Dean's Grass Roots Efforts Start Up Again

[Timber Loftis]

Today's NY Times

March 19, 2004
Taking Stage for 2nd Act, Dean Unveils a New Group
By JODI WILGOREN

SEATTLE, March 18 — He wore the same wrinkled charcoal suit and red ladybug tie, along with the belt that belonged to his long-dead brother. He delivered the same basic speech, with the "We can do better" refrain and rallying cry about sending President Bush "back to Crawford, Tex."

But the hand-lettered "Howard Dean for America" placard leaning against the lectern here on Thursday morning had a new twist: "He's not just for president anymore."

One month after his deflated exit from the Democratic presidential race, Dr. Dean flew here — commercial — to unveil his political organization, Democracy for America. He said he would do whatever it took to send his former rival, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, to the White House, but would not stop there. The new group plans to use its interactive Web site (not the Cadillac model his campaign had, Dr. Dean warned) to recruit 1,000 candidates for local office, train staff to support them and raise money for Mr. Kerry and for others, like the House members who had backed Dr. Dean's bid.

"We can change this country together because, guess what, we still have the power," Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, told some 500 people whose button-laden campaign T-shirts showed they had seen him speak many times before. "My campaign for the White House may have ended, but the need to take our country back for ordinary Americans is bigger than ever before."

In an interview afterward, Dr. Dean said that he was close to signing a book contract and planned to support himself largely by making paid speeches, since he would not take a salary from the new group, which will have an annual budget of about $2 million. Democracy for America is both a political action committee and one of the new so-called 527 committees, named for the section of the tax code that authorizes them, which are permitted to raise soft money. It joins Change for America and Grassroots for America among several ventures started by Dean supporters eager to keep their movement alive.

Dr. Dean said he had spent little time looking through what physicians call the "retrospectoscope" to examine the mistakes that led to his campaign's implosion. He called his infamous howl after placing third in the Iowa caucuses "the speech of my life, which I thoroughly enjoyed giving."

"I'm not the least bit repentant" for the speech, he added.

He also said he would not "rule anything in or out" in terms of a future run for office, Oval or otherwise.

Asked what he most admired or respected about Mr. Kerry, whom he had previously described as the "handmaiden of special interests" and "the lesser of two evils," Dr. Dean said: "He's a good closer."

"I think Kerry's great strength is he's tough, which is important, if we're going to beat Bush," Dr. Dean added later. "He's smart. He's a very strong closer, and those are all qualities that I think are going to be really necessary to beat the president."

As for whether he still believed, as he said five weeks ago, that Senator John Edwards of North Carolina would be a better nominee, Dr. Dean responded: "Edwards isn't the nominee, so John Kerry is the best nominee."

Jay Carson, a spokesman for Dr. Dean, said he had no idea how much money Dr. Dean would raise for Mr. Kerry or for other candidates, or when such activity and the staff training sessions would begin. Dr. Dean's first venture in Mr. Kerry's behalf, a conference call this week criticizing Mr. Bush's television advertisements, backfired when Dr. Dean made an impolitic remark that the president's decision to send troops to Iraq "apparently has been a factor" in the Spanish train bombings last week. Dr. Dean quickly backed away from the comment and Mr. Kerry repudiated it.

In the weeks since he ceased his two-year quest for the presidency, Dr. Dean said, he has cleaned out his garage, caught up on household chores and attended sporting events. He said he realized the scale of what he had done one Saturday when he walked through the cavernous campaign office, now empty, with its "thousands of telephones" and the cushions under the desks for the people working 36-hour shifts tracking news coverage.

Another time, Dr. Dean recalled, "My son looked at me and he said, `I can't believe you ran for president.' "

He added: "I laughed."