Tuesday, December 07, 2004
What's Wrong With The Democrats? The DLC.
Whose party is it anyway?
Harry Reid may be the Democrats' new Senate leader, but this week, blue eyes are on Howard Dean.
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By Tim Grieve For Salon
Dec. 7, 2004 | Harry Reid says Democrats have to "swallow their pride" and move toward the middle. Harry Reid says he admires Antonin Scalia's "brilliance" and could imagine voting to confirm him as chief justice of the United States. Harry Reid says he'd rather "dance" with George W. Bush than "fight" him.
Harry Reid says: "I'm the face of the Democratic Party today."
Harry Reid may be right. For a party that came within 119,000 Ohio votes of ousting a sitting president in a time of war, the Democrats are sounding awfully defeated these days. There's talk of making the most of long-term minority status, of compromising on judicial appointments and "moral issues" like the rights of gay couples and women -- Reid, the Democrats' new Senate leader, is anti-choice -- and of trying to figure out some way to outflank the Republicans from the red-state right.
And then there's Howard Dean.
The once-and-maybe-future presidential candidate has kept a relatively low profile since election night, but that's going to change Wednesday, when Dean delivers what his aides are calling a "major speech" in Washington. The subject: Dean's vision for the Democratic Party. The not-so-hidden subtext: his role in it.
On the night after John Kerry lost to George W. Bush, Dean told supporters on a Meetup conference call that the Democratic National Committee is "at a crossroads" and that DNC members "have questions to ask themselves." But now, as Dean prepares for his Bush II coming out and weighs a bid to replace Terry McAuliffe as the head of the DNC, it's the DNC members who have questions for Dean: Where does he want the party to go, and is he willing to put aside his own presidential aspirations to help take it there? Read The Full Story Here
I am throwing my bid in for Howard Dean as the head of the DNC. Why? It is Howard Dean who revitalized the party this year. It was not the Democratic Leadership Council boobs, Dick Gephart, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, or John Edwards, or any of the carpetbagger consultants like Bob Shrum or Donna Brazile. As my pal over at Prettylittlehead.com says, they have no loyalty to the candidates who they work for, therefore they have no loyalty to the party. They have done more to destroy the credibility of the party than any one candidate has in the past two election cycles. I am sick of hearing Donna Brazile talk as though she has accomplished something. What has she accomplished? Oh, I lost the campaign for my candidate in 2000. What do we need with the needless nattering of these turncoats who are paid to go on the talk shows to facilitate the destruction of powerful candidates such as Howard Dean? Now he is running to reform the party and they are out there again trying to sow seeds of doubt. The DLC will never be able to win if we rely on folks like Harry Reid, who may as well be a Republican with statements like the above. How do we differentiate ourselves as a oppositional party if we have folks who still have not learned the lesson that we cannot mimic the enemy and win. DLC=Republican Lite and every time, folks are going to go with the real thing. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
We have to retake the party for the American people. We need to return to our roots of social justice. We need to stop the corporatization of America. We need to fight the moral hypocrites and make our values known and have Americans understand that these are their values. We have to stop chasing the center, which the Reps will always pull further and further to the right. We cannot win that game, so we must change the rules of engagement and fight to win. We have the values and the history of justice behind us. Are we willing to hold our party accountable to its roots or will we sit back and let the consultants and the DLC corporate shills further marginalize us? Make it known that you will not sit back and let them conduct business as usual.
We are in the fight of our lives if you have not noticed. The right has only been energized by this past election. Even though there is not a resounding mandate for their ideological attack on America, they are mobilizing like it is. The press (With a few brave exceptions.) has drank the Kool-Aid once again and are giving a full pass to the Bush administration and their comrades in Congress. We have to keep fighting. If there is anything to be learned from the Right, it is in the history of their battle to take over the halls of power for Corporate America. They have used the Christian Right to accomplish just that, but it is pretty funny to see how the secular corporatists of the Republican Party are now waking up to see who they got in bed with, and they don't like who they see. It should be interesting to see the civil war that will inevitable break out on the right. It won't be pretty. We can take advantage of these fissures and exploit them to great effect. It is too bad that the DLC is not smart enough to take the ball and run. The Kerry campaign, until McCurry and Lockhart arrived, was a prime example of wasting opportinities to take the right down. The election should have been over before the debates. The debates should have sealed the deal. We need a DNC who can fight for our candidates and our party.
