Arrg! Al From bashing Dean again

[JHB]

Again with the "Dean appeals to special-interest activists, not REAL voters" lie-n.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpfro073361812jul07,0,2935257.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
Activists Don't Represent Democratic Party
By Al From and Bruce Reed

These days, Democrats act as if they're so far gone they've forgotten where they're from.

True, but as for who's doing it, look in the mirror, Al.

Every weekend, yet another special-interest group hosts a candidate forum to pressure the presidential candidates into praising its agenda. Some of the candidates seem intent on running applause-meter campaigns, measuring success by how many times they tell the party faithful what they want to hear.
...
The fact is, "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean likes to call it, is an aberration, a modern-day version of the old McGovern wing of the party, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist interest-group liberalism at home. That wing lost the party 49 states in two elections and turned a powerful national organization into a much weaker, regional one.

The great Democratic tradition is not one of ambivalence and disengagement abroad and reflexive outrage at home. The tradition of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Clinton is built on hope, not fear. Those presidents defined the Democratic Party's mission not simply by what we're against but by what we're for.

Why is Dean singled out? He says what he's for (more like "makes no bones about it"), I can hear it and I'm not even a "Dean fan". And the DLC-anointed contenders have had years to show me where they stand, but I can't tell you where that is. A lasting impression, they make not. That'll be real useful in the general election.

Ironically, party activists are out of line not only with their party's historic tradition but with their fellow Democrats. In 1996, a survey by The Washington Post compared the views of delegates to the Democratic convention with those of ordinary registered Democratic voters. They might as well have come from different parties. On every single social and economic issue, the views of the registered Democrats were closer to those of all registered voters than to those of Democratic delegates.

Al, if you can sit there with a straight face and tell me the Republican delegates reflected the views of ordinary voters... then you'll always have a home on Fox News.

We won't win back the White House by promising to put our special interests first, as this president has promised his, or by telling some people in our party everything they want to hear, instead of challenging all Americans to do more and giving them the chance to do better. Once again, it's time for the party that built the middle class to step forward as its champion.

Blah, blah, blah, beltway blah. And exactly how do you plan to do that in your, shall we say, Inactivist wing of the party?

The Squanderer-in-Chief and PNAC Gallery are putting this nation on a road to absolute ruin. Dare I say that it's even in corporate interests to get these turkeys far away from the reigns of power. If you're going to talk about being positive, Al, then do it. Say what your guys are for, and let the voters decide. But cut this kneebiting crap. If you're going to write the republican's commercials for them, don't do it on the Democratic party's dime.

:argh:
/RANT

[w13rd0]

1. Al From should join with his moderate Republican brethren...

...and form a "third way"...

Let his ass go wither on the vine, and his champions too. It's not even that I despise the DLC, it's that it's leadership is utter Bushlicking swill monkeys...and to me, this sounds like the same letter that initially set off that firestorm. You sure this is recent?

[JHB]

3. It was in today's Newsday...

...(see link), but it's from the LA Times, so it's likely a reprint of the same letter. But then, as long as it's still in active circulation, then so should comments against it.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Looks like a reprint of the earlier DLC release

The question is (as if we didn't know the answer): Why is this paper reprinting this stuff, why not something else?

[dsc]

2. I like Clinton a lot

but as I recall he was President when we got decimated in the South. Maybe it is foggy memory here but didn't we still have the House after McGovern lost, and didn't we still have the House after Mondale lost, and didn't we lose it after Clinton won? I am not laying all the blame at Clinton's and From's feet but under his own theory we should be.

[diplomats]

5. Clinton won a decent number of Southern states in '92

but the Dems did take a whoopin' in the '94 midterms in the South. One of the reasons was there were a large number of open seats that Dems had held in conservative-leaning districts that we lost.

[dsc]

7. Thanks to Perot

Al Gore, remember him the one who ran the campaign From thought was so bad, he did better than Clinton in several southern states. Including Florida, Tennesee, and Arkansas. Yes he lost them but Clinton won them with significantly less than 50% of the vote. Gore lost Florida through Republican fraud, and lost the other two with very close to 50% of the vote.

[northernsoul]

4. Dean's Special Interest Group:

The American People!

now put a sock in it, Al From. You're played out.

[Rose Siding]

11. From's "real" voters are uninformed voters

I'm a "real" voter, as is my husband, daughter, mother and REPUB father. We all favor Dean. (Dad's coming along- you only have to mention a couple of issues to evidence that Dean's not an extremist)

It's amazing that From would attribute activist status to the sheer numbers of those interested- Sort of contradictory to the concept of a turned off electorate.

