Here's the spin according to the Post: Dean has screwed up so badly that Congressional Democrats won't return his calls. If Democrats lose, it's his fault. To save the day, the leaders of the Beltway Democrats have recruited superhero consultants such as Michael Whouley, a principal architect of the 2004 Kerry-527 strategy, to run the party's national campaign to regain control of Congress.

Ah, Michael Whouley. This guy and his partners at the Dewey Square Group deserve a front-page article all their own. Whouley, after all, is masterfully effective at two things.

First, Whouley is a lobbying wizard. Whouley and the Dewey Square gang have an imposing corporate client list; it ranges from Wal-Mart and Fox News to Coca-Cola and Microsoft. Whouley and his Dewey Square partners used their connections to undermine antitrust enforcement on behalf of Microsoft and boost gambling interests along with allies like Jack Abarmoff, Grover Norquist, and Ralph Reed. They give Fox News an edge in ad wars, and convince inner city kids that Coke isn't an obesity killer.

Second, Whouley is good at making money for himself. Whouley sat inside the DNC in 2004 and was paid to identify strategies, talent, and contractors. And wouldn't you know, one of the owners of the companies that scored contracts was Michael Whouley.

So he's good at lobbying and good at making money. But when it comes to beating Republicans, Michael Whouley is no good at all.

Massachusetts has had sixteen years of Republican governors, and Whouley has touched every campaign in that period. Call it the Massachusetts dilemma. Whouley and others who control our party's campaign apparatus grew up in the one-party political world of Massachusetts. Tough races against Republicans were rare events. When some talented Republican candidates emerged for governor, the regular operatives were hapless. This same crowd went on to run the show behind the scenes in both the Dukakis and Kerry campaigns.

In 2004, Whouley was in charge of field operations. So Whouley ultimately oversaw the GOTV operation in key states such as Ohio. The 2004 Ohio GOTV operation is the biggest untold scandal in the history of Democratic campaigns. Professional hacks were shipped to the state. Dozens of counties were neglected on election day. What's more, I'm told the data contained on voting lists was disastrously unreliable. Worst of all, the campaign's computers--the entire voter data system--crashed on election day. Not just in Ohio, but also in Florida. As a result, campaign workers had no way to keep track of individuals they needed to contact and encourage to vote. This is a story that has yet to be told. But it should be.

Meanwhile, this same team is in charge of the DCCC effort for this fall.

Back to Dean. Dean's people have already done a better job--certainly they've done better than the 2004 crowd. First off, his computers haven't crashed, and given that the DNC has a system designed by computer engineers who mapped the human genome, their computers won't crash. (Not something that Joe Lieberman can say.)

Second, Dean has raised more money--and it has come from new sources because the traditional sources have been diverted from the DNC to the pools of DCCC and DSCC money that are largely controlled by Whouley and his allies, the designated leaders of the old guard campaign faction. Dean is criticized for spending some resources on traditionally Republican states. Yet, he's also raised more money in those states. And he's spent more on the key races than his party rivals did in 2004.

So we're in a battle for control of the Party. The players are positioning to take credit for an expected victory this fall. The old faction seeks to dispose of Dean and his allies. And the old faction is winning in the press.

The losers will be Dean, tech-oriented activists, and Democratic voters in fifty states. Meanwhile, Whouley's presence in Democratic campaigns ensures that the Wal-Mart themes raised in Democratic campaigns will be - and should be - viewed cynically by voters everywhere.

Whouley helps Wal-Mart and Fox News and Coke. He wins for the other guys. But he loses to Republicans.