Take a Chair, Any Chair

Only a small group on either side of the ideological spectrum actually participates in politics. Among them, two big partisan fights will play out in the coming months. In these battles, you'll be able to see the problem that American liberalism faces today, especially in its tenuous influence on D.C. party politics. The right will be battling hard to shape the Republican agenda while the left gets distracted by fights within the Democratic Party over how best to retool after another defeat.

You see it in the attention paid to the skirmish over who will succeed Terry McAuliffe as DNC Chair. Democrats are once again searching for a new face to head their party until they select a standard-bearer who, without a major vision overhaul, will lead them to ignominious defeat in 2006 and 2008 – it's like a rite of spring renewal. The nascent liberal base is dying to push Howard Dean, who galvanized the left by trying to inject some spine into the Democratic Party during his candidacy. The major liberal political blogs are already abuzz with rumors about it; Dailykos has speculated on it and My Due Diligence of Politics has a Howard Dean for DNC campaign.

The best gossip is going on in rather closed circles: ABC News' The Note and the National Journal's Hotline ($6,000 annual subscription required). And you can get the three-day old gossip on the cable networks. Following this stuff, you'll learn that Harold Ickes, former Clinton deputy chief of staff would be favored by Bill and Hillary. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was a leading contender until dropping out earlier last week. Maybe former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb or former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen – backed by John Kerry – will get the nod. Gore campaign manager Donna Brazille, Virginia Governor (and 2008 presidential contender) Mark Warner, and the New Democrat Network's Simon Rosenberg have all been mentioned as candidates.

So far, it looks to be a race between the corporate and liberal wings of the Democratic Party. Howard Dean is reported to have the backing of the progressive Internet groups and some labor organizations, which scares the bejesus out of the establishment Dems. If only they woke up and remembered what a DLC centrist he was in his 20 years of Vermont politics.

Congressman Robert Matsui (D-CA), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The Hill that Dean is too much of a gamble. "We need someone who is part of the Democratic establishment. Someone who is more of a known quantity. It's extremely important that we don't go through a debate about ideology," he said.

And while many wait with baited breath to see which wing will emerge victorious, it isn't clear how important ideology is in a DNC chair. Consultant Bob Mulholland, a member of both the DNC and the DLC, told me in a phone interview – after dancing around the ideology question for a while – that the job is all about organization and fundraising. "It's the 2008 nominee who will put his ideological imprint on the party," he said. "Most people can't even name the party chair, but if you get to 2008 and you have 25,000 e-mails and $25 dollars in the bank, what are you going to do?" But 2008 is four years away. And think of all the media appearances and lecture circuits that that Terry McAuliffe performed in the past four years. In those appearances, he spent a large portion of his time talking about day-to-day political issues facing Democrats in Washington and where the party stood.

Stepping back for a moment though, what is most puzzling about the DNC ritual is that anyone in the activist liberal base would waste their precious time and energy caring about it. While they may be dying to know the outcome, they'll have little impact on the process. The selection of DNC Chair defines a bright line between large and small 'd' democrats: the face of the people's party will be decided by 447 members of the Democratic National Committee in secret balloting. While those members are largely elected by their respective state and local parties, they are nonetheless a small, insular group of party insiders who live in a Washington political culture apart from the rest of America.