CHOMPING AT THE FOOT
Even if his mouth isn’t open, Democratic National Committee
Chairman Howard Dean finds a way to stick his foot
in it. Last week, it was his contribution to a hugely embarrassing
moment for the Democratic Party. which saw him involve the party in
an anti-Operation Iraqi Freedom hearing on Capitol Hill and allow
several individuals into party headquarters during that hearing who
passed out anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda.
It all started when Michigan Democrat Rep. John
Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, and his staff decided to hold a “congressional hearing”
on Capitol Hill last Thursday in attempt to draw media attention to
the so-called “Downing Street Memo.”
Depending on how one reads the document, which was leaked by
individuals inside the British government, it is purportedly a
contemporaneous recounting of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony
Blair’s national security team, in which it is asserted that the
Bush Administration believed that an invasion of Iraq was
inevitable, and that intelligence about weapons of mass destruction
would be critical to gaining support for the removal of Saddam
Hussein.
Most levelheaded analysts have stated that there is nothing in
the memo that hasn’t been stated before by President Bush, Prime
Minister Blair, or their administrations. But to the kooky fringe
of the left, of which Conyers is a charter member, the memo
presents all kinds of possibilities to allege sinister plots and
lies.
Frustrated that the media in the United States — and even in
the UK — weren’t in a frenzy over the memo, Conyers and a group of
like-thinking Democrats decided to hold their hearing. Given the
small size of the room in which it would be held, Democratic
Judiciary staff wanted to ensure that as many supporters and press
as possible could view it in real time. So they reached out to DNC
chair Dean, who had also been carping about the memo on the
road.
Dean readily cooperated, opening up the headquarters’ Wasserman
Conference Room for a live video feed of the meeting. A number of
groups were invited to the DNC for the viewing, including
Democrats.com, MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, People
for the American Way, the Media Fund, and America Coming Together.
During the conference, some of those present in the room were
handing out material, some of it anti-war and highly anti-Semitic
in tone.
“No one knows who was passing it out,” says a DNC staffer.
“Chairman Dean believes that it was Republican operatives who did
it to embarrass us, and was going to go public with that thinking,
but he was persuaded to just apologize and move on.”
Dean, however, did not apologize; he only denounced the fact
that the material was distributed. Nor did he or Conyers
unequivocally condemn the remarks of one the individuals who
testified at the Conyers hearing, former CIA analyst Ray
McGovern. McGovern told Conyers, as well as Reps.
Maxine Waters, (CA), Barney
Frank, (MA), and Jim McDermott (WA),
among others, that the war was part of an effort to allow the
United States and Israel to “dominate that part of the world.”
Dean, in his statement on the DNC website, cited the “dominate”
language, but did not disclose that it had been uttered in what
passed for a formal, Democratic Party congressional hearing, nor
did he identify the source.
Other than McGovern, the hearing featured such anti-Bush
administration and anti-Iraqi liberation regulars as Cindy
Sheehan, a mother who lost her son in Iraq combat, and
John Bonifaz, a lawyer, who in 2003 was lead
counsel for a federal lawsuit filed by Conyers and
then-presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich
challenging the authority of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld
to launch a war against Iraq.
“Dean loved the idea of getting involved in this hearing, even
though he knew where some of these guys were going to go with their
public statements,” says the DNC staffer. “That he is in bed with
guys like Conyers and Waters and McDermott shows just how out of
touch he is with where the party needs to be.”
Part of the problem, too, says the DNC staffer, is that the
headquarters has become a playground for fringe groups that never
would have been given access under previous DNC chairmen. “You see
some of the people being let in here for meetings and for
coordination briefings and you have to wonder where this thing is
going. There is no judgment about who the party should be
associated with. If they hate Bush, can raise money, they’re in.
That’s what happened with the Downing Street hearing. That’s why
we’re backpedaling now.”
HARRIS IN BUSH COUNTRY
Apparently Rep. Katherine Harris is not the White
House’s or even Senate Republicans’ pick to challenge Democrat Sen.
Bill Nelson in the 2006 election cycle. Harris has
already announced her intention to run in the Republican Senate
primary in Florida, and the thinking was that the former Sunshine
State Secretary of State had the backing of senior Republicans on
Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill.
But Florida House Speaker Allan Bense appears
to be the chosen one. Gov. Jeb Bush has publicly
stated that Bense would make a superb Senate candidate, and while
he has not publicly endorsed his legislative partner, it is clear
there are strong and lingering doubts about the statewide viability
of Harris, who was the lightning rod for controversy during the
2000 presidential election recount in Florida.
“The real concern isn’t Harris’s ability as a candidate,” says a
Republican political consultant with clients in Florida. “The
concern is what her presence in the race does to Democrats. I think
she’s too well known to make the run a successful one. She needs to
stay in the House, get a bit more seasoning and then to look to do
something down the road.”
Some in Washington took Governor Bush’s statements to be in line
with what the White House political operation might be thinking.
GOP political strategists, such as RNC Chairman Ken
Mehlman and senior Bush political and policy adviser
Karl Rove have not been out front on the Harris
decision, though Harris and her subordinates have attempted to
create the impression that she has White House and party
backing.
It appears, though, that she has neither. Bense has held a
number of meetings with both RNC and National Republican Senatorial
Committee staff members. He has also, according to sources, met
with political advisers with ties to the White House.
“We want him in the race as a viable option to Harris,” says an
NRSC staffer. “He’d be a great candidate, the one most likely to
defeat Nelson, and the one we could support across the board.”
Nelson is thought to be beatable, though he has seen his
position solidify somewhat in the past few months with the Social
Security debate front and center in his state.
To blunt any challengers, Harris advisers are undertaking
statewide polling to show her strength across Florida. “She’s a
good campaigner. She has good name recognition,” says one of
Harris’s campaign consultants. “She’s going to win party support
and win in November.”
