TIME FOR SOME TOUGH GUYS

The 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections were damned close.

There is no doubt that the GOP had a little of the best of it going for them in Fla. all three times. They cheated, but how much? If we had a Democratic governor there, we would have cheated too.

I believe that 2004 was just about as fair as elections always are, which is not entirely. Joe Kennedy begged, borrowed, bought and stole every vote he could for his son Jack, but as the victorious boy wisecracked, his rich daddy was "damned if he'd pay for a landslide." Hubert Humphrey, the liberal that year, got screwed, blued and tattooed by some tough Irish boys and their pals in the WV primary. The media loved Jack and covered up his mistakes.

So what else is new? When it happens to the GOP, it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

I say, let's stop whining and start winning. If you can't take a hard punch in the face and a dirty kick to the gizzard, you don't belong in politics. I say again, I like what the Doc says about fighting off the ropes. If there was ever a guy the Democrats need inside the tent pissing out, it's Howard Dean. His famous scream says something about the guy--he'd rather be James Carville, coaching the troops, than Bill Clinton, basking in the limelight. And you know what? I like him much better as DNC chair than as candidate in 2008.

The candidate in 2008 should be John Kerry. Otherwise it looks like we made a mistake the first time, which we didn't. Better still would be Gore-Kerry. We don't need any more new guys; we need guys who have proven they can stand up to beating. I like Hillary, a lot, but this is no time for a science experiment. We don't know if a woman can be elected president, and why would we pick 2008 to find out?

We have to win at the grass-roots level, which doesn't just mean seats in Congress. It means city council, county commission, judgeships, and water board member. Voter registration and GOTV are not everything, as Robert Parry points out, but they are the without which nothing of Democratic victory. Combined with an issue that the average person can understand--like increasing the minimum wage to $14/hour--the Dems can run the table again.

DEAN FOR DNC

I say the guy deserves it. He and his supporters did less sitting on their hands than any defeated Democratic Party faction in history, left or right. They poured money and energy into Kerry's Campaign as if they had been for him all along.

Harry Reid is exactly the right guy for senate minority leader. He is well-liked by many Reps, which could come in handy since they run the place, and he is a wizard at legislation. But bipartisanship is not what we need at the DNC.

McCaulliffe was a great fundraiser and a good party chairman. But Dean can succeed where McCauliffe failed as a spokesman for party ideals.

If Dean is sincere about representing Democrats in all 50 states, he will win the support of the state party chairs and be the next head of the Democratic National Committee.

WE WIN ONE

Dems picked up a seaton Dec 3 in a Louisiana district Bush won by 58%.

We're gonna need a lot of these. It's a long road ahead.

There were two seats up in Louisiana. In one, the Dems were bitterly divided and lost. In the other, the Reps were bitterly divided and lost. Why does this come as no surprise?

That's why I'm glad to see John Kerry acting like a candidate. When we come as close as we did last November, why the hell wouldn't you run the same play again? The voters really only got to know him for about six months, which is why Team Bush was able to exploit anxiety about who he was, what he stands for, and what he would do. Every Dem in the country was for Kerry in October; now it seems that every Dem is against him.

I say we're better off with the devil we know, esp. if we can settle on a candidate early, the way the GOP did, John McCain nothwitstanding, in 2000. The 2008 GOP nomination could be a real brawl; if we just KEEP our act together (we already got it together in 2004), we should be well-poised for victory.