Reply #9: what is interesting here is

[wyldwolf]

You title this thread, "The battle and its beginnings early in 2003. The DLC and Dean." Yet the only links in the opening post are from Dean supporters reacting to something you didn't provide.

I'm assuming the piece from the DLC you didn't provide was this:

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131&subid=192&contentid=251701

In this piece, the DLC counseled on the dangers of Democratic presidential candidates speaking only to party activists and that a broad range of exposure was needed.

Howard Dean and his supporters took exception to this passage:

Every time Gov. Dean suggests that unlike his opponents, he represents the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," he's being divisive. Every time he denounces his opponents as "Bush Lite" and suggests that only a Republican would support education reform or stand up for America's interests in the world, he's being divisive. And ironically, he's doing this in a transparent effort to appeal to the same fringe activists who used to do the same holier-than-thou number on him in Vermont.

There is nothing outrageous in this. While governor of VT, Dean often clashed with hardcore left activists over his environmental record, but during his campaign, he courted those some people.