Post by Walter on Dec 2, 2003 0:00:26 GMT -5
Just in case our Liberal friends continue to believe the drivel about their willingness to work with the current administration in resolving the issues, the Dems have only one goal. PERIOD.
This article makes it plain that there is only one objective. It is verbatim from the Washington Post.
Players: Josh Wachs
Official at DNC Aims To Lead 'Eviction'
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2003; Page A21
Josh Wachs is explaining his responsibilities as chief operating officer at the Democratic National Committee when inspiration strikes. He gets up from his desk and steps to the window of his office that overlooks 16th Street NW, bends his body to the south and tries to peer around a pillar that blocks his view.
"From my office, you look down here and just about see the White House," he says. "That guy" -- and here he is referring to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., President Bush -- "needs to be evicted from there, and I'm the head of the eviction crew. That's how I describe it."
Technically, the head of that eviction crew is DNC Chairman Terence McAuliffe, the irrepressible public face of the national committee and a nonstop cheerleader on every television talk show that will have him. Wachs, the self-effacing staff director, helps make McAuliffe possible.
"My job is to try to figure out how to make it all work," he said. "Our challenge is to make the DNC a more streamlined, leaner, more efficient institution that is maniacally focused on beating George Bush and taking back the White House, and everything we do here between now and Election Day has got to somehow meet that goal."
This is not the easiest time to be in Wachs's shoes. The Democrats suffered a demoralizing defeat in the 2002 midterms, losing the Senate and failing for the fourth consecutive election to win back the House. Those losses raised questions about McAuliffe's leadership, although no one seriously tried to challenge it. The 2004 elections do not look any less demanding.
On top of that, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law -- which leading Democrats supported -- has put the DNC at a huge disadvantage in the fundraising wars for the 2004 election. Democrats thrived on the big, unregulated contributions known as "soft money," which are no longer legal. McCain-Feingold has forced the DNC to revamp its entire fundraising apparatus.
"We are very clear that we are going to be outmanned and they're going to raise way more money than we are," Wachs said of the Republicans. "We know we're going to be outspent substantially. . . . We are very focused on what we're up against, and that's why there's got to be this maniacal focus (emphasis added) here."
Wachs ascended to the job of chief operating officer last summer, as the DNC was preparing for the post-McCain-Feingold regulations. McAuliffe already had begun to try to expand the party's base of small-dollar contributors and find potential Democratic voters through more targeted communication.
Forced to run the DNC on far less money, Wachs had to oversee a sharp reduction in overhead, including a decision to lay off nearly one-third of the staff. Pulling a bottle out of the dorm-style refrigerator in his office, he said, "I now pay for my own water. [Otherwise] that's 75 cents that's not going to contact voters."
He has moved quickly to reach the position he holds. A native of New York, he grew up in a family committed to progressive causes and remembers going to nuclear disarmament rallies as a boy on his father's shoulders.
His first act of political activism came in high school in the late 1980s, when during a time of racial tension in New York, he persuaded the leaders of his private school to devote an entire day to studying racial issues. The event drew, among other speakers, the future mayor of New York, David N. Dinkins.
Party politics came later. Casting around for a summer job in 1991, Wachs landed an internship at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. After he returned for his junior year at Oberlin College in Ohio, he decided he wanted to take leave from school to work on a presidential campaign and called one of the people he had worked for that summer, Jeff Eller, for advice.
"He said, 'There's this great guy; he's governor of Arkansas; you probably haven't heard of him. I'm going to work for him; I'll set you up in Little Rock Jan. 1,' " Wachs recalled.
"I said, 'I haven't heard about him, but I've been reading about this guy Tom Harkin. I think I really want to go work for him,' " Wachs said. "And Jeff said, 'Good luck' and hung up the phone."
Wachs drove from Ohio to New Hampshire, took up residence as a field operative for Harkin's doomed campaign, then spent the fall of 1992 helping organize college students for Bill Clinton in Ohio.
Wachs graduated from Oberlin in 1993 with a major in sociology and black studies, returned to Washington to work for the College Democrats and spent much of the next four years living the nomadic life of a young political operative. He worked on or managed campaigns in Virginia, New Mexico, New York and South Carolina.
For most of the past six years, Wachs has held various positions at the DNC, learning the business from such party veterans as Harold Ickes, former White House deputy chief of staff; Michael Whouley, who ran the DNC field organization during the 2000 presidential campaign; and Jill Alper, former DNC political director.
Under McAuliffe and Wachs, the DNC has taken steps to get the party ready for the 2004 campaign. The DNC has engineered changes in the primary and caucus calendar that Wachs said will produce not just an early nominee, but also "a well-tested nominee."
McAuliffe and Wachs have recruited Teresa Vilmain, considered one of the best organizers in the party, as general election strategist. The two also just brokered arrangements for a series of nationally televised debates for the Democratic presidential candidates, a job that may have been as valuable as it was thankless, as they navigated through the maze of Democratic interest groups eager to play host to the candidates.
Wachs may be singularly focused on defeating Bush, but he has other dreams as well. A few weeks ago, he spent a weekend in New York at a seminar on how to run a restaurant. A self-confessed gourmand, his biggest complaint about Washington is the lack of good, modestly priced restaurants.
That, however, is for another day. Between now and November 2004, Wachs has one goal in mind: helping the Democrats to assemble an electoral majority that will send Bush back to Texas. "I like to think I wake up thinking about how to get to 270 [electoral votes]," he says.
