By Owen Paine on Wednesday May 31, 2006 04:13 PM
Inside the wooden donkey
now positioned right in front of the gates to power,
a titanic battle for control is underway,
between
former Vermont gub and internet candidate
for noble defeat Howie Dean
and DLC boss Al From.
Or so it seems to Michael Carmichael, writing for Counterpunch.
Is it all to puff Dean as Galahad, questing the grail of the people's will:
Governor Howard Dean led a grassroots movement of party activists to reclaim the levers of power for traditional Democratic policies: constitutional democracy, the open society, multilateralism, social welfare, a national health service, national security and homeland security realized through diplomacy rather than by military confrontation and many more substantive and socially progressive policies besides. While Governor Dean faced a broad field of DLC-backed opponents parroting Mr. From's mantras redolent of neoconservative cant, each one crumbled like a rag doll before him. Today, Governor Dean is leading a through-going reorganization of the Democratic Party that relies on the energy provided by grassroots activists. At the same time, Governor Dean has de-emphasized the right-leaning consultancies and pressure groups preferred by the DLC.Hmm. This must be some other Howard Dean -- sure ain't the one I know. But Carmichael's real gravamen seems to be just more DLC-AIPAC pig piling long after the whistle has blown. Why else pretend the Fromniki are breaking totally with the pure multilateral tradition enshrined in the records of Carter and Clinton? Nonsense, of course -- our two cotton south prezez both displayed a very dominant unilateralist hemisphere when necessary, and at times both fancied Israel's role... when useful.
