Centrist Democrats Meet To the Disdain of the Left

Centrist Democrats meet to the disdain of the left By Dick Polman Inquirer Staff Writer

Liberal and moderate Democrats are embroiled in one of their perennial pastimes - beating each other up - and the pugilists don't expect the bloody wounds to heal any time soon.

Al From was talking about this not long ago, while forking his lunch in Center City. His moderate group, the corporate-financed Democratic Leadership Council, which has sought since its creation in 1985 to move the party away from big-government liberalism, is meeting through today in Philadelphia, working on a strategy for defeating President Bush. But party liberals won't go near it. More than ever, they detest the DLC.

From, the DLC founder, and the guy who in 1990 persuaded Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton to run for president with DLC assistance, picks his words carefully when discussing the internal Democratic tensions that have marred the early jousting among presidential candidates. He doesn't want to make the situation any worse. But he won't back off, either.

"What we're fighting for is the definition of the party," he said. "And this is probably the most bitter fighting - or maybe intense is a better word - in nearly 20 years. But it's because the left wants to go back to the way things used to be. The left feels empowered, because now they have a hot candidate [ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean] with a hot issue [the war in Iraq], who has made a lot of noise...

"But we can't just talk to the angry people who want to fire Bush. We need to reach some of the people who like Bush, and make a positive case for hiring us. We've got to be practical. We can't let Bush seize the political center. I just hope that people in our party aren't suicidal."

In some ways, it's an old divide: Moderates want to woo independent, suburban voters by fashioning a business-friendly, hawkish Democratic Party. Liberals want to stoke anti-Republican and anticorporate anger within the disenchanted party base, while stressing a more traditional pitch for federal domestic programs.

What's new is the rough rhetoric on both sides - Dean's soapbox declaration that he represents "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" (a clear rebuke to the Clinton-era, DLC-inspired policies that liberals call "Republican lite"); and, from the DLC, a recent series of blistering memos, coauthored by From, that equate Dean with "weakness abroad, and elitist interest-group liberalism at home."

So while the DLC touts its strategy memo at the Wyndham Philadelphia at Franklin Plaza today (excerpt: "There's a real opening for any Democrat who can rise above the Democratic stereotype"), it will choose not to acknowledge the thousands of pieces of angry e-mail that have circulated lately among liberals (such as, "Who elected these bozos?").

Ruy Teixeira, a liberal activist in Washington who talks to both camps, said, "Last winter, there was hope that both sides would lay down their swords." Their renewed sniping is "extremely unproductive. It's hard to get all these guys to back off."

Robert Borosage, a prominent liberal organizer, groused, "The party has been mobilizing itself with increasing energy against Bush - and here's the DLC, lobbing memos, trying to rip our skin off, trying to discredit certain candidates before the primaries even happen. It's name-calling and blah blah blah, and it's totally divisive. It's also a sign of their weakness."

Some analysts say the DLC is spooked about losing influence; after a stint as a '90s insider (when Clinton co-opted GOP issues such as welfare reform and a balanced budget), From was an outsider during Al Gore's autumn 2000 campaign, when Gore moved leftward, with populist attacks on corporations. From wound up on the other campaign plane with his centrist soulmate, vice presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman.

One veteran Washington observer, a nonpartisan who is normally sympathetic to the DLC, said privately: "It seems like Al is taking Dean's progress as a personal repudiation of everything the DLC stands for, just sort of lashing out with no regard for whether it's helping the party. It seems to have gotten very personal."

But From said, "My problem with Dean isn't personal. He did some things as governor that were pretty good," such as balancing 11 state budgets. "My problem with Dean is that he has pursued a strategy that will make it harder for a Democrat to get elected and achieve the progressive goals that we'd all like to achieve, such as building a broader-based middle class.

"Running for president isn't just about getting your supporters revved up [against Bush]. Only 10 percent of the electorate is in that overheated group. You've also got to get other people to vote for you."

From's biggest beef is Dean's antiwar stance, which is pulling some of his rivals to the left, as evidenced by the more strident anti-Bush rhetoric employed last week by Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Dean is stoking diehard Democrats by contending that Bush made a deceptive case for war. By contrast, From doesn't think it's a good issue. He never mentions it during an interview, nor in his new strategy memo.

