Vilsack Out!

Vilsack won't seek the DNC chair position (link)

DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said Monday that he will not seek the chairmanship of the Democratic Party.

"These challenges and opportunities require more time than I felt I could share," Vilsack said in a statement. "As a result I will not be a candidate for DNC chairman."

Well this certainly opens things up doesn't it? As of now it sounds like there are two prominent candidates left for the post. The first is Howard Dean. The second is Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democrat Network (link). Rosenberg might be an acceptable compromise candidate. He is not viewed by the establishment Dems as being as maverick as Dean and he has a lot of close ties with the progressive forces that have coalesced around Dean (Rosenberg was an early critic of those Democrats who hammered on Dean as being to outside the mainstream). I suspect the Vilsack/Anybody-But-Dean forces will move to Rosenberg now.

Rosenberg at least has the advantage over other alternative candidates in that he himself is not an Anybody-But-Deaner.

If Rosenberg withdraws his name, I don't know who is left who could oppose Dean.