The Week

We heard that there was an irregularity in the Iraqi election: another 412 votes discovered for Washington “governor” Christine Gregoire.

It seemed the 2004 elections would provide a “teachable moment” for the Democratic party. Apparently not. Howard Dean will be selected the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, in defiance of every possible lesson from the party’s recent defeat. He is a northeastern liberal who is aggressively secular and believes the party can prevail by shouting its orthodoxies ever more loudly. In the course of his DNC campaign, he announced that he “hates” Republicans. His victory is a sign that the party’s left-wing base has an unquenchable thirst for irrelevance. It also is a testament to the incompetence of the Democrats’ congressional leadership. Senate minority leader Harry Reid and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi couldn’t manage to find a plausible alternative, as their designated candidate, former representative Tim Roemer, sank without a trace because of his undue regard for unborn life and his past interest in modernizing Social Security. Dean’s ascension is bad for the Democrats and – insofar as we all have an interest in a responsible Democratic party – bad for the country.

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We heard that there was an irregularity in the Iraqi election: another 412 votes discovered for Washington “governor” Christine Gregoire.

It seemed the 2004 elections would provide a “teachable moment” for the Democratic party. Apparently not. Howard Dean will be selected the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, in defiance of every possible lesson from the party’s recent defeat. He is a northeastern liberal who is aggressively secular and believes the party can prevail by shouting its orthodoxies ever more loudly. In the course of his DNC campaign, he announced that he “hates” Republicans. His victory is a sign that the party’s left-wing base has an unquenchable thirst for irrelevance. It also is a testament to the incompetence of the Democrats’ congressional leadership. Senate minority leader Harry Reid and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi couldn’t manage to find a plausible alternative, as their designated candidate, former representative Tim Roemer, sank without a trace because of his undue regard for unborn life and his past interest in modernizing Social Security. Dean’s ascension is bad for the Democrats and – insofar as we all have an interest in a responsible Democratic party – bad for the country.