Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to head DNC

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee, a Democratic official said.

The pick is a bet that an energetic younger leader will help the party capitalize on the historic enthusiasm that swept Obama to his landslide win.

Kaine, like Obama a graduate of Harvard Law School, was among the earliest statewide officials to endorse Obama, and was among finalists to be the vice presidential candidate on his ticket.

Kaine has long one of the party's rising younger stars, even delivering his party's nationally televised response to one of President George W. Bush's State of the Union addresses.

The governor won handily in a traditionally Republican state in part with frank conversation about his Roman Catholic faith. His victory in the state's exurbs is viewed as a model for other Democrats.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17034.html

I hope he was paying attention to the great work that Dean did.

He's a person who can speak to "all sorts" of people. Not near as charismatic as Obama but "good people" and highly intelligent.

:hi:

He cannot run for reelection as Governor due to term limits.

...from DNC head to running for gov.

Dean wanted to win more than Kaine. Dean wanted to build up all the state parties and the natoinal party grew under his chairmanship. Also, Dean represented the liberal wing of the party. Kaine just seems like the payback of a favor from the election.

in a Democratic Administration, or at least his political agenda. Those words came straight out of Howard Dean's mouth and he is not interested in being the PR wing for the White House. Tim Kaine is absolutely perfect for the job, as it stands right now.

He was no longer interested in being the chairman of the DNC. No one booted Dean.

Kaine plans to work at the party part-time until 2010, when his term as governor is up and he can take over the DNC full-time.

Current DNC chairman Howard Dean plans to step down Jan. 21, the day after Obama's inauguration.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/04/us/AP-Democrats-Chairman.html

Kaine clearly feels that DNC chair won't be a full time job for the next couple of years. It's like he doesn't want to win the 2012 election :sarcasm:

Is he just going to trust the DSCC, DCCC and the state party organizations to handle them?

:toast:

Sadly, this also means that social issues will be forgotten.

Hopefully, he is better with economical issues.

Wont be worse than McAuliffe, any way.

But he's certainly no Howard Dean, and that's a damn shame, if things go back to that DC/Virginia-centric horseshit way of running the party :evilfrown:

Probably a good ol' boy too.

"Taking the DNC job will make Kaine an irresistible target in his home state, where critics have long accused him of putting partisan politics ahead of governing."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401139.html?wprss=rss_politics

I like his vision and his ability to articulate it.

Still, I would have liked to see Plouffe do his thing for the party as a whole.