Thanks, Howard. Now Get Lost.

That seems to be the attitude of the Democratic party towards Dr. Howard Dean, the current chairman of the party, as he is being rather unceremoniously replaced by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

If there is a single person who can be credited with the Democrats going into the majority in both houses of the Congress (other than Chimpy), it is Dean. Dean dropped the long-time strategy of only taking on the party of Hoover where the pundits thought that Democrats had a reasonable chance of winning. Instead, wherever a candidate arose, Dean tried to help them, in what he called the "50 state strategy". Dean did not insist on purity; if the candidate called himself or herself a "Deomocrat," that was enough for him.

Dean took on the Hooverites everywhere. There are Democrats in the House and Senate today who would have never elected if the old guard had still been in charge at the DNC. There seems to be little understanding, let alone gratitude, on the part of much of the party towards Dean. Which is a bloody shame.

If the Democrats go back to the old way of doing business, they will lose their majority in Congress within six years. But, on the other hand, with people such as Harry "Oh, Please Don't Filibuster, We'll Do What You Want" Reid as majority leader in the Senate, it won't matter all that much.