Dr. Coward Dean The Baby Slayer! (moved from ATSNN)

www.cnn.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was named the Democratic Party's new chairman as expected Saturday during the final day of the Democratic National Committee's annual meeting.

Dean, who ran for the party's nomination for presidential candidate last year, is the last man standing to replace Terry McAuliffe as party chairman after six other candidates dropped out.

The committee's membership is made up of delegations from the states and other Democratic institutions.

Dean, 56, played down the vote earlier this week with a reference to his sudden fall from the lead in the Democratic presidential primaries last year just before the Iowa caucuses.

"Well, there's no congratulations in order yet," he told a group of supporters Wednesday night at Capital City Brewery, "because I remember just two days before Iowa ... "

Former Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana -- a candidate touted by the more conservative wing of the party -- was the last candidate to drop out, doing so just last week. Veteran party activist Donnie Fowler stepped aside just before Roemer did.

Earlier, party activist Simon Rosenberg, former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former Ohio Democratic chairman David Leland all stepped aside.

Democrats are unaccustomed to having a contested race for DNC chair -- the process is typically a fait accompli arranged by party leaders and officials who present their choice to the 447 members for a symbolic vote.

But in the wake of President Bush's re-election, a groundswell rose under Dean's candidacy similar to the one that propelled him to the lead early in the Democratic primary season.

As it did during the campaign, his candidacy sparked efforts to back "anti-Dean" candidates, but this time, the groundswell didn't drop out from under him.

Some Democrats are nervous that Dean, who has actively opposed the Iraq war from the start, will galvanize Republicans. And, indeed, some Republicans are gleeful.

"I think if (Democrats) have a true death wish, he'd be the perfect guy to go with," former House Majority Leader Newt Gingrich told Fox News last month.

But much of Dean's support comes from those who want to see a change in a Democratic Party that has lost two consecutive presidential races and is the minority party in both houses of Congress.

"There are many people in this city who think I'm going to be very unorthodox," Dean said Wednesday. "And I am."

Dean then endorsed fellow Vermonter Sen. Jim Jeffords' 2006 re-election campaign. Jeffords dropped his Republican Party affiliation to become an independent in 2001.

Dean, a physician who served as Vermont's governor from 1991 to 2003, pledged to "grow organizations" in so-called "red" states that went for Bush in 2004.

"We need to be proud to be Democrats," he said. "It was the Democrats who thought we should have a Homeland Security Department. If you want strong national security, you ought to support the Democratic Party."

His new job, he said, would be to sell the Democratic Party in local, state and national elections.

"We're not going to beat the Republicans by talking about how terrible they are," he said. " ... This is a party that's about the future. The Republican Party is about the past."



Please visit the link provided for the complete story.