Before the Dean boom the Democrats were beginning to look like a permanent minority party in the making: too timid to do anything but go along with the White House's grand schemes for eliminating taxation or democratising the Middle East.
He has a plan to promote growth, but its mixture of stimulus spending and increased taxation is anathema to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The Treasury secretary's opposition to raising the tariffs on steel products and removing the double taxation on corporate dividends were bound to rub the White House the wrong way.