OT: What do you think?

What about arguments that Democrats should be coming together and focusing more on defeating Republicans than attacking each other in races like Connecticut’s Democratic Senate primary, where Joe Lieberman is being challenged by Ned Lamont.

Well, that is a complicated situation. If Democrats don’t seriously address the need to get the troops out of Iraq, then we might as well forget about it. That is going to be the defining issue in November. In that sense the Connecticut race, you could say it is a hindrance. It’s also the possibility, depending on how it goes, that people will see this as proof that Democrats are willing to stand up to this intervention and the mistakes that we’ve made.

So you don’t think it is a bad thing for the Democratic Party?

In some ways it’s bad, in some ways it’s good. What’s good about it is that it’s giving voice to the fact that the vast majority of Democrats are appalled that Democrats voted for this Iraq war and never should have. It was an enormous failure of the Democratic Party to not stand up to George Bush when he was dead wrong. Without this voice being given in Connecticut and other places, we are going to suffocate our own base. And our base will turn away from us. We could end up with a third party pretty soon. If the Democrats can’t stand up to all the mistakes that Bush has made here, we’re not much of a party.

more...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14231344/page/2

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Feingold Exposes Centrist Plot

Snip...

I was naturally curious to read what motivated all this gushing, and discovered a rather peculiar rant by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to a group of Wisconsin reporters that blamed the DLC for all the sins of the Democratic Party in the last decade or so.

I was particularly interested to learn from Feingold that the DLC "came up with the health care plan with the Clintons that was so complicated nobody could understand it." Gee, I seem to remember that the DLC actually opposed the Clinton Health Plan. "They are the ones that coalesced with the big corporations to pass unfair trade agreements that hurt America." Funny: I thought maybe this guy named Bill Clinton--following the tradition of every Democratic president going back to Martin Van Buren--had a bit more to do with, say, NAFTA than anybody at the DLC. And here's my favorite "bold" attack: "Feingold said DLC consultants 'instill fear in Democrats' by saying opposition to the war would be taken as not supporting the troops.... "It’s the DLC that has cut off our ability to say things like, ‘Let’s get out of Iraq because it’s a bad idea."

Until now, I had no idea what vast powers we exercise around here. Al From or Bruce Reed or somebody gets quoted in the papers, and Democrats fall silent in terror. And the stuff about "DLC consultants" is beautifully vague. Unless I'm forgetting something, the chief political consultant for the last two Democratic presidential candidates was named Bob Shrum, whose relationship with the DLC is about as warm as Ned Lamont's with Joe Lieberman.

Look, folks, what the DLC does is to write policy papers, hold conferences, publish a magazine, and network among state and local elected officials. Three of us do blogs. Our staff is small by Washington think tank standards; our budget is a fraction of CAP's. Democrats are free to take the DLC's advice or leave it. It's hilarious to be told that attacking us represents some sort of profile in courage; it seems to have done wonders for the career of David Sirota, whose willingness to spit venom at the DLC has helped make him a quote machine in both the blogosphere and the mainstream media.

Snip...

The odd thing is that Russ Feingold is actually pretty popular here at Centrist Conspiracy HQ. He's usually refreshingly direct, and willing to be unorthodox in all sorts of different directions. But there's nothing in Democratic politics today more tediously orthodox than DLC-bashing. I do offer one suggestion to other bold, brave politicians out there: if you're going to do this, try and get the basic facts straight.

http://newdonkey.blogspot.com

What’s good about it is that it’s giving voice to the fact that the vast majority of Democrats are appalled that Democrats voted for this Iraq war and never should have.