From argues instead that most centrist, independent voters, while increasingly troubled by the postwar occupation in Iraq, still broadly support Bush's war on terrorism - and would likely view an antiwar Democrat as generally soft on security issues. His strategy memo says, "Until further notice, security will be a threshold issue in American politics."

And in a separate interview, DLC president Bruce Reed, who was a Clinton White House adviser, contended, "Democrats have an enormous mountain to climb in terms of reassuring people that they can trust us with their security. Forget Iraq; this problem predates 9/11."

But the liberal wing wants to keep the focus on Iraq. Borosage, the liberal leader, said, "The DLC apparently wants to have a litmus test on the war, but that is becoming increasingly less relevant as more of our troops keep getting killed and the President's credibility is being shredded. The DLC is not even in that debate."

Reed disagreed: "We'll dig ourselves a deep hole if we pretend that we can restore our credibility on security issues by just raising doubts about Bush's credibility."

With no consensus front-runner in the wide-open Democratic race, these tensions will persist. The DLC has more competition now - from MoveOn.org, the liberal networking Web site, and Buzzflash.com, a liberal news site; from Borosage's Campaign for America's Future; and from liberal labor leaders such as Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union.

And don't forget the Green Party, which is threatening to field another presidential candidate next year (Ralph Nader hasn't ruled it out). Is From concerned that a centrist Democratic candidate could trigger another exodus of liberal voters?

"It's a worry," he said. "But my bigger worry is making sure that Democrats can attract a majority of the American voters. Then it's less of a worry."

But he offered an olive branch: "Maybe we all just have to be patient. Things will look different next year, when we have one candidate who can go head-to-head with Bush. His record will be clearer, and he'll have to explain it. A year from now, we'll look better than we do now."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact staff writer Dick Polman at 215-854-4430 or dpolman@phillynews

The Democrats have not recovered from their move left in 1972 and are rapidly becoming a party of special interests that has little in common with their traditional blue collar base.

My personal barometer is my mother-in-law who voted largely Republican in the last state election in Minnesota and would probaly vote for Bush in '04 over any of the Democrat contenders. For her this is a significant change.

Here is another take on the ongoing battle between the DLC and the goofy Marxist Democrat majority. I maintain that the DLC is actually no different than the Marxist base of the Scumbag Party - - they just want to lie about the true Democrat agenda of belittling and destroying traditional America and its family-oriented culture. Give the Howard Dean/Scumbag Underground Democrats credit - - at least they are up front about what they want to do to the country.

The Democrats have not recovered from their move left in 1972 and are rapidly becoming a party of special interests that has little in common with their traditional blue collar base.

Yes, that "traditional blue collar base" was abandoned by the Democrats in 1972 forever. The only "traditional blue collar" voters who haven't figured it out yet are the particularly stupid ones. But as they continue to either die off or wake up, the racial polarization in this country will worsen and the "culture war" will come to a boil as traditional American families come to the realization that they are in a fight for their very existence.

"My problem with Dean is that he has pursued a strategy that will make it harder for a Democrat to get elected and achieve the progressive goals that we'd all like to achieve

That statement certainly reinforces your take on things... The DLC'ers have the same ugly goals as the (rest of the) far left, it's just that they have the sense to lie about it in order to worm their agenda into law. That's the ultimate rationale behind the "third way" - lie your way into worldwide socialist-communist power (while milking the system so that you and your corrupt buddies get rich along the way).

I'll tell you a story.

Back around 1990 there was a report in the local paper here, The Courier Times of Bucks County, which included comments from then-Congressman Peter Kostmayer. Kostmayer had just returned from a DLC meeting down south somewhere and a Courier Times reporter asked him what he had learned.

Kostmayer was practically giddy with excitement.

Paraphrasing, what Kostmayer said was, "The women's groups, the environmentalists, the African-Americans and the rest of the liberal groups who traditionally support us (Democrats) need to just stay quiet and keep a low profile. If we can get Democrats elected, they will get what they want. But we can't have them scaring the middle-of-the-roaders. The appearance that Democrats are ultra-liberal is hurting us."

Kostmayer's jaw-dropping candor was a prelude to the culmination of the liberal liar's club scheme - - the ascension of the ultimate DLC liar, Bill Clinton, to the Presidency.

Make no mistake - - the DLC has exactly the same agenda against traditional America and its culture and families as the rest of the liberal Democrat base. But the DLC wants to play it real sneaky. They are trying to preach stealth and incrementalism, but the goofballs want a Marxist America NOW.

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