Howard Dean: Wisconsin Was a Win for the Democrats!

Former Vermont governor and DNC chairman Howard Dean has a unique take on the Wisconsin recall attempt that saw Gov. Scott Walker, Republican, become the first governor in US history to survive a recall attempt. Not only did Walker survive, so did Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and all but one of the recalled Republican state senators. Big Labor poured millions of dollars, and the Democrats deployed former President Bill Clinton, to attempt to defeat all of the Republicans on the recall ballot, and portrayed Walker as a dictator bent on ramming his agenda through the state legislature. Walker won easily over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat.

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During an interview at Netroots Nation over the weekend, Gov. Dean found a shining silver lining in the Wisconsin storm.

GOV. HOWARD DEAN: First of all, we look at Wisconsin as a win, we, which is not reported in the mainstream media. We picked up a Senate seat which denies Scott Walker a majority in the senate. So we put the brakes on him, uh, at least until the next election season.

The Democrats’ lone recall victory means less than it might appear, because the Wisconsin senate is not in session won’t even return to session until January 2013. By then, the Republicans stand a strong change of regaining their majority thanks to redistricting. The Republicans have a pair of pick-up opportunities; the Democrats have none. Winning one of the two would give the Republicans their majority back before the senate comes back into session. The recall will have gained the Democrats absolutely nothing if this happens.

Later in the interview, Dean opined on the week that was for the Democrats:

DEAN: I’m not one of those who thought last week was a bad week for the Democrats, I actually thought it was a good week for the Democrats.

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Last week opened with the Wisconsin recall, three California cities passing government union reforms or paving the way for such reforms, progressed through awful national jobs numbers and, everyone thought, ended with President Obama’s “the private sector is doing fine” gaffe. On Saturday, Obama’s commerce secretary was accused of a felony.

It that is not a bad week for the Democrats, what is?

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