I DON'T CARE ABOUT DAVE FREUDENTHAL

Did you already read your copy of today's JACKSON HOLE STAR-TRIBUNE? If you haven't gotten to it yet, I'll save you the trouble. Wyoming is a GOP bastion (to put it mildly)-- with Repugs controlling the state legislature and all the statewide offices including both Senate seats and the lone congressional seat-- but with a first term, and very popular, Democratic governor, Dave Freudenthal. Freudenthal was able to capitalize on a "time for a change" approach in the otherwise one-party state (where Bush got about 70% in 2004). This past weekend the state Democratic Party had a meeting; I guess in a state with more Democrats it would have been called a convention. Freudenthal said Wyoming Democrats "should distance themselves from liberal national party leaders whose agenda frequently differs from" Wyoming's. Wyoming Democrats should instead focus on local issues that relate to Wyoming residents... I don't care about Howard Dean."

All 75 Democrats in the state were there, as was DNC Vice Chairman Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA). "This is a party that's not afraid of firearms," Freudenthal blathered on, probably forgetting that Dean is not only an NRA member but also a candidate who was endorsed by the NRA. "It's a party where people are interested in whether the governor managed to shoot an antelope with one shot."

Honda, probably shocked by the yahoo Governor trying to make cheap points at Dean's expense, even though Dean is the Party's BIGGEST champion of state organizations, said Democrats have learned a lot of hard lessons in the last few years and are ready now to move forward. "We have a hard time deciding what our core values are and what are issues," he said. "Howard Dean gets that. He's going around the country talking to people." Local policy variances are also something that the DNC can accommodate, he said. "Different places have different culture, and we have to deal with it," Honda said. "Your politics are pretty good. They're down to earth." Freudenthal and Honda both agreed on how the party could gain more power: Focus on local elections and local issues.

However, when asked whether this is the year for big Democratic gains in Wyoming, Freudenthal, sounding like any of the DLC pols who have wrecked the Democratic Party before a grass roots anti-Establishment movement gave Dean the Party chairmanship, said: "I wouldn't hold your breath."
Two names surfaced at the meeting as potential congressional candidates next year: Dale Groutage, a Fremont County Solid Waste Disposal District board member (U.S. Senate) and Gary Trauner, chairman of the Teton County School Board, (for the at-large House seat). The STAR-TRIBUNE reports that neither would go into any detail about their ideology or platform should they choose to run.