The civil war inside the Dean campaign

The Weekly Standard ^ | 3-5-04 | Jonathan V. Last

[FlyLow]

If you haven't read Howard Kurtz's fascinating Washington Post story detailing the civil war inside the Dean campaign, you should. Kurtz describes how Dean for America was divided between Kate O'Connor, a long-time Dean aide in Burlington, and Joe Trippi, the hot-shot political strategist who ran the campaign. While Dean was riding high on the hog, the O'Connor and Trippi factions had a contentious coexistence. After Iowa, there was open hostility, the end result being that Trippi was forced out of the fold.

O'Connor is fiercely loyal to Dean. Worrying about Trippi and his people, she tells one campaign staffer, "I know they want to get rid of me. . . . I will do this job if I have to do it from a hospital bed hooked up to an IV because I'm the only one who protects Howard. Everyone else wants something from him." For his part, Trippi spends more time thinking about macro strategy than worrying about being a "Dean person." Ultimately, it's what costs him his job.

Buried in the subtext of Kurtz's story is a funny and ironic parallel: The wreckage of the Dean campaign looks a lot like what Bush 2000 might have been like had he blown the nomination four years ago. Replace the "Howard Dean" and "Kate O'Connor" in many of the anecdotes with "George W. Bush" and "Karen Hughes," and you'll see an eerie similarity. Ditto for Trippi and Rove.

There are differences, of course: Rove had been with Bush for a long time, while Trippi just joined up for the presidential run. But still, had Bush lost, Rove and Hughes's relationship might have devolved into the sniping which now marks Dean for America. It's a parallel that none of the principals--neither Dean, O'Connor, and Trippi, nor Bush, Hughes, and Rove--would be comfortable with, but nonetheless, Kurtz has given us not just a great piece of reporting, but a look into what DC comics used to call "What If . . . ?"

[Tacis]

Even with Trippi raking in cash like a union officer squanders union dues, I still don't see how they could have burned through $50 million and have so very little to show for it. Where did all Dean's cash go? And, why did it stop all of a sudden before the end?

[sport]

Make sure that each deanite has a straight razor and a fifth of cheap wine when they all get together.

[Redcoat LI]

Will it be on pay-per-view?

[Redcoat LI]

"Make sure that each deanite has a straight razor and a fifth of cheap wine when they all get together."

Will it be on pay-per-view?

[Cicero]

Sure. And probably if George Washington had lost the Revolutionary War, he would have quarrelled with his staff. But he didn't.

[sport]

Be nice to watch if it was, wouldn't it?

[anniegetyourgun]

"....had Bush lost, Rove and Hughes's relationship might have devolved into the sniping which now marks Dean for America."

I doubt it. They're all much more professional and reasonable.

[Fun Bob]

Watch the Dean money machine self destruct.

miserable failure miserable failure miserable failure miserable failure miserable failure

[Redcoat LI]

Yeah.

[OldFriend]

The real story, which is being ignored by the media, is that Kennedy rolled into Iowa, made Gephardt an offer he couldn't refuse and the unions turned away from Dean and went for ketchup boy.

[quantim]

The beautiful thing about this is that 'tens of millions' of dollars went into the money pit. Money that won't be raised again to perpetuate more lies. These knuckleheads were so anxious to produce a candidate they flushed their bucks down the toilet with their candidate, Dean.

Once bitten, twice shy - dimwits won't be so anxious to flush their dollars down the same toilet with Kerry.

[CGVet58]

"...and a fifth of cheap wine..."

LOL!!!

what's the WORD??... THUNDERBIRD!!! what's the Price??... MIGHTY NICE!!!