Joe Klein: Can the Democrats Handle a Heretic?

[Rose Siding]

Has Joe just really not been paying attention?

snip>
Senate candidate Jim Webb's campaign will help determine whether Democrats can become a majority party once more.....

Webb has taken a spiritual journey over the past decade, launched by the research he did for Born Fighting, his nonfiction paean to his all-American ethnic group, the Scots Irish. "When I started studying Andrew Jackson, I realized that I was really a Jacksonian populist Democrat," Webb tells the crowd. "Jackson believed that you don't measure the health of a society at the apex but at the base. I believe that too, and that's why I'm a Democrat." There are other reasons. Webb opposed the war in Iraq, and he was increasingly uncomfortable with Republican extremism on social and economic issues.

Ok, some populism going on. I like that. Anti-Iraq war, check. Anti-social and economic extremism, check, check. -RS

But it isn't easy running as a Democrat. There are litmus-test land mines in every audience. At the Montgomery County meeting, a local surgeon named William Epstein showed me his list: drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, abortion, gay marriage.

Ooooo, scary. This high bar will surely do him in! What rational person could pass THAT kind of test?! -RS

"He answered me straight and passed every one of my tests." Webb is an outdoorsy hunting-and-fishing environmentalist. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights. He has expressed nuanced reservations about affirmative action and women in combat in the past and takes careful time to explain his positions now. "If he told a lie, his tongue would fall out," says his strategist, Dave (Mudcat) Saunders, who won't take any money from him. "His sense of honor is a frightening thing."

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1200712,00.html?promoid=rss_klein

Klein provides a quote from *one* nervous "prominent Democrat". Might that be a consultant/pundit type dem?

What else does he think people are looking for? Hasn't he been paying attention at all?

[AX10]

1. Klein is afraid that the Democrats may be able to bring over...

non right wing Republicans to our side and strike a damaging and enduring blow to the GOP.

[Benhurst]

2. ...

:thumbsup:

[tech3149]

3. Two things I don't need or want

High dollar pundits and consultants. Kiss my shwingg Joe!

[Schema Thing]

4. just another Wes Clark dem ;-)

[snowbear]

5. Is Klein a rightwinger?

He reminds me of Tweety... changing his views everytime the wind blows..

I didn't think he was necessarily a "rihghtie".. but I could be wrong.. Is he?

[Schema Thing]

10. I have to admit I haven't a clue about Klein

my comment was just a humorous take on the Jim Webb situation, and the fact that Wes is endorsing Webb.

He seems like a great guy, and exactly what we need.

[xchrom]

6. i'm not getting this at all.

[1932]

7. I suspect the Klein worries that Demcrats will convince people that

Democrats will be able to convince people that "measuring the health of society" based on how people do at the base is THE most important political issue and, therefore, will convince REPUBLICANS that gay marriage, abortion rights, privileging economic development over the environment should be secondary and tertiary concerns.

This article seems to try to undermine that prioritization by desperately using ONE person's opinions to make readers think those lifestyle/cultural issues are still VERY VERY important.

[Toots]

8. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights

We need to dump the term "gay rights". That implies special rights. What we say is American's rights which gays happen to be a part of. We are not asking for anything not already enjoyed by other Americans...

[Rose Siding]

9. That's very true

I usually say "equal rights".