Text 9009, 76 rader
Skriven 2005-02-11 18:21:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Howard
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http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050211/2005-02-
11T210249Z_01_N11556850_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-POLITICS-DEMOCRATS-DC.html

Democrats Ready to Follow Howard Dean's Lead
 
 
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Party activists, recovering from a 
stinging November election loss and a fresh round of soul-searching, 
rallied around Howard Dean on Friday and promised a grass-roots drive to 
make the party competitive in the South, Midwest and Mountain states.

With the election of the former Vermont governor as chairman set for 
Saturday, Democrats put aside lingering doubts about the party's future 
and opened a two-day party meeting with promises to keep the heat on 
President Bush.

"The time for introspection and second-guessing is over," said New 
Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a possible Democratic presidential 
contender in 2008. "It's game time."

"We have to be ready with ideas, with policies that work," he said. "We 
cannot just be negative."

Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, another likely White 
House contender in 2008, joined Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and 
House Leader Nancy Pelosi of California in condemning Bush's budget and 
legislative agenda and promising to stand up for Democratic values.

"Don't tell me that Democrats don't stand for anything," Edwards said, 
echoing his presidential primary campaign theme of fighting to lift up 
working-class Americans and break down the "two Americas" -- one for the 
rich and one for the struggling.

With two governorships -- in Virginia and New Jersey -- on the ballot in 
November and regaining control of Congress at risk in November 2006, 
Democrats said there was no time to waste.

They promised to join Dean in building up the party's grass roots base 
and reaching out in states where Democrats have been losing ground.

"In Southern and Western states, we have to start by showing up," 
Richardson said, urging Democratic leaders to listen for a change to 
input from west of the Potomac River -- the river that runs along the 
western border of Washington, D.C.

The election of Dean, an early and fierce critic of the Iraq war and 
Bush during his Democratic presidential primary campaign, runs counter 
to the advice of some Democrats that the party should adopt a more 
moderate approach that would broaden its appeal in the South and West.

But even Democrats who supported some of Dean's rivals -- all of whom 
have dropped out of the race for chairman -- have adjusted to the idea 
of Dean at the top.

"There has been some anxiety about him in a lot of states, not just 
Alabama," said Alabama Democratic executive director Jim Spearman, who 
originally supported party activist Donnie Fowler.

"He wasn't my first choice, but what he brings with new ideas and his 
ability to build up the grass roots could sell well in Alabama and rural 
areas everywhere," Spearman said.

Dean appealed to state party leaders with promises of more spending in 
the states and more effort at grass-roots organizing.

"What you're going to see is more money spent on the grass roots," Dean 
promised a caucus of homosexual Democratic National Committee members. 
He promised them that as chairman Democrats would never "stoop to 
dividing Americans or scapegoating Americans to win elections."



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