The Democratic National Committee’s 447 members will be voting on a new chairman for the party this Saturday in Atlanta. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has racked up some endorsements from across the country in the eight-person contest that seems to be focused on Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MI) and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. The candidate had a debate Wednesday night, where Ellison made it clear that impeaching President Trump is on the table. The Democrats are just itching for a fighter, as their base is still frothing at the mouth over Trump’s upset over Hillary Clinton. A fighter very well could be selected this weekend, though Howard Dean has decided to back Buttigieg due to the need for the Democrats to have younger, outside-the-beltway talent helming the ship (via Politico):
Dean, who was himself the DNC chair from 2005 to 2009, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he is backing Buttigieg because the Democratic Party desperately needs an infusion of young blood from outside the political sphere of Washington. The Indiana mayor perfectly fits the bill, Dean said.Most important thing: He’s the outside-the-Beltway candidate. This party is in trouble. Our strongest age group that votes for us is under 35. And they don’t consider themselves Democrats,” Dean said, noting the low turnout among younger voters in mid-term and down-ballot races. “Our leadership is old and creaky, including me, and we’ve got to have this guy, 36 years old, running this party. I had dinner with him last night. He is really, really capable and smart.”
Buttigieg, who is 35 years old, not 36, as Dean stated, has been the mayor of South Bend since 2012. Before that he was a candidate to be Indiana state treasurer. As a Naval Reserve officer, Buttigieg was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months in 2014.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) tried to boot House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from her spot and failed, a sign that Democrats still want the party elders in charge. And therefore, want to remain in the political wilderness. At the same time, Dean reportedly fell into a pool of hyperbole again when he said that Trump’s election win was akin to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Kent State shooting.
Howard Dean recalling his advice to students after Trump won: "This is your Edmund Pettus Bridge. This is your Kent State." pic.twitter.com/UnVWjNakjJ
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 24, 2017
“This is your Edmund Pettus Bridge. This is your Kent State,” Dean said to a group of students at the party’s winter meeting at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel caught the exchange. For reference, the Pettus Bridge and Kent State are two tragic incidents, where people were either severely beaten or killed. Kent State saw four students being shot dead by Ohio National Guardsmen in 1970; they were protesting our invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The Pettus Bridge reference is the site of Bloody Sunday, where Alabama state police and county law enforcement beat up civil rights protesters who were marching from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery for their voting rights.
Trump’s win isn't synonymous with these horrific events in history. You all know that. The 2016 election was one that the Democrats lost—and the more the Left hyperventilates about it, the more voters are going to drift into the Trump camp. No one likes a bunch of whiners.
This isn’t the first time Dean has engaged in hyperbole. He called Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon a Nazi after the 2016 election. Mr. Bannon is controversial, and some people may not like him, but he’s not a Nazi. Dean did return to earth when he said that Schumer’s endorsement of Ellison for chairman would be the “kiss of death” for this candidacy for the chairmanship. Frankly, both Ellison and Perez are from the Democratic establishment, so if the Left wants an out-of-left field candidate--then maybe they should looks to the Rust Belt which oddly is where they lost critical ground in the 2016 election.
Howard Dean: "I think Chuck Schumer's endorsement is the kiss of death." (Schumer endorsed Ellison.) pic.twitter.com/znlaCrVz8j
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 24, 2017
Ellison has been accused of being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
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