Dean Rips Outgoing Obama Aides
The Huffington Post reports:
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean took broad swipes at what he called the "contempt" of some senior, departing White House advisers while, curiously, praising the possibility of former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley taking over as chief of staff.
Speaking at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast series, the former Vermont governor said he expected President Barack Obama's sometimes-rocky relationship with his base to improve once the aides who accompanied him to office left his administration. The problem, Dean stressed, was not that the president's policies had failed an ideological litmus test, but that he had surrounded by insiders who were dismissive of progressives and failed to change the business of governance.
"[M]ost of the people who were [causing the friction] are either out of the White House or going," Dean said. "So I guess I would say there is in process a huge senior staff shakeup going on at the White House. I think that is a very good thing and I think that will help."
While Obama may differ with progressives on certain policy issues, Dean said, "The core issue is the contempt, which not just the progressives were treated by but lots of people were treated by, by senior advisers around the president who have been here for 20 years and thought they knew everything and we knew nothing. That is a fundamental flaw in any kind of administration. As they say, 'Don't let the door hit you in the you-know-what on the way out.'"
The former governor, who has often been a pugnacious critic of the president, insisted that his critiques were not directed at departing press secretary Robert Gibbs or former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
"It is more than just Gibbs or Rahm. It was a whole mindset going on," he said.
Click here to read more.
