WP: McAuliffe is Democrats' Comeback Kid

[kskiska]

DNC Chair Fought Hard Times to Bring Party Stability and Financial Strength

BOSTON, July 25 -- On Monday night, Terence R. McAuliffe's party will hail him as a hero, the first Democratic chairman in decades to put the party on secure financial footing -- with an unheard of $70 million in the bank -- and on the cutting edge of high-tech politics.

When McAuliffe gavels the Democratic convention to order at FleetCenter, he will be honored by the 5,672 delegates and alternates as the man who almost single-handedly put the Democratic Party back together again.

"Serving as chairman of the party when you don't have the White House, and you don't have the House, and you don't have the Senate, is the toughest job in the country," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) told The Washington Post. "Thanks to Terry McAuliffe, we are ready to lead this country, we're ready to change this nation and I thank him for his leadership."

But McAuliffe has not always enjoyed such a lofty standing in his party. Just six years ago, he was struggling to survive federal investigations of illicit Teamsters campaign contributions to the party and his fundraising role as national finance chairman and then national co-chairman of the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection campaign.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14038-2004Jul25.html

[Gyre]

1. Terence's last stand

Cause he sure as hell didn't deliver in Nov 2002, but I guess that's ancient history. Let's hope he's older AND wiser.;)

Gyre

[wyldwolf]

5. .. or the start of many new stands...

:)

[depakid]

2. That slimeball has had nothing to do with it

If anything he's been a hinderance-

The reason Kerry has raised the kinds of funds that he has is due to Dean, Trippi and Moveon- things that McAuliffe and his corporate cadre would never have been able to put together-

Once again, the Washington Post distorts a story for the corporatists- gotta cover their asses in case Kerry wins. Gotta be sure that it's business as usual, no matter what.

[saracat]

3. Oh Please! Stop it already.

I am no McAuliffe fan, but this isn't Dean or Move On money. This is DNC money that came from big donors and that is what Terry is good at. I think he is lousy on message and shouldn't be Chair but he has always managed to get more money out of people who have it than anyone else. The Dean and Trippi people didn't support the DNC.And for good reason.But you can't give the Dean campaign credit for the DNC money.That dog won't hunt!

[IndianaGreen]

4. There is no conviction in that man at all

if it were, he would have been saying that for 4 years.

Terry is campaigning for another term as DNC Chair, or perhaps the sob wants to be Treasury or Commerce Secretary.

[wyldwolf]

6. oh, come on!

I agree almost fully with post #3, plus from the article:

He forced a controversial change in the primary campaign schedule and pressed state chairmen to give up exclusive control of their voter lists. (An advantage that the GOP had, by the way) He also invested millions in a new headquarters, and gambled that the party could mount a challenge to the GOP's three decades of dominating fundraising.

Every one of these high-risk tactics paid off. The schedule change gave Kerry time to raise more than $200 million; the DNC now has a voter list with information on more than 170 million people, which allows the party to develop its own direct-mail donor list. The new headquarters, in turn, is wired to run an operation increasingly dependent on the Internet and the facilities to produce all forms of telecommunications and traditional media.

Exley is now one of the key architects of Kerry's successful Internet fundraising operation, an operation that will soon be restructured to redirect its hundreds of thousands of donors to McAuliffe's DNC.

Donna Brazile, who was Al Gore's campaign manager and one of McAuliffe's early critics, has done an about-face. "We boxed," she said. "He has been punched, believe me." Now, she said, "Terry has put the party in a strong strategic position."

[w4rma]

7. I like McAuliffe. He's been saying alot of the things that have been said

here on DU for a long time. I just have a gut feeling that he isn't on the side of the corporatists but is trying to work within their rules to lessen their power. I think he understands what is going on in this country and is working to try to stauch the poison as best as he knows how.

[dave29]

8. This sentence pisses me off to no end

When McAuliffe gavels the Democratic convention to order at FleetCenter, he will be honored by the 5,672 delegates and alternates as the man who almost single-handedly put the Democratic Party back together again.

If there is anyone due the thanks for pulling the party together, it's people like Howard Dean and the folks at MoveOn.org, and the bloggers like Atrios, and Dailykos. Terry did a good job, agreed, but he has single handedly done nothing but deliver losses for the party to this point. Certainly a huge hoard of cash has come in, but the ideas behind large chunks of that money have come from elsewhere. And, I'm sorry, but the real reason the party has pulled together: George W. Bush. Terry McAuliffe is like a distant 9th.

[Frances]

9. I think you are right about Bush uniting the party

but I think it's good for our side if other people get some credit also.

For example, last night Novak was spinning his head off saying that the ONLY thing uniting the Dems is hatred (and his words were dripping venom like the Dems were low-class scum) of Bush.

[liberalcanuck]

10. He was also the first big name in the Democratic party to start

talking about Bush's NG duty or lack thereof. I think's he's made a lot of improvements, granted he wasn't so sharp two to four years ago, but I think he's gotten a lot better-- especially on the big media outlets.

[Bandit]

11. the man who almost single-handedly put the Democratic Party back together

I guess Bush* had nothing to do with it.:shrug: whatever... I donated more so far this year than ever before and not one penny was because of McAuliffe. I have been happy though by what he has been saying lately. He does deserve some recognition but credit must go where it belongs. Bush*

[hughee99]

12. Good fundraiser but...

Terry is a good fundraiser, but I don't think he's the right person to lead the DNC. We lost the presidency in 2000, and he certainly didn't deliver in 2002. The 2002 results were partly the a result of *'s propaganda after 9/11, but Terry never seemed to organize a clear national message that the canidates could campaign on. It seemed to me that the canidates were left to their own devices, with mixed results. As much as I hate to reference this, I think the DNC needs to put together something like the "Contract for America", a national initiative that all canidates can use as a basis for their campaign. After 2002, many people, myself included, felt that the Dems didn't draw clear distinctions between themselves and repug canidates. If they don't do it again, I think this will be another tough election for us.

[graywarrior]

13. He coundn't handle Tweetie yesterday

Tweetie kept badgering him about whether or not the dems stood for getting out of Iraq. Terry just sat there, blubbering. Teresa could have handled Tweetie better.

[hughee99]

15. I agree...

But Iraq will be a difficult issue for us on TV, since Kerry's plan is better than *'s but still not really a clear reflection of the party membership's views. This is specifically one of those areas where the party needs to have a consistant message, so when we have the opportunity to get the message out on TV, this kind of thing doesn't happen again.

[Shakespeare]

14. Terry was hired to be the money man, and he's done quite well.

Love him or hate him (and he's really not my favorite person), that's why he was put in charge of the DNC, and he's delivered quite nicely this year. We could have a whole other discussion on the role of the chairman--should its chief role be as a fundraiser or a motivating figurehead?

You likely can't have both, and Terry was picked to bring in the cash. I, for one, am relieved he's done so.

[The Blue Knight]

16. Terry is a good guy.

He spoke to our Junior State of America convention, and literally canned a handful of asshole Republicans who brought their shit to his table.

I chatted with him for a few minutes after the show, I got his autograph hanging here on my board here.

[dansolo]

17. But what have we given up for that money?

Terry's successes have gone hand-in-hand with the concessions that the Democrats have made in having a true progressive agenda. Getting loads of money in exchange for looking the other way while the corporatists loot the treasury and rape the environment isn't an accomplishment we should be cheering on.

[Shakespeare]

18. We have to get a little power before we can advance our agenda.

I never suggested it wasn't a concession, but it's a necessary concession.