Just who was Carville after?

I think that the blogospheric knee-jerk that James Carville was after Howard Dean at the behest of Rahm Emanuel/the DLC ended up doing exactly what the Ragin' Cajun intended - attack his enemy.

Carville is a clever political strategist, and as ruthless in his own way as his nemesis, Lee Atwater. What he did the other day, suggesting Harold Ford replace Howard Dean, made no sense to me until I read the LA Times this morning.

Ryan Lizza played right along with the "Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean" schtick on Friday. The DLC haters of the whack-job blogosphere fell all over themselves to provide the missing part of the argument - "some" Democrats *must* mean more than Carville, and that some must mean Rahm Emanuel and all the other "DLC" people we hate!

And so was launched two days of blogospheric invective against the Evil Emanuel and the DLC Thieves™. Jimmy Carville sat back in his chair and grinned.

Then comes the Sunday LA Times article with this opening:

Rahm Emanuel was seething.

The head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was hurtling down an asphalt road in upstate New York on the 47th trip of his ferocious effort to win control of the House. A lecture, even from political consultant James Carville, was the last thing he needed.

In just 12 days, his campaign would end either in a historic victory — a triumph that almost no one believed possible when he took the job nearly two years ago — or in colossal failure.

And here were Carville and pollster Stan Greenberg telling him he had to make each of his handpicked candidates shift from attack mode and strike a conciliatory note in their final campaign ads.

"James. No, James, YOU LISTEN," Illinois Rep. Emanuel barked into a cellphone before releasing a string of profane invectives more intense than usual. "Can you listen for one … minute? I'm working these campaigns all the time. The campaigns all have different textures."

His wiry body tensed, his voice breaking with stress. Emanuel shouted, "If you don't like what you see, I highly recommend you pick up the … phone and do it yourself."

Emanuel's tough-guy strategy for success

And all the lights went on in my head. James Carville rat-fucked both Howard Dean and Rahm Emanuel with his words to Lizza, tossing a lighted match into the paranoid conspiracy theory obsessives of the blogosphere who were already pissed off at the ostensible snubbing of their hero, Dr. Dean. You guys did Carville's dirty work for him, turning a momentary ego collision (which was on its way to being resolved) into an alleged purge.

You gullible fools. This is how your obsessive hatred of this fantasy beast "the DLC" is being used to jerk you around. You are like the fundamentalist Xtians you like to ridicule, being led around by the nose by the cynical operatives who have their own agenda. It's not even a reflection of reality anymore. Ed Kilgore patiently explains to you over and over that you are ignorant of history and, more dangerously, building up a boogey man that will be pulled out of the closet whenever someone wants you to start slobbering and snarling.

Carville was settling scores against Emanuel, and probably against Dean, too. These guys go way back and have grudges andd scores you can't imagine. You folks got played, big time. Try not to be such easy marks in the future, OK?

Anglachel