Dean On Hackett

I'm not sure I buy this.

Dean told a student audience in Miami that "some skulduggery in Washington" improperly led to Hackett's decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others.

Hackett was vying with Ohio congressman Sherrod Brown for the Democratic nomination. He said that Hackett was a "great candidate," and that a primary in Ohio wouldn't have hurt the party. Hackett says he's ending his eleven-month political career.

Howard Dean is the Chairman for the Democratic National Committee. He either has no say in his party or was unsupportive of Hackett's Senate bid. It's a little late to be in Hackett's corner.

Dan Drezner makes the point that "this is a pretty big slap in the face to the argument that the Democratic Party is being held hostage by its netroots base."

Kos explains what went on behind the scenes.

To make something clear, Hackett is complaining about betrayal. Yet Rahm was trying to get him to become one of his candidates. In other words, Rahm was recruiting him. That's not a bad thing. That's a flattering thing.

To be clear -- Hackett didn't stand a chance. He had a tenth of Brown's money, and that was before party people allegedly tried to stop Hackett's donors from giving. His field operation in the special election was literally put together and implemented by Dan Lucas. Who is Dan Lucas? Sherrod Brown's campaign manager. Hackett's netroots effort in the special election was put together by Tim Tagaris. And while Tim is now at the DNC, he helped put together Brown's netroots operation.

So it was Brown's people who helped put together the nuts and bolts of Hackett's special election campaign, and they were now working for their boss -- Sherrod Brown.

I sense that Republicans could use Hackett's dropping out against Brown. I can already hear the chants of Democratics backstabbing an Iraq war vet. My advice is that once Hackett cools down the Dems should have Hackett stump for Brown. In return, the Dems will throw lots of money to Hackett for his next campaign. I know that sounds good in theory. The problem is will Hackett go along with the game plan.