c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It’s time for Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to heed that biblical adage “Physician, heal thyself.”

Of late, the good doctor has been more concerned with attempting to restore the health of the Democratic Party by bad-mouthing Republicans as crooks and, worse yet, Christians.

“A lot of them have not made an honest living in their lives,” he said of Republicans earlier this month. And in case that didn’t make the point sufficiently, he denounced the GOP last week as “pretty much a white, Christian party.”

But considering the dismay expressed by some leading Democrats, it’s Dean who’s the big loser. He has pulled off the political equivalent of a suicide bombing in which the only victim has been the suicide bomber himself.

Dean’s supporters argue that, however harsh his comments, truth is its own defense. They have a partial point. It seems perfectly reasonable to assume that some Republicans (though maybe not a lot) haven’t made an honest dollar in their lives. And it is almost certainly true that the Republican Party of George W. Bush and Karl Rove is both overwhelmingly white and Christian (though evangelical Christian might have been more exact).

But true or not, it misses the main point. For it’s equally reasonable to assume that a fair share of Democrats haven’t ever made an honest buck, either. And it’s beyond question that the Democratic Party is “pretty much a white, Christian party,” too. How could it be otherwise, considering the racial and religious makeup of the country? He’s an equal-opportunity offender, our Howlin’ Howard.

It’s expected that the national chairman will be the party’s chief cheerleader, a job that seems to suit Dean’s shoot-from-the-lip temperament. But that’s the least of the job’s requirements, especially when the party is as bad off as Democrats are today _ out of power in the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and most of the major state governors’ offices. More, much more, is needed.

The national chairman of an out-of-power party is its public face and needs to be seen as a spokesman for a reasonable and rational opposition _ an attractive alternative. Behind the scenes, the job requires the touch of a diplomat in reconciling the competing interests, ambitions and egos that invariably plague opposition parties. Dean, so far, hasn’t measured up on either count.

He gets high marks as a fundraiser, especially in attracting small-sum Internet donors. But that can be an overrated asset. Democrats, surprisingly, outraised Republicans in last year’s presidential race, but a lot of good it did them in the absence of a coherent message or a charismatic candidate.

If there’s a model for what a national chairman should be, it’s probably Ray Bliss, the mild-mannered Ohioan who inherited the remains of the Republican Party after the disastrous Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964. The election left Republicans, like Democrats today, out of power in the White House, both houses of Congress and most statehouses. Indeed, they were, if anything, worse off because they were even weaker in the Senate and House than Democrats are today.

Bliss, unlike Dean, wasn’t much of a cheerleader. He didn’t put much store by it. He was a bricks-and-mortar guy who began by quietly emphasizing the need to rebuild the GOP at the grass roots _ at the level of governors. At the same time, he assembled teams of national policy specialists whose job was not only to develop salable positions but to promote agreement within the GOP _ rank and file as well as prospective presidential candidates _ in time for the 1968 election.

A Republican Party that spoke with one voice _ not necessarily his _ was Bliss’ goal. He got it, and with lasting impact. Seven of the 10 presidential elections beginning with the 1968 election have been won by the GOP.

Dean has been something different. Rather than quietly working to reassemble the fractious Democrats, Dean has made himself a target, among Republicans for sure but even among Democrats. The House Democratic minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, said of Dean’s “Christian” comment that “I don’t think it was a helpful statement.” And Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman pronounced it “way over the top.” Better Dean should have attacked Republican coddling of corporate America, particularly the oil and pharmaceutical giants, other Democrats suggested.

Worst of all for Democrats, Dean’s blunderbuss attacks on Republicans expose just how out of touch he seems with the national mood. All polls show the country has had its fill of the pitchfork partisanship that has marred Washington politics for a decade. If Democrats are to provide an acceptable alternative in 2008, reducing the partisan temperature and bringing the country together must be part of it.

Bush never got that message. Neither has Howard Dean, at least not yet.

MO/PH/JM END FARMER

(John Farmer is national political correspondent for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)