This is fabulous news. Rahm and Dean's feud prior to 11/7 was somewhat hurtful to the overall health of the Democratic party. Getting these two superstars on the same page working together will double our efforts in 2008 and greatly improve our chances to hold and build on our majority.

James Carville has basically proven himself to be out of step with the entire democratic party and should shut his pie hole, as he's only destroying any shred of credibility he had left. He's already sidelined as a TV pundit, and if he doesn't quit soon, we may have to start a write in campaign to have Carville taken off the air at CNN.

Carville is the one who needs to go! He's sounding shrill and cranky.

I'm glad to hear Emanuel recognize Dean's contributions - like Schumer did so eloquently on Bill Maher's show last week.

It's amazing isn't it? Huge wins across the country (ahem, except in my home state of Georgia) and some can't even go for a week without complaining about something. Carville should join in the celebration.

I have long been a fan of Carville's, but I think he is being very short-sighted here. True, maybe the Democratic Party would have picked up a few more seats if the DNC had given money to Congressional races. It is also true, however, that those races may still have been lost due to other factors - especially Kerry's mistake. Dean's approach is to build the Party in locations where it has never existed or hasn't had a presence in a long, long time. Doesn't that serve the Party's interests better in the long run - especially for whoever the presidential candidate may be in 2008?

Carville should do the only honorable thing and commit suicide straight away so we can all be rid of his b.s.

Wonderful! I believe Dean should be Man of The Year, and Carville needs desperately to STFU!

The 50 state strategy was a brilliant (AND courageous) move by Dean that should certainly continue. The Democrats can't compete where they have no party presense. They have to be a national party active in all 50 states unless they want to remain a powerhouse on the coasts and concede the rest to the GOP.

Normally I enjoy Carville, but today I think he is working for his wife, not the Democratic Party which he allegedly favors. Dean's "Fight Everywhere"-50 State Strategy was a big part of the success of this election cycle, but more importantly it is simply a requirement of a two-party republic---democracy is best served by having at least one candidate opposing another.

Carville is off his rocker. I liked him, but he seems to be loosing it a little. Dean is looking like a class act these days, and believe me I was not always a fan...

I saw the Carville video and all I can say is I didn't phone bank all those days for the Party to end up taking orders from Skeltor. That's ridiculous. This is serious business and no place for a cartoon character to start giving orders.

Carville's been hanging around his wife too much---he is starting to sound more like her---

Carville should just STFU! He is giving Cajuns and Democrats a bad name.

Dean is just what this party needs. He is well spoken, intelligent and has a great sense of of humor. J Carville has truly made himself insignificant in the Democratic party. We won Jim.
What the heck is your problem. HD brought more new voters, money and motivation, into this party than anything in a long time! And if that's not enough for you, the GOP hates Dean because they are afraid of his power. They've been bashing Dean since he became noticed, do you think the GOP would bother bashing someone of small value? I don't hear them bashing you though jim...jmmms.

Please lets give Dr. Dean some credit for starting the 50 state strategy this year. This tool will be more powerful by 2008, and for future races. We only have to look at the Liberal Net root community to see what a powerful tool they were for us this year.

I am also very proud of Rahm. He did what is best for our party, and James needs to do the same. Airing our dirty laundry in public is not good at this time. We have not been in power for some time. The climate has changed since that time. Americans need a rest from bickering, back stabbing, and anger. Lets get the job done, and set our pride, aside. Anger brings mistakes. Setting ones Pride aside bring Victory.
Norma W.

So everyone is okay with Rahm's attempts at power-building in Chicago?? -- Haven't we all seen where that kinda of behavior leads? .. and maybe learned something from it?

As for Carville, he's literally sleeping with the Dem's enemy... but I suppose that could be dismissed as me being just being juvenile.

As for Dean, he's doing fine... and doing the party proud... the only reason he's been seen as a liability is because the Republican party know Dean is a fiesty threat... and have targetted him accordingly ... ("the scream").

It's nice to see the DCCC running forward to claim credit for what the grass-roots have more of a hand in achieving than anyone else!! But I guess that's politics!

Dean needs to tell Rahm that we the people feel that the DLC lost us the 2000 - 2002 - 2004.

Republican light will not do it in 2008, we need real changes in this country from the direction we have been going for the last 6 years.

One has to wonder if Carville's wife is putting bleach in his cereal.

Or perhaps an ego-virus has been planted in his skull and is eating his brain cells at a rapid rate.

On election night, Carville sat there like a bump on a log and let Paul Begalla carry the ball for the Democrats.

If Carville isn't careful, he will become as hated as Robert Novak, and I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone, no matter how deranged they might be.

Jim Toevs, Testerville, Montana

Bro. Carville really needs to pipe down here. Gov. Dean led our party to an incredible victory! Everyone EXPECTS the Democrats to fight each other once they win. Wouldn't it be great to prove them wrong? The election was just last week! For goodness sake, let's all unite behind our leaders!

