[Mb-civic] FW: Dick Morris on Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 13:14:29 -0500
Subject: Dick Morris on Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton

NY Post
01/31/05



  HILL SELLS OUT

by  Dick Morris

  WHEN the British ul tra-liberals in the pre- Tony Blair Labor Party
published their lengthy election manifesto in the late 1980s, the
radical document so explicitly spelled out their defiance of English
public opinion that a Tory politician called it "the longest suicide
note in history." Now, in choosing their new national leader, the
Democratic Party is publishing a much more succinct suicide note. It
reads "Chairman Howard Dean."

  There is a school of thought among Democrats that by embracing
policies and programs deeply at variance with what most Americans think
will enhance the party's electoral viability. It was such wisdom that
led to the selection of doomed nominees like Walter Mondale, Mike
Dukakis and John Kerry. It is only when the views of these crazies were
repudiated ‹ as with the nominations of JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton ‹ that the party can win elections.

  So why are the Democrats selecting Dean? And why is Harold Ickes, the
putative spokesperson for the Clintons, embracing the choice? Because
Dean's momentum is unstoppable and nobody wants to stand in the way of
the avalanche of self-destructiveness which is pouring onto the
Democrats from their left-wing supporters.

  Here's how it work: When moderates and centrists embrace the GOP and
President Bush, they leave the Democrats to the tender mercies of the
liberals. The party is deprived of the ballast offered by swing voters,
the party moves further and further to the left, driven by a Jacobin
desire for revolutionary purity and revenge against those who urge
pragmatism and point to the path to victory.

  And the Clintons? Even as Hillary tries to fool us once more into
believing in her political moderation, they do not dare stand up
against Dean. Even though they know that Dean knows that it was the
Clintons who assassinated him en route to the nomination last year,
neither Bill nor Hillary utter a peep as their party falls off the deep
end.

  The Clintons could have gotten Ickes the job, but neither one did any
heavy lifting on his behalf. Why not? I'm no longer privy to their
secrets, but my guess is that Bill was too sick, sad, physically
weakened and unfocuse ‹ and that Hillary, an ingénue without his
guidance and leadership, didn't dare to try on her own for fear of
publicly failing.

  For his part, Ickes likely acted out of pique in demeaning Hillary's
chances for victory in 2008 and in withdrawing from the race for
chairman entirely a few weeks later. Left to twist slowly in the wind,
this normally loyal operative probably felt abandoned and
unappreciated, as he did when he was passed over for chief of staff in
Clinton's second term.

  What kind of chairman will Dean make? He will probably be as bad for
the party's prospects as Nancy Pelosi has been as Democratic leader in
the House. He will dig a deeper and deeper hole for the party,
alienating its moderate donors and holding it hostage to the likes of
Michael Moore and the Hollywood left.

  How odd it is to see Hillary trying to convince us that she's a red
state kind of girl (offering moderate views on abortion, condemning
illegal immigration, emphasizing the importance of prayer in her life
and backing the war) even as her party lurches to the left.

  As the Clintons did after they lost Congress in 1994, they are moving
to the center. And, as the Republicans did after taking control of
Congress that same year, the Democrats are rushing to extremes.
Eventually, Hillary and Dean will clash for control of the party.
Hillary will win the nomination in 2008, but she will face a party
fractured by its ideological divisions and will find it harder and
harder to please the left in her own ranks and the centrists in the
swing states.

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  Copyright 2005 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/39161.htm

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