US: Mr Howard Dean, who failed to win the Democratic Party nomination to contest the US presidency against George Bush, has revived his political fortunes and is poised to take over as party chairman.
The former Vermont governor, who lost the party nomination race to Mr John Kerry, is expected to be confirmed next week as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, succeeding Mr Terry McAuliffe who ran the party machine for the last four years.
Mr Dean's dominance has dismayed party leaders, including Bill and Hillary Clinton who declined to back his presidential campaign in 2004. The two Democratic leaders in Congress, Senator Harry Reid and Congress member Nancy Pelosi, had backed a rival for the job of chairman of the party. Their opposition stems from Mr Dean's image as an anti-war liberal at a time when the country has shifted to the right.
Republicans expressed delight that the former Democratic front-runner - whose famous scream after losing the Iowa caucus made him a figure of fun - would be the new face of the party. "I think it's a scream," said Mr Richard Bond, former head of the Republican National Committee, who forecast that the former medical doctor from Burlington, Vermont, would reinforce all the Democrats' worst instincts.
However, Mr Bond also acknowledged that Mr Dean was very capable and energetic, qualities which helped him secure the backing of rank and file Democrats for the Washington-based job.
One of the main tasks of party chairman is raising money and Mr Dean pioneered a hugely successful on-line fund-raising effort as presidential candidate and brought young and enthusiastic voters into the party. Though often characterised as liberal, Mr Dean is a fiscal conservative. He travelled the country in recent weeks to reassure members of the 447-strong National Democratic Committee that he was not an out-of-control member of the left.
He surged ahead after his establishment rival Mr Martin Frost dropped out because of low trade union support. "It's a fait accompli, it's over: Dean's going to be it," said Mr Gerald McEntee, the most powerful political figure in the AFL-CIO, who only last year dismissed Mr Dean as "nuts".
The New York Observer noted tongue-in-cheek yesterday that soon after Mr Dean took a solid lead in the race to lead the Democratic National Committee, Senator Clinton fainted in Buffalo.
It hastened to add that the two events were not related but that the former Vermont governor and the New York senator would be locked into "an uneasy partnership that will define their party for the next three years".