Via Newsday:
Former Clinton aide Harold Ickes and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk let top Democrats know Tuesday that they won’t be running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Ickes, a longtime Democratic activist, let party members know he would not be running.
"I just decided I probably did not have enough of the attributes (a chairman needs) to do the party justice," Ickes said in an interview.
OK, that means Dean is practically a shoe in for the job. I think that’s the real reason Ickes got out. Besides, he wants to be clear of the implosion that will occur when Dean and the Deaniacs run the party into the ground. When that happens, Ickes will be available to ride Hillary’s rescue train ‘o love into the 2008 campaign.