EXCEPT for sneering Michael Moore types, the new mantra of Democrats is learning how to see red – as in Republican red states. Problem is, nobody appears to want the key job of Democratic national chairman except those from super-blue states.
That’s a quandary, since the Democratic National Committee is the only national forum that can serve as the party’s base for revival. President Bush is back in the White House by a solid margin and Dem numbers are shrinking in Congress.
One clue to the traumatized post-election Democratic mood is that those pushing New Yorker Leo Hindery Jr. – former YES Network chief – for DNC head honcho feel a need to insist that he’s not too New Yorkish.
“When I hear Leo talk, I don’t hear somebody that I suspect of being an East Coast snob,” says Nebraskan-turned-New Yorker Bob Kerrey, the former Democratic senator and New School University president.
Abortion-rights activist Kate Michelman, also backing Hindery, insists, “The fact that he lives in New York does not mean he cannot appreciate the life of someone in Iowa.”
The others clamoring to run the DNC are just as un-Iowa as Hindery – Howard (The Scream) Dean, controversial (and very New York) Clintonista Harold Ickes and New Democratic Network chief Simon Rosenberg, a native of Connecticut suburbs.
Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk – both African-Americans – are cited, but it’s not clear they’re interested. Both did well in red states, but only at the city level. Kirk lost Texas-wide for U.S. senator.
There are many hints that grass-roots Democrats want to move to the center – pollster Scott Rasmussen (who accurately predicted Bush’s victory margin) found 51 percent of Democrats want a more centrist 2008 candidate than John Kerry.
That’s why the few red-state Dem stars have better things to do than replacing Terry McAuliffe (hand-picked by the Clintons) as DNC chief. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack are all said to be mulling 2008 White House bids.