The Democratic Weaselship Council

If Democratic centrists want to repeat Bill Clinton's success, they should stop attacking fellow Democrats as "far left" and concentrate on uniting the party against Bush.

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By Joan Walsh



July 29, 2003 | Has Karl Rove taken over the Democratic Leadership Council? I can't think of another explanation for the centrist clique's destructive guerrilla war against fellow Democrats. Tuesday's New York Times outlines the latest assault: a DLC conference this week devoted to blasting the party's presidential hopefuls for their "far left" critique of President Bush's budget-busting tax cuts and his dishonesty in leading the nation into war. If hitting Bush on those blunders really makes Democrats unelectable, the nation is in worse trouble than the DLC thinks.

No one knows right now which issues will carry the day come November 2004. Bush is stumbling lately, but an economic rebound and some success in pacifying Iraq could send his poll numbers soaring again. The left's perhaps-fatal weakness is wishful thinking about Bush's vulnerability.

Yet two facts are and will remain politically crucial: The economy is a shambles at least partly because of Bush's wrongheaded, reward-the-rich tax cuts, and the nation still doesn't know the truth about why we started a bloody, costly war that's a long way from over. Democrats can and do disagree about how to deal with both sets of issues -- how to repair the economy as well as Iraq -- but saying the party shouldn't criticize Bush's approaches is dangerous and delusional.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/07/29/dlc/index_np.html

uhhhhh

Have I awoken in some paralell type of universe? I thought Walsh was the DARLING of the centrist set. Walsh has always, it seemed to me, tried to toe a strict line to the Clinton-esque "moderate" school of political thought.

NOW????? Now she says for the DLC not to be so divisive? Maybe Ms. Walsh shouldn't have employed the tactics of those types of people just because Bill Clinton was so charismatic.

a pink tu-tu would be fitting. maybe a white flag of surrender? :(

the one thing I disagree with is her statement that the left exaggerates Bush's vulnerability. I think most of the liberals here know that if the economy improves Bush will be even harder to beat. That's common sense.