuel , speaking for Obama that denonstrated complete "contempt" for the Democratic progressive base by his comments . God knows what language he must have used in private if he would go so far as to use a version of it in public . It was then , that I realized that the base would abandon the Democrats in the fall . As a Green Party member , I waited many years for the Democratic Party to return to its progressive roots established by FDR . Today , FDR would be the symbol of the Green Party , not the Democratic Party . I saw this coming in the 70's when I first registered as an Independent because of the Vietnam War . Clinton's anti-American trade policies , he put another nail in that coffin . Today , Obama and Emmanuel have successfully removed the last Progressive principles that remained . All a Progressive has to do is read the four principles of the Green Party to breathe the fresh air of hope once again . Today , I am politically happy for the first time since 1972 when I had the great priviledge to vote for George McGovern against Richard Nixon . To this day , the proudest vote I ever cast . Both Greens and Democrats may well lose once again , but unlike my Progressive Democratic friends , I get to sleep peacefully on election night . Knowing God's will be done .

[beerbagger]

05:30 AM on 09/29/2010

Funny what comes out of the puppets heads when they no longer engage in politics for sport but for fun... they tend to tell the truth more. Dean knew the HC Reform had gone up in flames and he quickly called to kill it and start over. Now he's just expressing what anybody just shy of lobotomized person would say in response to the WH. When did Hope & Change become "stop whining" & "buck up"? Screw Rahm YEE HAW!!!

[beerbagger]

05:24 AM on 09/29/2010

Funny what comes out of the puppets heads when they no longer engage in politics for sport but for fun... they tend to tell the truth more. Dean knew the HC Reform had gone up in flames and he quickly called to kill it and start over. Now he's just expressing what anybody just shy of lobotomized person would say in response to the WH. When did Hope & Change become "stop whining" & "buck up"?

[nomobull]

05:40 AM on 09/29/2010

when yes we can be came yes he should .........do it quickly despite the size of the mess he's dealing with.do it my way. say it my way.should not say it that way. act as though he is a dictator instead of as one third of the government. etc.

[1088]

04:02 AM on 09/29/2010

Howard Dean has been one of the problem with the Progressives, for he was the one who gave the tea party ammunition against the Democrats, in the Health Care battle. KILL THE BILL HOWARD DEAN is an alarmist, who doesn't do his home work first before he reacts. Then here he come again with the Mosque situation. I could never vote for this him, for he acts off his emotion without first thinking.

[dct1999]

05:01 AM on 09/29/2010

Dean is a typical politician who pandered at the first opportunity.

[nomobull]

05:41 AM on 09/29/2010

hmmmmmmmmm

[esalter]

10:34 AM on 09/29/2010

You mean like the president to the banks, car companies and insurance companies. I understan now.

[meko]

09:58 AM on 09/29/2010

The bill is mandates to purchase insurance from politically connected monopolies that are allowed to collude on price while facing only scrutiny of the same weak state insurance boards who's failure to protect consumers was the reason for the bill in the first place.

It's a horrible bill and the fact that this "triumph" passed has stopped all further pushes for reform.

Yes. Without the PO, the bill should have been killed. Or maybe you aren't bothered by having your rates go up by 40% and your coverage go down, while a mere 1,000 people can afford to buy into this supposedly game-changing high-risk pool and insurers get around having to cover kids with pre-existing conditions by no longer offering child-only policies.

[Diplomacy]

03:56 AM on 09/29/2010

Can't get Howard Dean to comment, so ... "stir the pot" with some old quote from the health care debate.

Fomenting dissension much?

[Badger84]

03:10 AM on 09/29/2010

It will be interesting to see who replaces Rahm. If I were him, I wouldn't be optimistic about getting elected as mayor. Isn't a populist sheriff running?

[meko]

09:59 AM on 09/29/2010

Tom Dart is in the lead. I'm voting for him.

[therealist2000]

03:01 AM on 09/29/2010

Dean is right; the Left has no friend in the White House & Rahm's comments are what the Administration believes, look at Obama's economic team, a bunch of corporatists.

Unfortunately, The Green Party & Ralph Nader had zero chance of beating Obama in 2008.

Policy Talks@Google: Ralph Nader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR-V6bl41zU&feature=related

[I3edlam]

03:51 AM on 09/29/2010

That's a really interesting point you bring up. Third party politics. I too would like the Dems to be more left than they are. Third parties will never really make it though. Case in point, the Teaparty. Instead of going down the futile path of forming a third party, they simply co-opted part of the Republicans.
Republican-Democrat competitions are too close to lose votes to a third party. The best chance third parties have are running at the lower levels of government, and demonstrating effectiveness.

[truthglow]

06:09 PM on 09/29/2010

So go right ahead and be nasty to us progressives. That'll do the job.

[meko]

09:59 AM on 09/29/2010

There's a good chance that Obama's senate seat will go Green. It's not unheard of for there to be third-party senators. Where would we be without Bernie Sanders.

[truthglow]

06:08 PM on 09/29/2010

Fanned for those wonderful words.

[hstdem]

03:01 AM on 09/29/2010

Buck up- take heart: gain courage.

[bascombe]

02:15 AM on 09/29/2010

(R)ahm as been working for the clintons all along.