Homage to Howard Dean

From the Hill: "Last Laugh May Replace the Scream."

Howard Dean doesn’t believe in luck, nor does he leave matters to chance.

“My favorite quote is from Louis Pasteur: Chance favors the prepared mind,” Dean said in an interview Monday while campaigning in John McCain’s home state of Arizona.

Dean envisioned the Democratic Party building a new base in solidly Republican strongholds, and should Barack Obama win the presidency and Democrats expand their margins in Congress on Tuesday, as most polls predict, Dean will walk away from this election as one of the unsung heroes.

“Quiet” is not a word most people would have used for Dean four years ago, when he bowed out of the 2004 presidential race with a now-infamous scream.

But Dean, the former Vermont governor, took control of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2005 amid cries that he would embarrass the party — and from there, built the party’s political machine.

Dean relied on his own brand of grassroots organization, ventured into rural districts that typically vote Republican and recycled the language of empowerment from his failed presidential campaign, which has become the template for Obama’s historic run for the White House.

All the while, Dean has kept out of the media spotlight, something Democratic leaders suggested after Republicans pounced on a few impolitic comments, such as claiming that a lot of Republicans “have never made an honest living in their lives.”

Even Dean’s one-time opponents give him credit.

“I think it’s partial vindication,” said Harold Ickes, a longtime ally of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) who opposed Dean for the DNC chairmanship. “There are special circumstances in each state. In Alaska, who would have predicted the conviction of Sen. [Ted] Stevens [R]?”

But Dean’s farsighted preparations put Democrats in the position to benefit if Republicans faltered, as Stevens did in Alaska, and his vision of challenging in far-flung Republican strongholds has borne results.

Democratic candidates stand a chance of capturing the Senate seat in Mississippi, and polls show Obama within striking distance of winning Indiana and North Carolina.

Dean paid for national-party staff in all 50 states and developed a single voter database for every Democratic candidate to use in 47 states.

Read the whole thing HERE.

Hats off to Dr. Dean.

More later.