http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html

The article points to 'party elders' and their attempts to stop Dean and the fact that Pelosi and Reid have already, from a distance, started a war with Dean over who sets and articulates party policy.  Unless 'party elders' give Dean the nod to do just that, our party will continue to lose elections.  So, I sent Pelosi a letter suggesting she either starts finding a voice to oppose the Republican right wing agenda, or she and other party leaders should step aside and allow our voices to be heard, ala Howard Dean.  The letter is in extended viewing and I hope everyone will write to Pelosi and Reid and let them know we do not expect or want politics as usual anymore.  Here's my opening paragraph:

Congresswoman Pelosi,
Now that it is seems inevitable the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee will be Howard Dean, I hope you start listening to the local and state party leaders who will have put him there.  After all, they represent the voices of your own constituency (including me), as well as the constituencies of your Democratic colleagues.  The majority of those local and state party leaders (ASDC) supported and endorsed Dean despite the DNC's executive committee's recommendation to endorse another candidate.  As a New York Times article of Feb 6, 2005 reports:

            ...some party elders worried that his
            tone was too sharp for a national
            spokesman, and then, as now, they
            tried to stop him. This time, he
            stopped them.
             http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/politics/06dean.html?oref=login