Party Debates Ins and Outs of Chairmanship [View All]

[Khephra]

Party Debates Ins and Outs of Chairmanship
In February, Democrats Will Rehash Kerry's Defeat and Replace McAuliffe

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 27, 2004; Page A04

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is out, former Vermont governor Howard Dean may be in, a host of others are considering, and everybody wants to know: Whom do the Clintons want?

Barely a month after John F. Kerry's loss to President Bush, the current parlor game among Democrats is speculation over who will take over the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee when Terence R. McAuliffe steps down early next year.

The prospective battle has become a window in the party's many factions, an early gut check for some prospective 2008 presidential candidates and yet another opportunity for Democratic activists to replay the lessons of Kerry's loss. The selection of a new chairman in early February will provide the first collective judgment by party insiders on what went wrong and what Democrats need to do to begin their comeback.

With Democrats out of power, the new chairman will have substantial power to help organize the opposition to Bush and his second-term agenda, in much the way the Republican National Committee under Haley Barbour (now governor of Mississippi) did after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15373-2004Nov26.html