Oh no, Mary made him drink the kool aid

DEAN 08

How can any Dem deny that Dean is in the right post? We are benefiting from his unique blend of brains, vision, energy and honesty. The vehemence and timing of Carville's attack, at the moment when Dean's 50 State Plan was vindicated with good election results, mystifies and repulses me.

Weren't James Carville and Paul Begala the chief strategists (and Stan Greenberg the primary pollster) for the Clinton White House and its wholly-owned DNC subsidiary in the run-up to the 1994 mid-term elections?

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I don't recall that '94 was such a stellar Democratic year.

Perhaps Mr. Carville should be a bit careful when he accuses someone of "Rumsfeldian incompetence", unless a mirror is involved.

I think Carville has been living with that crazy Cheney Republican too long. He needs to back up and re-evaluate his non-sense. Dean and the 50 state plan is good...going after just a few states in non-sense.

This is less about Dean than it is about Hilary, I think. Rahm Emanuel is no fool. It is clear that the Dems won a tremendous victory, November 7th. Not only did they win a majority in the House and Senate, they also now have a majority of governorships across the country. And some state legislatures are back in the blue column.

This would not have happened without a 50 state strategy. And the Dems will not gain the WH in '08 without the support of state party organizations who have a sympathetic governor in the state house. Rahm Emanuel is smart and rational and he also sees that there is no consensus building to oust Dean. Carville's comments have no traction and he is looking more irrelevant than ever.

Make no mistake. The DLC wants the reigns back to the Dem Party and Dean is not part of their plans. Speaks volumes that it slipped the other night on CNN, that Carville and Gingrich had a nice lunch the other day. Screw these Republican lite hacks.

Was the issue here really the 50 state strategy, or Dean not dumping in more money at the very end? It was clear that the Dems had all the momentum you could ask for, and that we needed to put in everything we had. If Dean held back DNC funds that could have been used, I think that Carville is right to have called him on it.

I'd be interested to hear what the final tallies are from campaign war chests too. Are there any Quixotic presidential candidates who held back a ton of money? Any super-safe senators or congressmen who did the same?

I liked Carville until he married Matalin.

The message the voters (people who attempted to vote with the expectation that they would be counted) registered with the politicos is that business as usual is no longer acceptable. The biggest and best hope for our world is a new and truly independent investigation of 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq and the widescale looting of our national treasury.

It seems to me that the real story here is that Rahm woke up and smelled the Vermont-roasted coffee and realized that to avoid too much discussion of how he and his fellow strategists SCREWED UP virtually all their calls during the campaign, he'd have to make nice and be magnanimous and essentially join the winning team.

Emmanuel virulently opposed Dean's 50-state strategy and systematically picked LOSERS like the combat-disabled-yet-still-pro-war Tammy Duckworth (who's mixed messages on the war earned her only an ultimately-fatal lukewarm response from the voters) instead of genuine progressive candidates with legitimate grassroots (and netroots) support.

Time after time, pro-war, republican-lite, socially conservative candidates were showered with money and support, many times only to fail miserably in the Democratic primaries. Undaunted by this rebuff of their preference, Rham then (often with Dean's capitulation, sadly) totally froze out the victorious grassroots candidates. Despite this, many of these candidates actually won, while Rham-supported conservative primary victors were almost universally swept in district after district.

Dean's strategy is an excellent start, and the perfect example of party-building strategies that have a long-term likelihood of success. Progressive activists need to continiously pressure the Democratic party to get it's collective heads out of their Carville-minded posteriors. Such behavior only keeps them from being able to see what's really going on, plus it make their hair smell terrible...

Lest us not forget who James Carville is married to - Mary Matlin - close advisor to VP Dick Cheney. At some point where do his loyalties lie? I see the 50 state strategy as a great success for the party and we won in places that the DLC Dems would traditionally just ignore. I applaud Howard Dean for his tireless efforts to build from the bottom up and to make the Democratic Party - a party of the people.

I would also hope that there might be a bit more help given to a place where all of them - the DCCC and the DNC love to come to get funding - South Florida, but in this location, all of them have written us off and do not fund. For this I am very sad and am not happy. Florida is struggling under 8 years of JEB Bush Republican rule that has put our schools in the 49th position, all the while making a lot of money for Neil Bush whose software company supplies the software for the No Child Left Behind tests, homeowner insurance as one of the highest and least affordable in the nation, since the insurance industry has been writing the legislation here at the behest of the Republican state lawmakers who get funded by them, and the middle class is not able to start a life here.

We are in dire need of change down here and I have been begging for help to organize for change - we need candidates identified, organization funded and help to put Democracy back into this part of the state.

Carville is a man who works with and is married to a Republican top-level operative. I truly believe that this post 1992 campaign marriage has colored his approach and his views.

What is wrong with James? We don't need this now. We have way too much other work to do.

Cathy
Michigan

Don't underestimate the influence of Mary Matalin on everything Carville says and does. Carville has been involved in a number of efforts in recent years that have little or nothing to do with support for progressive principles. Look at his record and don't listen to his phony Ragin' Cajun brand message.

