Prometheus 6

If Ford were to become chairman of the DNC, it could potentially effect a number of things.  First, how would his leadership possibly alter the role of black folk in the party?  Second, how would his invovlvement effect the selection of a Democratic candidate for president and the ability of the Democrat's choice of president to win the general election?    

The DLC wing of the Democratic Party, which counts Carville as a card carrying member, is looking for any excuse to get rid of Dean because they believe he encourages the more "insurgent" wing of the party that is not inclined to roll over for the DLC's agenda. If Harold Ford became the chair of the Democratic Party, the ability of black folks to influence policy would be diminished because his primary role would be to tamp down debate and keep a lid a on things. In other words, don't allow the barbarians to go any further than the gate.

Blacks and others who might be inclined to criticize the Party would hold their tongues for fear of undermining a black man. This is the aspect of liberalism that the Chinese correctly identified as being a "corrosive element" in political affairs. Insurgent and challenging voices would be muted and eventually silenced. In terms of the black community, Ford would serve as another gatekeeper and issues about racism, economic justice and the perception on the part of black voters that the Democratic Party too often takes them for granted would be paid a degree of lip service and then shoved aside.

To go back to a discussion on another thread, how would Ford's role as DNC chairman differ from Steele's role as RNC Chairman?   

Depends on what he does with it. Those Chairman jobs are all bully pulpit.

Dean was supposed to shut up and be glad he still had a job.  Didn't quite turn out that way. But Ford is DLC too, so if he took the job the difference between him and Steele (if he took the other job) would be negligible.  Both would be another example of how fungible Black interests are.

Would both be building off of the work of the late Ron Brown in marginalizing the collective political voice of the black electorate in the party platforms?   

To go back to a discussion on another thread, how would Ford's role as DNC chairman differ from Steele's role as RNC Chairman?

This is really the wrong question. Steele and Ford will do or are expected to do whatever needs to be done to insure that their respective parties win elections. Both of them will work within different authorizing environments and will have to address the needs and concerns of different constituencies. 

"Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise?

James Carville's questions illuminates all that is twisted and depraved about our politics today. The Democrats forgot who they were and who they were supposed to represent because they began pursuing money instead of people and good policies. The Republicans will always have more money than the Democrats but what the Democrats used to believe, at least the ones I grew up around, was that they would always have more people on their side to balance out the money.

Carville and other inside the Beltway consultants obsession about money is both self-serving and misguided policy. If Harold Ford gets sucked into becoming a money maker for the Democrats any promise that he currently holds will be squandered and lost to him. If he can succeed in bringing more real people into the Democratic Party then the money will follow. If he spends most of his time dialing for dollars he and the Party will drive people away.

Sleeping-with-the-enemy Carville is talking out the side of his neck. Dean was on Fox this morning and said he spoke to Ford yesterday. Ford told him he has no interest in the DNC leadership post. And Dean indicated he has no intention of bowing out.

Carville married the pug-ugliest woman in DC, and a republican shill to boot. He should stop seeking his own counsel; it's become a fatal liability.