Harry Reid may be the Democrats' new Senate leader, but this week, blue eyes are on Howard Dean.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Tim Grieve For Salon
Dec. 7, 2004 | Harry Reid says Democrats have to "swallow their pride" and move toward the middle. Harry Reid says he admires Antonin Scalia's "brilliance" and could imagine voting to confirm him as chief justice of the United States. Harry Reid says he'd rather "dance" with George W. Bush than "fight" him.
Harry Reid says: "I'm the face of the Democratic Party today."
Harry Reid may be right. For a party that came within 119,000 Ohio votes of ousting a sitting president in a time of war, the Democrats are sounding awfully defeated these days. There's talk of making the most of long-term minority status, of compromising on judicial appointments and "moral issues" like the rights of gay couples and women -- Reid, the Democrats' new Senate leader, is anti-choice -- and of trying to figure out some way to outflank the Republicans from the red-state right.
And then there's Howard Dean.
The once-and-maybe-future presidential candidate has kept a relatively low profile since election night, but that's going to change Wednesday, when Dean delivers what his aides are calling a "major speech" in Washington. The subject: Dean's vision for the Democratic Party. The not-so-hidden subtext: his role in it.
On the night after John Kerry lost to George W. Bush, Dean told supporters on a Meetup conference call that the Democratic National Committee is "at a crossroads" and that DNC members "have questions to ask themselves." But now, as Dean prepares for his Bush II coming out and weighs a bid to replace Terry McAuliffe as the head of the DNC, it's the DNC members who have questions for Dean: Where does he want the party to go, and is he willing to put aside his own presidential aspirations to help take it there? Read The Full Story Here
I am throwing my bid in for Howard Dean as the head of the DNC. Why? It is Howard Dean who revitalized the party this year. It was not the Democratic Leadership Council boobs, Dick Gephart, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, or John Edwards, or any of the carpetbagger consultants like Bob Shrum or Donna Brazile. As my pal over at Prettylittlehead.com says, they have no loyalty to the candidates who they work for, therefore they have no loyalty to the party. They have done more to destroy the credibility of the party than any one candidate has in the past two election cycles. I am sick of hearing Donna Brazile talk as though she has accomplished something. What has she accomplished? Oh, I lost the campaign for my candidate in 2000. What do we need with the needless nattering of these turncoats who are paid to go on the talk shows to facilitate the destruction of powerful candidates such as Howard Dean? Now he is running to reform the party and they are out there again trying to sow seeds of doubt. The DLC will never be able to win if we rely on folks like Harry Reid, who may as well be a Republican with statements like the above. How do we differentiate ourselves as a oppositional party if we have folks who still have not learned the lesson that we cannot mimic the enemy and win. DLC=Republican Lite and every time, folks are going to go with the real thing. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
We have to retake the party for the American people. We need to return to our roots of social justice. We need to stop the corporatization of America. We need to fight the moral hypocrites and make our values known and have Americans understand that these are their values. We have to stop chasing the center, which the Reps will always pull further and further to the right. We cannot win that game, so we must change the rules of engagement and fight to win. We have the values and the history of justice behind us. Are we willing to hold our party accountable to its roots or will we sit back and let the consultants and the DLC corporate shills further marginalize us? Make it known that you will not sit back and let them conduct business as usual.
We are in the fight of our lives if you have not noticed. The right has only been energized by this past election. Even though there is not a resounding mandate for their ideological attack on America, they are mobilizing like it is. The press (With a few brave exceptions.) has drank the Kool-Aid once again and are giving a full pass to the Bush administration and their comrades in Congress. We have to keep fighting. If there is anything to be learned from the Right, it is in the history of their battle to take over the halls of power for Corporate America. They have used the Christian Right to accomplish just that, but it is pretty funny to see how the secular corporatists of the Republican Party are now waking up to see who they got in bed with, and they don't like who they see. It should be interesting to see the civil war that will inevitable break out on the right. It won't be pretty. We can take advantage of these fissures and exploit them to great effect. It is too bad that the DLC is not smart enough to take the ball and run. The Kerry campaign, until McCurry and Lockhart arrived, was a prime example of wasting opportinities to take the right down. The election should have been over before the debates. The debates should have sealed the deal. We need a DNC who can fight for our candidates and our party.
