I just caught James Carville's appearance on the Stephanie Miller show this morning. She of course asked him about his calls for Howard Dean to step down, and gave him some line to run with it (or perhaps enough rope to hang himself)...
During his tirade, Carville unintentionally gave away the
real cause for his complaint... in October, Carville called Howard Dean about strategy, and
Howard Dean didn't return his phone call! That... that CAD! That cur! Doesn't he know I'M JAMES CARVILLE? Okay, I added that last part. But not returning Carville's call... that's real.
There it be... Carville's poor ego got bruised.
Now, why wouldn't Dean bother returning his call? Because Dean and Carville fundamentally disagree about strategy. Dean wasn't going to waste his precious pre-election time arguing with someone who would neither come around nor change his mind, I'd guess. As we well know, Dean's strategy is bottom-up - the "50 state strategy" is about rebuilding the state parties, as well as running candidates in every district. Carville's ideas are rather more Washington-centric.
Carville made two explicit complaints about Dean's handling of the election. First, he complained that Dean had a $10M line of credit available in October for the DNC, but only used $4M of it. Second, Carville feels that it's all about candidates, and money should be spent exclusively on them, not "wasted" on state parties or paid state-level party operatives. He was quite bitter about the whole subject.
The complaint about not borrowing every possible dime, I can see. I can also disagree with it, and knowing how careful Dean is with money (and how badly he got burned putting all his eggs in the Iowa basket), I tend to support Dean on it. We might well need that line of credit soon.
But as for focusing on the candidates and neglecting the state parties... well, Carville's strategy is what got us where the Democratic Party was in 2002/2004. :( Carville has NEVER had a winner except for Clinton, and that was, well, Bill Clinton. Carville's strategy is all about concentrating power in Washington - not because it's effective, but because it's good for people like James Carville. It makes them powerful and important, and drums up the consulting business.
I was a little sad that Stephanie Mller didn't tear into him over this stuff, but it seemed pretty clear that she would "agree to disagree", and he had failed to convince her. As for convincing me... well, now I understand why he's so pissy at Dean. Dean didn't kiss his ring! The nerve of that rumpled-suit, coach-flying, grassroots ruffian...