Bloggers and Billionaires, MoveOn and Howard Dean: The Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

from AlterNet:


Bloggers and Billionaires, MoveOn and Howard Dean: The Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted August 21, 2007.



Matt Bai's new book, The Argument, pits Washington insiders against the progressive rebellion for control of the Democratic Party, but he's spent too much time inside the Beltway to get the story right.


As anyone who follows politics knows, there's been a revolt against the "old" Democratic Party represented by Clinton insiders and an array of powerful political consultants, pollsters, and gate keepers.

Frustrated by Clintonian triangulation, two losses to George Bush in elections that were widely perceived to be stolen or given away too easily, and enraged by the party leadership's support of the invasion of Iraq, outsiders have risen up in an attempt to displace the insiders and their losing ways and bring more progressive values and vision to the political process.

It is a widespread uprising, which, according to Matt Bai's new book, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, is "led by baby boom liberals, wealthy investors and defiant bloggers whose faith in party and country had been severely shaken by 12 years of Republican rule."

Battle for the Democratic soul

Make no mistake: this is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. It's primarily a fight between the grassroots and the elites. It's a struggle that has been fought many times in political history, but it's never been fought at a time when the insurgents could tap into the kind of power represented by the Internet, probably the single-most significant shift in political organizing and communication capacity in decades.

Who will eventually prevail in this donnybrook is unclear, and of course there will be compromises and détentes reached along the way. But many feel that if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic party nominee, those who have exercised power for the Dems over the past two decades will keep their hands on the reins, while if it ends up being Obama or Edwards or someone else, it may usher in a new era of Democratic politics.

Arrayed on the establishment side are a host of recognizable names including Terry McAuliffe, former head of the DNC; James Carville, longtime Clinton advisor, author and talking head, who is married to chief Dick Cheney protector Mary Matalin; Harold Ickes, another former Clinton official who raised many millions of dollars for media on behalf on the Democrats leading up to the Kerry nomination in 2004; and Bob Shrum, media consultant-cum-campaign manager who led the failed Kerry campaign in 2004. It was Shrum's fifth consecutive defeat in the presidential sweepstakes. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/60305/

era which helped create the economic mess for the middle class we now see through their free trade policies (out sourced jobs forcing families to work multiple lower paying jobs to make ends meet) will be a tarnished stain on the Democratic party.

I would like to point out an error-Kerry didn't fail-HE WON and it was a Clinton advisor who helped the Kerry concession occur (from TPM):

Did Carville Tip Bush Off to Kerry Strategy (Woodward)
By M.J. Rosenberg | bio

?On page 344, Woodward describes the doings at the White House in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the day after the '04 election.

Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.

So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio to camp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the last thing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.

So what happened?

James Carville gets on the phone with his wife, Mary Matalin, who is at the White House with Bush.

"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to 250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about.'

"Matalin went to Cheney to report...You better tell the President Cheney told her."

Matalin does, advising Bush that "somebody in authority needed to get in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio who would be in charge of any challenge to the provisional votes." An SOS goes out to Blackwell.

The rest is history.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

Thanks for posting...K&R!

so spot on -





This is one of the reasons why I support John Edwards.

Must read!

He was on the awful Tom Ashbrook show last night. (That Bai is buddies with that
libertarian lapdog is a big clue already.)

I forced myself to listen to Bai dismissing the left at every turn. Damning it with
faint praise.

This is classic thin-edge-of-the-wedge from the oh so high and mighty NYT.

Bai is just a hit-man who wear's hippie clothes when it suits his purpose.

I wouldn't waste a minute on his argument. The alternet reviewer nails it:

"He's spent too much time inside the Beltway to get the story right. "

The corporate media is a hopeless echo chamber for right wing distortion
and disinformation.

arendt