DLC on brink of a major shake-up

The Democratic Leadership Council—a group of centrists that dominated Democratic politics during the Clinton presidency but is laboring to remain relevant in the Obama era—is on the brink of a major shake-up.

Al From, the DLC’s founder and leader since its founding 24 years ago this month, said he plans to step down within the next couple months, handing the reins to his long-time protégé, Bruce Reed.

At the same time, the Progressive Policy Institute, an influential think tank run by the DLC, is going separate ways. Will Marshall, who heads the think tank, said the recent Democratic electoral gains and a massive new agenda being pushed by the Obama administration “require us to think anew.”

The upheaval at the DLC is a striking sign of the political times. Under From, the group was always controversial—making its name during the 1980s and ‘90s with stark warnings that traditional, interest-group liberals were threatening to turn the Democratic Party into a permanent minority party.

Jesse Jackson once derided the group as “Democrats for the Leisure Class.” As recently as 2004, then-presidential candidate Howard Dean said the DLC was “the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.”

From departs

Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From announced his retirement just now, and the news that the group's longtime policy voice, Bruce Reed, will replace him as president.

Because of its close association with the Clintons, the group faded a bit with Hillary and with the leftward shift of the Democratic primary last year, although From always argued, with some justification, that Obama's themes of hope and responsibility sounded much like the themes they'd long pushed.

Release after the jump.
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Passing the Torch at the DLC

By Garance Franke-Ruta

It's the end of an era at the Democratic Leadership Council. More than two decades after founding the centrist Democratic group, Al From, 65, has announced plans to retire.

From has asked policy maven Bruce Reed, the DLC's president, to succeed him as CEO.

"The DLC has largely achieved what we set out to do when I formed it in 1985," From said in a statement. "It has played a vital role in resuscitating the Democratic Party, and it has championed ideas that have changed our country for the better. Now is the right time for the DLC to take the next step, and Bruce Reed is the right person to lead it."

Reed, who recently co-authored a book with Rahm Emanuel, now Obama's chief of staff, was chief domestic policy adviser and director of the Domestic Policy Council in the Clinton administration.

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