How do you feel about Simon Rosenberg being the Dem head?

http://www.newdem.org/leaders/rosenberg.php

He is definetly not from the DLC wing of the party. On top of that, NDN is much more in tune with the opinions of those on the net than the is DLC.

I've only heard his name in the last week or so. Don't know that much about him. My reaction is vaguely positive.

I've watched him a few times on discussion panels and Washington Journal on C-SPAN and on cable news shows. He's smart, sincere, and committed but seems to have little practical political experience nor outgoing people skills and has a generally downer demeanor (thought lately it's hard to find any Dem that's too upbeat.)

Since Clinton and Gore left the DLC and NDN, both groups have moved further right. I used to be a member, but quit in 2001 at sheer frustration at the strong rightward shift and abandonment of moderate policies. All these groups are very interconnected. If they had their way, Dean would have been shut down from day one and Lieberman would have been the nominee.

I am all for appealing to rural folks and moderates and Rockefeller Republicans, but Mr. Rosenberg is not the person to do it. Their approach has been to cave in and keep moving further right, rather than reframe existing positions in a way that appeals to these persuadable red state voters.

I think we need to remember that the Republicans did not actually move to the center to appeal to the center. What they did do was learn how to frame their issues so moderates wouldn't be so turned off. The whole compassionate conservative load of **** was part of the PR effort. Calling the estate tax the "death tax" to justify tax free transfers among rich family members and talking about it hurting family farmers and small business owners.

NDN has done zero to counter these false perceptions set up by the Republicans. I think it would be political suicide for the DNC to be headed by this guy. You need someone who understands framing, like Clinton or Dean. This guy is not the one.

It is from 2001, and it quotes Rosenberg. NDN is part of the DLC, like a PAC or 527, I think.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=4706

SNIP.."The DLC's effort to win Meeks's vote was part of a vigorous campaign by New Democrats to assure legislators that business groups would replace campaign contributions from labor lost by a pro-business China vote. In The New Democrat, the DLC's monthly magazine, Washington's most powerful business lobbyist, Thomas J. Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote that even though some members of Congress risked losing the AFL-CIO's support, "business will stick by Democrats on the China trade vote."

Simon Rosenberg, the former field director for the DLC who directs the New Democrat Network, a spin-off political action committee, says, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party. In that way," he adds, "they are ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win." (Take in this statement fully...it is shameful.)

A Business-Led Party

Freeing Democrats from being, well, Democrats has been the Democratic Leadership Council's mission since its founding 16 years ago by Al Gore, Chuck Robb, and a handful of other conservative, mostly southern Dems as a rump faction of disaffected elected officials and party activists. Producing and directing the DLC is Al From, its founder and CEO, who's been the leader, visionary, and energizing force behind the New Democrat movement since Day One.

SNIP.."With few resources, and taking heavy flak from the big guns of the Democratic left, the DLC proclaimed its intention, Mighty Mouse–style, to rescue the Democratic Party from the influence of 1960s-era activists and the AFL-CIO, to ease its identification with hot-button social issues, and, perhaps most centrally, to reinvent the party as one pledged to fiscal restraint, less government, and a probusiness, pro–free market outlook."

Freeing Democrats from having to depend on their base...thus making the base unimportant.

You are right, they are definitely related. As a former New Democrat, I think it's important that people know exactly what they stand for and that most are not rural moderates. And also exactly what they do when their butts are on the line in voting.

I was interested in them because of fiscal discipline and balance, but ended up discovering that their support of fiscal discipline was in name only, as many members voted for 2 completely budget-busting tax cuts. People need to read this stuff. The DLC is not a moderate group IMO.

Clinton and Gore brought a populist, down-home quality to them, but once they were gone, the corporate element like Lieberman took over entirely. If you want to know what the DLC and NDN stand for, think of Lieberman and Bayh, not Clinton and Gore. Lieberman was the guy they wanted nominated, so that is where they would take the party.

Here is a page with Will Marshall's views on the Third Way's stances on such issues as the FTAA, Medicare, Social Security. I read this page twice, and I get one feeling....let's not be thought of as dissenting too much. Not the exact words, but that is the thought.
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?cp=2&kaid=128&subid=187&contentid=3361

What do I get from this paragraph? Pacify, pander, don't upset anyone.

SNIP..."Trade poses a particularly knotty problem for Democrats. President Bush is expected to ask Congress for authority to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA). While Bush would merely continue his predecessor's policy, Democrats remain deeply divided on trade. Organized labor, a potent Democratic constituency, fought Clinton's key trade initiatives which as a result seldom received a majority of his own party's votes. New Democrats, while resolutely pro-trade under Clinton, will come under fierce pressure to maintain party unity in opposition to a Republican President's request. But such "solidarity" would carry a stiff price: Democrats would be indelibly stamped as the party of economic reaction and protectionism, wiping out a decade of progress toward refurbishing their image as the party of prosperity. Scuttling FTAA might also be taken as a slight by America's Latino voters, a fast-growing constituency the party cannot afford to ignore...."

There is more there about the other issues, enough to make me realize that unless our progressive candidates stand up and fight...I will go independent.

My impression from the home state is of a politician who tends to blow with the wind. I've rarely noticed him taking a stand (except for the sanctimonious speech about Clinton's bj).

I notice he gets lots of support in CT from both Dems and Repubs. I assume that's b/c he's nice to business, which in CT means nice to insurance, banking and pharmaceuticals.

Personally he's not at all magnetic -- at least to me. I do have friends who worked with him for years and vouch for what a nice guy he is, but the big attraction in some quarters is lost on me.

And I have to say, his race in the primaries this time was just sad. Joementum indeed.

I think Lieberman is a total loser in policies and personality