Howard Dean on the Democratic party:

Democrats balance budgets, Republicans do not. Democrats consistently try to pass legislation that would provide some kind of affordable health care, Republicans do not. Democrats believe we ought to raise the minimum wage to help the average worker keep up with the cost of living, Republicans do not. Democrats believe corporations have too much power over our daily lives; Republicans do not - and to prove it, they have given away billions of dollars of our tax money to the biggest corporations in the world over the last four years.

[...] Democrats can win by simply being Democrats. Reinventing ourselves as Republicans is the death knell of our party. We need to get back to basics and start listening to people from outside Washington. Only then can we save the greatest nation on the face of the earth from the twin Republican perils of enormous deficits and constant misadventures abroad.

I hope the "outside Washington" reference is a hint that he doesn't want the DNC chair - but that's probably just looking for tea leaves to read.

It's great that Dean is working to fix his deeply broken party, but this cycle is the closest attention I've ever paid to the Democrats, and, well, I would spend a lot more time and energy criticizing them (on both substance and tactics) if it weren't that the Republicans were so much more dangerous and deluded and I'm disinclined to give the party that actively wants to destroy my country (the Republicans) ammunition against the spineless, willing-victim, appeasers (the Democrats).

I seem to be back where I started - supporting Howard Dean and looking for targetted races and organizations to throw my support to. One difference, I suppose, is that I am paying more attention to my state and local Democratic parties to see how corrupted by the national nitwits they are. The jury's still out on that.