I don't see the video up at CNN yet, but the transcript is available. I like the way he handled it, making it clear it was the job of the DNC to form the database the party uses. Further, he made it clear that the database Harold Ickes was building in a private company...is for Ickes' purposes.
The grin was good, it showed he knew what was going on. It also showed he was confident in the database they are building at the DNC with the team he brought aboard.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/12/le.01.html
BLITZER: Speaking of infrastructure, and there's a lot that goes into winning elections, there was a little bit of a stir this week. Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton and to Bill Clinton, he was a former White House deputy chief of staff under Bill Clinton, let me read to you what The Washington Post wrote on Wednesday: "Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front." What he's trying to do, and our Mary Snow reported it this week as well, is he's trying to create some new computer statistics, some new technology to help someone like Hillary or someone else move down the road in 2008 to get the kind of advantage they need to recapture the White House.
DEAN: We looked at what they're doing. It's a fine thing for outside -- for in terms of outside organizations. But the Democratic National Committee has to be the one that develops the voter file to be used by Democratic candidates. That's the law. We now have, based on what my predecessor did in terms of gathering information, we now have a technological platform that will do that.
BLITZER: But he says the database isn't good enough, and that's why he wants to create another one. We're talking about Harold Ickes.
DEAN: The database is very, very good. I brought my own technological people from my campaign to do it. And one thing, you may or may not have liked what I did in the campaign, but nobody argues with the technical skills of my folks.
And we brought them in. They're creating what needs to be done, and we'll have that ready, not just for senators and Congressmen. It has to be ready for mayors, for city councilors, for state representatives. You can't win the presidency unless you can start doing what we're now doing in places like Mississippi and Alabama and Missouri and Utah. We're now starting to win races on the ground.
Wolf then keeps on asking if Harold Ickes is wrong. Dean said he could make his own database for other purposes. Wolf asked of Dean thought Ickes was wasting money. Howard says
"I wouldn't say he was wasting money. He may want to do this for his own purpose, but it won't basically help candidates. They have to rely on hard money. It can't help federal candidates." They discuss the primary plans that are being made as well, but I am beyond my 4 paragraphs now. It was a good interview.
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