Scream Off

This article just cracked me up(via Drudge)

Howard Dean was a no-show for a state Democratic Party fund raiser Wednesday after bad weather in Philadelphia kept the Democratic National Committee chairman grounded.

But Dean's absence didn't stop state Republicans from screaming all the way to the bank.
...
Lachlan McIntosh, the party's executive director, said $5,000 in Internet donations had come in for the event. Plans had called for around 300 people to show up at the minimum $50-per-person event, generating at least $15,000 more.

When word came that Dean's plane wouldn't be off the ground in time to make it to Columbia, the party sent out a note saying it would be refunding money instead of putting it in the bank.

Now this might be funny in itself coming from the man who is renowned for internet and grassroots fundraising. But in this instance he was a big hit fundraiser in a different way:

While Democrats waited for the former presidential candidate, the state GOP held a Dean scream contest in anticipation of Dean's arrival. A week ago, the party sent out a flier inviting people to a "No-show send Howard home rally" and garnered $22,000 in contributions, said Scott Malyerck, the state GOP executive director.

"We hope Howard Dean comes back every month," Malyerck said.

The state GOP's scream-off was intended to poke fun at Dean, whose attempt at a troop-rallying "yeah" after the 2004 Iowa caucus became the most laughed about moment of the campaign. Dean lost the next 16 contests, including a next-to-last showing in South Carolina a couple of weeks later.

Muahahahaha! Republicans raised more money joking about the DNC head than the Democrats would have made from his actual apperance!!

The actual contest sounds like a lot of fun

The scream-off drew a handful of high school and college Republicans who were judged on "lack of poise in appearance" and "extent of angry, insane ranting."

Contestants had to repeat Dean's cry that his campaign was "going to South Carolina and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico. We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House - yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Richard Hahn, a Dreher High School student, won the contest - embellishing Dean's itinerary by adding Canada and Puerto Rico as campaign trail stops.

The contest didn't impress McIntosh, who said it is time for Republicans to "stop screaming and start trying to lead again."

Ring: "hello Pot this is Kettle, you are black". Let's see, War on Terror, ANWAR drilling, CAFTA, Tort Reform, Tax Cuts....... Republicans lead the way in all of those issues. Democrats? Became wholesale obstructionists. They are the ones that offer no solutions, only personal attacks in the newspapers. To McIntosh I say: "We know you don't know how to lead so just stop your whining and let the adults handle it".

Speaking of angry children getting out of hand, the Democratic parties in the southern states are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the Screameister:

But not all the state Democrats support some of Dean's recent comments.

He recently said the Republican Party is "pretty much a white, Christian party" and said many Republicans "never made an honest living." It prompted Democratic Chairman Joe Erwin to write to Dean and complain.

"I'm trying to recruit white Christians for the Democrat Party, and we are recruiting - white Christians and African-American Christians and people of all faiths and races," Erwin said at the time. "We don't need to ostracize anybody."

For South Carolina Republicans, "Dean is a gift from heaven," Guth said.

Amen! I still say Dean's a Karl Rove plant. But the only people who will believe me are the commenters at the DU.


AP Wire | 06/29/2005 | Dean cancels Columbia visit; GOP cashes in