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When Howard Dean became chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2005, the Republican Party controlled the Senate, the House and the White House. His ascension to the Democratic Party's top leadership job was hailed by no less a prophet than Newt Gingrich as proof of the Democratic Party's insane "death wish."

One can only hope that the Republican Party continues to heed Newt's sage advice (he's now reported to be considering a bid for the RNC chairmanship himself - "Run, Newt, Run!"). During Howard Dean's tenure as party chair, not only did the GOP cough-up control of both houses of Congress, it just lost the presidency in an epic rout.  And the winner was an African American candidate who ran a fifty-state campaign modeled entirely on Dean's trademark strategy of competing in every region of the country.  If 53% of the popular vote and an electoral vote landslide constitutes a "death wish," then whip me up a pitcher of that Kool-Aid--I'm buying drinks for the house.

This past week, Chairman-Governor-Doctor Dean announced that he would not be seeking a second term when the DNC meets in January.  As much as the Democratic Party has benefited from his leadership and vision, that's the smart move for Dean himself.  It's hard to imagine how he could top his achievements as chairman, and he's rumored to be interested in serving as HHS secretary in the Obama cabinet.

On the night he lost the Iowa caucuses, I was standing thirty feet behind Howard Dean when he made his ill-fated "Scream Speech,"  Within a week, this smart, tough politician was reduced to a caricature; a red-faced, angry man whose ideology trumped his judgement.  Funny how things work out.  Dean's rant about the states that he would compete in as a candidate  --"We're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York ... and we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeah!!" -- turns out to have been a four-year road map for someone else: the President-elect of the United States of America.