[Cheswick2.0]

14. From's real problem with Dean and With Gore before he dropped out

Neither one was coming to kiss his ass and help confirm his powerful position of king maker. If someone runs without the Al From seal of approval, and that person does well, what happens to the career of Al From?

[CWebster]

6. interesting reading

http://deandefense.org/archives/000167.html

[ConservativeDemocrat]

8. Dean supporters are just going to have to get used to this...

The percieved front runner always attracts the most slings and arrows.

I must also point out something else. If I were Dean's campaign manager, I'd love this article. At this point as a candidate, you don't really care whether they're for or against you, just as long as they spell your name right.

- C.D.

[Classical_Liberal]

10. Look Blair is making it very clear that the third way movement

is right wing, with the destruction of the bbc in Britain. Why should this surprise anyone?

[ProfessorPlum]

12. What is so blatantly obvious

about From's bias against Dean is that he is complaining about DEMOCRATIC supporters! WTF? Why would anyone be upset about thousands upon thousands of relatively wealthy, self-organized middle class volunteers working to unseat the opposition President? If he were actually working for the Democrats, he would view this as pennies from heaven! He can't think for a minute that if Dean doesn't win the nomination, that all of those people are suddenly going to vote for Bush - can he? (If he does, he is way wrong). What a load this guy is.

[Cheswick2.0]

13. He is right about a few things

he is right that the average democrat is not as eager for gun control, cutting the military etc.... however he is wrong about what this means and what should be done. Frankly he is an idiot and I am going to write the DNC and tell them to kick his ass out of the organization(not that the will listen to me).

What people need is education. The reason they think as they do is because they get an endless diet of rightwing drivel on the news and talk radio. Stop pandering to peoples stupidity From, you baffoon. Give people information instead. We aren't a bunch of special interest groups, we are people that care about a variety of issues. Just because I am not gay doesn't mean I don't care about their civil rights issues. Just because I have never been on welfare doesn't mean I don't care about how welfare reform has hurt people.

Basically these political science graduates and party "intelligensia" are a liability.

[ibegurpard]

15. Yep!

Someone who has taken a few poli-sci classes thinks that they have all the answers. It all boils down to the old "book smarts vs. street smarts" argument...It takes some of both.

[Classical_Liberal]

16. The Straussian outlook is much more prevalant in the Polysci

departments than the Philosophy departments, and Straussians are liberal in private, so alot of dems are taken in by them. It isn't about Book smarts vs street smarts, so much as the republicans need the democrats to be cowed by them.

[Armstead]

17. Cheswick

Perhaps ultimately we will be agreeing on more than it has often seemed here in our occasional spats.

[Cheswick2.0]

20. I think we agree on many things except strategy

that's what I think! B-) I believe that politics is the art of the possible, but a lot more good things are possible when you give people access to real information.

[dsc]

18. Does he work for the DNC too?

I think that is outrageous if he does. It is one thing for the leader of the DLC, which is an interest group after all, to be slamming people in primaries. It is quite another for people who work for the national party which is supposed to be neutral to be doing this. I will be writing too but let me know that this wasn't just a typo on your part before I do.

[Cheswick2.0]

21. I don't think he works for them

I just think he is a big player and in politics, when people stop paying you to do a job you are no longer a big player. When he is seen as no longer useful, when people stop taking his calls, then he loses the power to influence party aggenda and action.

I worked with a lot of poly sci grads and insiders, on the Rendell campaign. If you ask me forget them, the union people were the ones who got the job done.

If you want to learn how to win a political battle, forget what they taught you in college..... join a union and beg to assist one of the Union organizers for a campaign for Pres, Governor or Senate.

[dsc]

24. I know what you mean

I was in the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) for a couple of years and those folks knew how to win. Even in primaries they did a good job of that.

[ulysses]

25. I have to mirror Armstead

I don't think I've ever agreed with a post of yours more than with this one, Ches. Well said.

[TheBigGuy]

19. This is giving ammo to the GOP

While I think this might be a good discussion as to strategy and poicy, does it really belong on the op-ed of the Long Island Newsday?

Its like From is settting Dean up for a fall in the general election by handing the GOP a line of attack..the "special interest" "McGovernite" line.

If From is supporting a candidate he should just go ahead and support that candidate rather than go on the attack against Dean with a line of attack that can be easily picked up by the GOP.

[Cheswick2.0]

22. I think he is supporting a group of candidates

Edwards, Lieberman, Kerry and Gephardt. I think he also thinks he is sincerely doing what is best for the party. However, his "conventional wisdom" is built on the past and the past does not repeat itself.

[indigo32]

23. BigGuy

"If From is supporting a candidate he should just go ahead and support that candidate rather than go on the attack against Dean"

That is exactly what I said in an email response to him on the DLC site. It's ridiculous... be honest and endorse someone instead of pulling this crap.