"Dem primary w/out Dean & Edwards - no spine, no soul."

Mark Shields just said that on Capital Gang, crediting Howard Dean for giving the Democrats a spine, John Edwards for giving them a soul.

Nice tribute.

...that the Democratic Party should follow!

cover him.

He's not exactly a keen observer.

Joe Conason is a keen observer. Too bad Shields doesn't read Conason.

to say about Dean and Edwards - who are now going to work their tails off for Team Kerry.

and it has annoyed me for years.

Shields is not the strongest voice on our side, but he is one of the few. And they're all unoriginal. That's part of the job description, no?

Except they won't be the Democratic candidate in November.

It appears Mark's unwittingly conveying Republican talking points in a backhanded sort of way.

And I'll take Kerry's spine and soul any day of the week.

Grow up, Mark Shields, we're the big tent party and Kucinich is part of it!!

He has been treated like he is invisible since day one. He is our party's spine and soul, truly he makes you think of this saying, "some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream of things that never were and say why not", thats DK all right dont you think. DK is our spine, after remember the debate where he brought up the 87 billion, Kerry and Edwards followed suit. Remember when he brought up BBV. Kucinich is an unsung hero IMO, if hes not president, I want at the very least for him to be a house whip, but we can do more.

without the usual suspects spitting venom on their keyboard.

But thanks, I agree with the statement.

of course, you realize that implies Kerry has no Spine nor a soul...

RL

give money, do whatever we can to get him elected. But we can say nice things about the other guys, can't we?

I was no fan of Howard Dean the candidate, but like him a lot more since he got out of the race. Edwards is my guy, and I hope he's tapped for VEEP.

As we look back at the race, clearly Dean brought fire and energy, and Edwards hit themes about working people, unemployed people, the poor, that sounded like the Democrats of yore.

I (and many here at DU) appreciate all the things that Dennis brought to the campaign - but in reality, he just didn't get enough votes to get the attention he deserved.

I just repeated a statement that struck me as a kind thing to say about two of our candidates. I didn't see it as a knock on anyone else.

We are all in this fight together.

Regardless of where one falls on the divide, Dean ratcheted up the rhetoric, and that got things mighty hot. There's good and bad to that, but you'll find many here who are like me on the subject: I don't like the guy and was incensed by many of his tactics, but I still see a fire and heart there that is true. As the rhetoric has died down, many of us have stayed away from throwing another log on the fire. As an Edwards supporter, I've even been a good boy and stayed away from the Clark threads where he was cheated, Edwards was a monster to him, and other versions of an alternate reality, and this is all because times have changed.

Some old wounds chafe and fester, but ya gotta keep the eyes on the prize and keep it in perspective.

Back off a tad and look at it this way: the vitriol against Dean is subsiding, just as that from his supporters is too. Many will never "get over it", and that's just the way it is.

It's the season of dashed hopes, and many of us rose and fell with the often sharp changes that occurred; hopefully we can all realize that partisanship has good and bad sides, and it's often hard to tell which is which. Take heart in knowing that there are many shaded and nuanced folks here, and that's actually a good trait among Democrats at large. Hugs and kisses, dammit.

Don't let a nice thing said about someone other than your candidate get under your skin.

It's just that Shields seems to ignore the candidate who has both spine and soul.Dean and Edwards added to the Party's primaries, but still prefer the best and Shields should not ignore him.

gone. Not that I have anything against Kerry, but all the anticipation and excitement of the primaries is over now.

to once again ignore Clark. And of course they always ignore Kucinich.

No wonder I've stopped watching TV.

It's because Clark gave the primaries a brain. And the talking heads can't stand someone who has what they lack.

Dean totally transformed this race with his grassroots campaigning and the Internet.

Edwards beat all expectations and came out of no where to become a serious competitor.

Pure tripe.

Anyone denying that Dean put our party in an aggressive position to take on Bush is kidding themselves, but he wasn't the only one with the backbone to stand up to Bush. Kucinich, Sharpton, and even Ted Kennedy have been showing leadership with their VOTES and voices in recent years, and they deserve as much credit as, if not more than, Dean does.