The Dean Scream Returns!

It looks like Howie Dean is stirring up the pot for the Democrats that supported the health care legislation. Dean has decided to concentrate of his old group, Democracy for America and has teamed up with the liberals running the Progressive Change Campaign Committee...

From Politico --

POLITICO’s Ken Vogel bears witness to the “resurrection” of Howard Dean, the progressive champion who traded his establishment bona fides as chairman of the Democratic National Committee for a more comfortable role as a liberal vanguard: "After four relatively low-profile years pushing the official party line as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dean is once again the tribune of frustrated liberals. … And after he called out President Barack Obama and his congressional allies over their concessions on health care, those close to him predict he’s just getting warmed up.

Dean’s health care stand has infuriated party leaders, who have alternately tried to marginalize him and to bring him on board. Yet at the same time, his provocative approach has re-energized the political group he founded and thrilled legions of progressive activists, many of whom were drawn to politics by Dean's insurgent 2004 presidential campaign, then deflated when he didn’t land an Obama Cabinet post. They have grown increasingly disenchanted with Obama’s presidency and are urging Dean to keep up the drumbeat as the health care debate heads to conference this month.”

— A sampling of liberal anger (from Vogel’s Dean piece): “After unsubscribing from OFA and pledging to turn his efforts to (Democracy for America, Dean’s old group) and another liberal PAC that supports the public option called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, former Obama volunteer and donor Michael Hermann, a Los Angeles musician, told POLITICO: ‘I find the administration's hubris in thinking they will never lose their liberal base astounding.’ Wendy Sejour, a DFA leader in Homestead, Fla., who is also active in her local Democratic Party, said ‘what the administration does not understand is that when they try to marginalized Dean and DFA, they insult us and dismiss our hard work. We are the foot soldiers.’

Another DFA volunteer, Patrick Briggs of Pasadena, Calif., said he scrapped plans to become more involved in OFA over what he saw as its health care capitulation. He said Dean’s salvos ‘reminded some of us in the movement that at least there’s someone out there in the progressive community who’s looking out for our
interest.’”

Thanks Howie!