Better Late Than Never

by hilzoy

But it would have been better still if Matthew Dowd had figured this out earlier:

"In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.

A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.

Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced."

This part in particular would have been worth getting right before the 2004 election:

"Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article titled “Kerry Was Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from Iraq."

Oops!

Digby has more on Dowd's history with the Bush campaigns. Now Dowd says: “I do feel a calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world.” As I said: better late than never.

Comments

[L.S./M.F.T.]

I'm more than a little skeptical about Mr. Dowd's motivation, to suddenly pipe-up and act recalcitrant about his helping to put Preznit Chimpy on the throne and keep him there for his full eight years. Where was this guy's conscience even a year ago? Long after the 04 election, (was stolen), and even longer after it was obvious, even to the most dedicated wingnut that not only the wheels but the treads, skids and every other thing had come off the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan? Yet the administration publicly keeps playing,"Nearer My God to Thee", as both wars, Titanic-like, sink. Taking our boys and girls with it. And NOW he's sorry?

Shorter, me...

Fuck him. I guess he's afraid he'll be indicted for something and wants to be this administration's Albert Speer.

[Nell]

Funny that he waited until after the 2006 election results were in, eh?

Plenty of people who left the party are welcome back. This slimeball opportunist operative is not.

[Nell]

Not better late than never, because there's no reason at all to think Dowd is anything other than an operative looking for his next meal ticket.

The man ran Dick DeVos' campaign in Michigan and was handed his ass. (Debbie Stabenow should burn in hell for all eternity for voting for the Military Commissions Act; her 12-(or 14-?)point margin of victory shows she never even had the excuse of political cowardice.)

Hilzoy's capacity to give people the benefit of the doubt is admirable. But sometimes they don't deserve it, and this is one such case.

[Gromit]

Perhaps Hilzoy will correct me, but I'm taking "better late than never" to be a sort of genteel kiss-off, not actual charity.

[russell]

FWIW, here is my point of view concerning conservatives who have "seen the light".

Thanks for coming to your senses. Now sit down, shut up, and stay out of the way before you do more harm.

Perhaps that's uncharitable, but there's a lot on the table at the moment. I don't see that folks like Dowd have much to recommend them.

If he wants to do something constructive, he could publish the article on Kerry that he "wrote but never submitted".

If it took Dowd six years to figure out that George Bush was an incompetent screw up, he's not a person I'm inclined to trust with anything important. Thank you, now sit down, shut up, and stay out of the way.

Thanks -

[russell]

Re-reading my post of last night, I'd like to retract the blanket "sit down, shut up", etc stuff. There are a lot of conservatives who supported Bush over the last six years whose thoughts and opinions I respect and value, whether they have "seen the light" or not.

I find Dowd's statements, specifically, feeble, lame, and useless in the extreme, but he's just one guy.

My apologies for using ObWi bandwidth for purposes of venting.

Thanks -

[wonkie]

Yeah, I don't really want this creep to be a Democrat again if he ever was in the first place. I vote he stays off the island.

[Nell]

If any Democratic presidential or Senate candidate is foolish enough even to have a conversation with Matthew Dowd, much less give him the credibility of some kind of 'advisor' or 'consultant' position, they should be shunned and vilified by every other campaign.