NewsMax.com (no link available) maintains that the intramural squabbling in the Democratic Party is being resolved in favor of the Kennedy/Kerry far left wing to the detriment of the somewhat more moderately liberal Clinton wing:
The apparent selection of Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic Party indicates the party does not want to learn from its ways. That's good news for Republicans. The Dean ascension also indicates that when it comes to grassroots Democrats, it's the liberalism of Dean, Kerry and Ted Kennedy that still holds sway among party cadres.
For some time, NewsMax has reported that Hillary Clinton has long had her guns set on Dean. During the bitter primary campaign last year, we noted that a source close to Dean's mother blamed Hillary and Bill for all of her son's campaign woes. Now it is no longer an open secret that Hillary dislikes Dean.
But it is clear that a larger civil war has long been under way in the Democratic Party that ironically has pitted Hillary and Bill as the "moderates" against Dean and his faction - which is still controlled by the Kennedy-Kerry circle.
Kennedy's recent bellicose speech to the National Press Club spit in the face of moderation and said the party should stick to its core positions: pacifism, higher taxes, more abortion rights, more gay rights, etc. The reasoning for this positioning is that the Kennedy faction does not believe the Democrats have lost elections because of their liberal views.
They believe that the 2004 election was lost solely on national security and the "war on terror." An associate of Kennedy recently told NewsMax the view is simple: "Stand firm, and the Iraq war will turn into such a disaster, the Democrats will win big in 2006." The source added, "The Democrats won't have to do a thing but remain opposed to the war."
The war and growing body count will feed angst, the source said, among the right wing, who will soon demand an end to the war. Perhaps so. But the recent relatively calm elections in Iraq suggest the insurgency may be abating rather than increasing.
The Kennedy faction is quite likely correct that the Republicans won last year on the basis of the war on terror, but that doesn't mean that if the Democrats just stick to their position of negativism and obstructionism that it will carry them to victory in 2008. Many voters are beginning to suspect that they "misunderestimated" George Bush in a number of important ways, and the Republicans are beginning to convince many minorities that they don't belong in the Democratic party any more. If the economy continues to improve, and if democracy in Iraq continues to flourish, the Democrats are going to need more than the same threadbare liberal platitudes if they hope to keep the blue states from wandering out of the corral.