This article makes it plain that there is only one objective. It is verbatim from the Washington Post.
Players: Josh Wachs
Official at DNC Aims To Lead 'Eviction'
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2003; Page A21
Josh Wachs is explaining his responsibilities as chief operating officer at the Democratic National Committee when inspiration strikes. He gets up from his desk and steps to the window of his office that overlooks 16th Street NW, bends his body to the south and tries to peer around a pillar that blocks his view.
"From my office, you look down here and just about see the White House," he says. "That guy" -- and here he is referring to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., President Bush -- "needs to be evicted from there, and I'm the head of the eviction crew. That's how I describe it."
Technically, the head of that eviction crew is DNC Chairman Terence McAuliffe, the irrepressible public face of the national committee and a nonstop cheerleader on every television talk show that will have him. Wachs, the self-effacing staff director, helps make McAuliffe possible.
"My job is to try to figure out how to make it all work," he said. "Our challenge is to make the DNC a more streamlined, leaner, more efficient institution that is maniacally focused on beating George Bush and taking back the White House, and everything we do here between now and Election Day has got to somehow meet that goal."
This is not the easiest time to be in Wachs's shoes. The Democrats suffered a demoralizing defeat in the 2002 midterms, losing the Senate and failing for the fourth consecutive election to win back the House. Those losses raised questions about McAuliffe's leadership, although no one seriously tried to challenge it. The 2004 elections do not look any less demanding.
On top of that, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law -- which leading Democrats supported -- has put the DNC at a huge disadvantage in the fundraising wars for the 2004 election. Democrats thrived on the big, unregulated contributions known as "soft money," which are no longer legal. McCain-Feingold has forced the DNC to revamp its entire fundraising apparatus.
"We are very clear that we are going to be outmanned and they're going to raise way more money than we are," Wachs said of the Republicans. "We know we're going to be outspent substantially. . . . We are very focused on what we're up against, and that's why there's got to be this maniacal focus (emphasis added) here."
Wachs ascended to the job of chief operating officer last summer, as the DNC was preparing for the post-McCain-Feingold regulations. McAuliffe already had begun to try to expand the party's base of small-dollar contributors and find potential Democratic voters through more targeted communication.
Forced to run the DNC on far less money, Wachs had to oversee a sharp reduction in overhead, including a decision to lay off nearly one-third of the staff. Pulling a bottle out of the dorm-style refrigerator in his office, he said, "I now pay for my own water. [Otherwise] that's 75 cents that's not going to contact voters."
He has moved quickly to reach the position he holds. A native of New York, he grew up in a family committed to progressive causes and remembers going to nuclear disarmament rallies as a boy on his father's shoulders.
His first act of political activism came in high school in the late 1980s, when during a time of racial tension in New York, he persuaded the leaders of his private school to devote an entire day to studying racial issues. The event drew, among other speakers, the future mayor of New York, David N. Dinkins.
Party politics came later. Casting around for a summer job in 1991, Wachs landed an internship at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. After he returned for his junior year at Oberlin College in Ohio, he decided he wanted to take leave from school to work on a presidential campaign and called one of the people he had worked for that summer, Jeff Eller, for advice.
"He said, 'There's this great guy; he's governor of Arkansas; you probably haven't heard of him. I'm going to work for him; I'll set you up in Little Rock Jan. 1,' " Wachs recalled.
"I said, 'I haven't heard about him, but I've been reading about this guy Tom Harkin. I think I really want to go work for him,' " Wachs said. "And Jeff said, 'Good luck' and hung up the phone."
Wachs drove from Ohio to New Hampshire, took up residence as a field operative for Harkin's doomed campaign, then spent the fall of 1992 helping organize college students for Bill Clinton in Ohio.
Wachs graduated from Oberlin in 1993 with a major in sociology and black studies, returned to Washington to work for the College Democrats and spent much of the next four years living the nomadic life of a young political operative. He worked on or managed campaigns in Virginia, New Mexico, New York and South Carolina.
For most of the past six years, Wachs has held various positions at the DNC, learning the business from such party veterans as Harold Ickes, former White House deputy chief of staff; Michael Whouley, who ran the DNC field organization during the 2000 presidential campaign; and Jill Alper, former DNC political director.
Under McAuliffe and Wachs, the DNC has taken steps to get the party ready for the 2004 campaign. The DNC has engineered changes in the primary and caucus calendar that Wachs said will produce not just an early nominee, but also "a well-tested nominee."
McAuliffe and Wachs have recruited Teresa Vilmain, considered one of the best organizers in the party, as general election strategist. The two also just brokered arrangements for a series of nationally televised debates for the Democratic presidential candidates, a job that may have been as valuable as it was thankless, as they navigated through the maze of Democratic interest groups eager to play host to the candidates.
Wachs may be singularly focused on defeating Bush, but he has other dreams as well. A few weeks ago, he spent a weekend in New York at a seminar on how to run a restaurant. A self-confessed gourmand, his biggest complaint about Washington is the lack of good, modestly priced restaurants.
That, however, is for another day. Between now and November 2004, Wachs has one goal in mind: helping the Democrats to assemble an electoral majority that will send Bush back to Texas. "I like to think I wake up thinking about how to get to 270 [electoral votes]," he says.
