Bob Shrum should shut his piehole

Mojo and I were just talking about this Roll Call article (sub required) where Congressional Dems and other Beltway players were complaining about DNC Chairmans Deans spending on local party infrastucture. Although Dean set a new fundraising record for the DNC in an off cycle year, he spent most of it on building up local party infrastructure, in addition to the money he has been raising directly. Mojo had some issues with how the DFA people here in CA were behaving, and he can lay that out for you himself. But this touches upon a few of my chief concerns about the party:

First, as Amy Sullivan lays out in this Monthly piece, the party consistently uses the same worthless consultants and pollsters, despite the fact they clearly aren't contributing to success. Part of that model is the fundraising/spending model the DNC has used; saving money in a big kitty to target a few key races. That model has not worked, period. Dean is engaged in precisely the strategy he said he would implement if made Chair, building locally and not concede any state, no matter how red it may appear. I support that as a strategy. His plan depends on execution, and how well it comes off remains to be seen, but the old strategy clearly wasn't working, so Dean deserves the chance to try something different.

Next, The polling methodology Dems use isn't adequate compared to what the GOP is using. The GOP utilizes a far more sophisticated polling methodology that creates detailed profiles of voters. This touches upon what James was talking about with his post a while back about branding. Brands are, in part, the products of detailed and sophisticated methods of measuring customer behaviors and lifestyles. The GOP was able to use their resourcs more effectively in key areas like Ohio, without the Dems or the Unions even knowing what they were up to. The folks at MYDD are playing with some different polling methods, take a look.

Part of what DCCC is assed up over is the loss of gatekeeping power they exercised previously. Now local parties can run campaigns or candidates without having to genuflect to them. IN light of their incompetence in the last several cycles, I say that's a good thing.

And before everyone chimes in with their pet peeve about National Dems, I'm not defending or ruling anything out. You might have a perfectly legitimate gripe to lay on them. But these are mine, and I wanted to lay out why the DCCC and the rest of the crew should STFU about Dean's fundraising. He's doing exactly what we want him to do. If Bob Shrum or Donna Brazille and the rest of the repeat failures who are so skilled at ruining Dem Campaigns don't like it, then get the fsck out and go play somewhere else. You are losers and no one cares what your worthless opinions is on Dean. If Dean fucks up, then fine, at least he didn't simply try and run the same old worthless DCCC strategy that continues not to work.