He's only two links away from Dick Cheney - and if you know anything at all about the power of social networking, you'll understand the significance of that. He's got the bug - power and influence are what he wants, and without an audience, he doesn't have either. He's loyal to his wife who is totally loyal to Cheney. Make the connection.

Carville is doing nothing more than plowing the field for Hillary.

I believe he fancies himself the dem-Karl Rove.

Let's face it, Carville is a has been. Unfortuntely, his wife has more influence on him than he has on her. He's desperate to be the focus of attention.

Rahm only changed his tune because some other Dems must have told him that he was an ass to begin destroying Democratic cohesion less than 1 week after the election. He's just out to save his own reputation after his attacks on Dean didn't pan out as well as he hoped they might.

I think recommending suicide is a little over the top. Mr. Carville should be glad that things turned out as well as they did. Howard Dean is the best thing that has happened to the Democratic party since George Soros. He would have made a great president just as Russ Feingold would. If the MSM were not part and parcel of the military machine, Howard would be president right now. You rock HD!

I had a Carville book in my library. I threw it in the garbage yesterday.
Carville and his bitch, Begala, are sock puppets for the RW batshit crazy morons who put the USA in the bad situation we`re in now.

Carville's right on the mark. Howard Dean had as much to do with winning back the congress as I did. He put in a pittance from the DNC treasury to the coordinated campaigns. Instead, he wants to move forward in his vaunted 50 state strategy.

He was elected by the democratic state chairs and he owes them, and this is their payoff to keep them in his corner. We could have easily expanded the # of competitive seats in the last election which would have had a huge impact on '08. Instead we're pouring money into the alaska dems!

Howard Dean is a smart man, but as a strategist he just sucks. Look at his '04 campaign. $30 mn and 3rd place in Iowa! Snap out of it people. politics ain't beanbag, and dean is just not an effective party chairman.

Carville and Matalin the tacky Punch and Judy show in which they shill for each others book sales and products and even on a Russert show involved their children in the pitch. Carville and Greenberg went to Bolivia to screw up an election and vote in a corrupt hack. They are all about money and celebrity. Dean is fabulous. He isn't a Clinton player however. Remember when he was supported by Al Gore the Clinton people went nuts. He was the outsider for them. Is Carville the advance man? I hope not.

I agree with carville; dean is running grass routesyet never got one response to opinions. i will be an independent until pelosi and dean are gone.

As a Floridian volunteer who was sidelined by national Dems, I suggest the tactic used in Florida by Dean and his team was a complete failure. Locals were second-guessed and thus lost faith and trust in the DNC as the national players came in and took over. Florida will decide 2008. Yes, president Jeb Bush, sadly, is foretold.

Open letter to James Carville, Leave Howard Dean alone, your still the Clinton's bag man, ex-silent movie, part time dog catcher. You showed your true colors when you dropped the hint that Kerry was going to ask for a recount in Ohio to Madam Matlin, who, I believe was serving caviar to the Cheneys and mountain oysters to the Bushes and it seems that recount got squashed as did the one in Florida. Your presence in the Demo party reminds me of relatives and fish, they begin to smell after a few days.

Demavatar: you have it all wrong about Dean not being a strategist, citing his third place finish in Iowa. That was due to negative back-and-forth ads that were started, I believe, by the Gephardt campaign. Read his campaign manager Joe Trippi's book "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" if you have any doubts of how brilliant the campaign was and it went from nowhere to front-runner status with little if any help from the mainstream media.

I think Carville just wants Dean out of the way, because he wants DLC Clintonistas running everything for 2008. Anybody not partial to Hillary does not sit well with old Carville. Screw all of that. Hillary is more of the same old triangulation, only it hasn't helped her with her support for the war. We need someone who can challenge her and win in the 2008 general election. I'm personally favoring John Edwards, unless we can get Al Gore in there.

Its all about the money...and ego, from Carville's perspective. For 14 years Carville has been the "highest profiled" political guru on the Democratic side of the aisle. He has made millions from the name recognition he acquired after guiding the Clinton campaign to victory in the 1990's.

Now, along comes Dr. Howard Dean, a guru, in his own right, who introduces the Democratic Party to the internet, for fund raising and organization development. Against conventional thinking (Carville's thinking) he then proposes a 50-state strategy, to put the Republican Party into a real fight for dominance, across the country. He is successful and the Democrats make big electoral gains everywhere, especially in Washington.

Well, "who ya gonna call" for advice from now on?
Not ghostbusters! Not James Carville! That is right, Dr. Howard Dean.

Dean, who in his prior life was a licensed practicing physician (which, politically, means he is exceptionally bright), a 5-term governor, in a small state, Vermont, and presidential candidate. He has campaigned door-to-door and state-to-state. Carville? Well, he did successfully, run Bill Clinton's campaigns but, besides marrying a Republican guru, what has he done in politics lately, that could be termed "noteworthy"? Besides make a lot of appearances on "talking head" shows on cable TV, and a lot of money...I draw a blank. (If you are a Carville fan or follower, please, fill me in.)

Sorry, but what is kimerikas?

Jane.