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Posted on 02/10/2005 6:00:52 AM PST by Citizen James
Mayor Gavin Newsom lobbed a direct-hit Tuesday night in a speech at Harvard University.
"My name is Gavin Newsom, and I reelected George Bush," he said to laughter. "Just wanted to see if you were paying attention."
It's true that because of his stance allowing gay weddings in the city exactly one year ago, Newsom has been blamed by fellow Democrats for helping Mr. Bush win reelection. But Newsom went further in the speech.
"I can't stand my party right now," he said. "They offend me. I have no interest in the majority of the Democratic Party line that becomes Republican-lite."
The mayor was back in the city Wednesday afternoon, when we caught up with him.
"I just think we lack right now core convictions that we enunciate in private but don't have the courage to state publicly," he said.
The fact is, after losing the presidency, Democrats are battling right now over which way to go: back to its progressive roots on the left, or more toward the center, or even the right.
"If the idea is to become Republican-lite or more like the Republicans, then what's the point of winning?" Newsom said. "The goal of winning is to be able to achieve something."
Local Republicans are lapping this up, watching the Democrats from the sidelines.
"If they were to tap into that new wing, the new Democrat that Bill Clinton in a way represented in the early 90's, they're going to win elections again," said San Francisco Republican activist Arthur Bruzzone. "If, on the other hand, they bet on Gavin Newsom, they're going to continue to not only lose elections but lose them badly."
But Democratic strategists have a different view. Chris Lehane is a veteran of the Clinton and Gore campaigns.
"I think the mayor is essentially right," he said. "The Democratic Party at its root is a progressive party. It stands for the idea that government is used as a tool to improve people's lives, a tool for reform. And we're not going to become the majority party again if we try to become something that we shouldn't be, which is the Republican Party."
One hint of which way the Democratic party will head: the expected election this weekend of former Governor Howard Dean as National Democratic Chair -- a clear prelude of where the rest of the party may be heading.
This is too rich. I keep thinking I am sick of seeing stories about how to fix the Democratic Party. But I keep gobbling them up because of this attitude expressed here. The party is not LEFT enough! LOL.
Amen brother let's bring em out in the open! I love that the libs are finally having to come out of the tall grass.
For those that do not know, this is the whacked-out extreme liberal Mayor of San Freakcisco, who broke the law, and in the face of the will of the voters of California, started gay marriages in San Freakcisco. And now this ultra-leftist is saying that Nancy Pelosi is not hard left enough...let's see, that would put her on par with a combination of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Karl Marx all rolled into one.
This freak is a great poster-boy for the whacked-out radical left. Keep it up Newsom...maybe California will eventually be able to purge itself of you with a giant anti-liberal enema...you and your ilk. What a giant relief that will be....keep up the leftist rant!!!
gavin "Any Twosome" Newsom, the homo mayor of SF, hates his left-wing wacko liberal-demokkkRAT party? BS that he had anything to do with Election 2004. Bwahahahaha!
The more liberal Dems also have the news media as a cheering section. A vast left-wing conspiracy? ;-)
I can't stand Democrats either.
Right on, Gavin! As the most visible representatives of your party, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, Hillary and Dean are not liberal enough.
The Dems should immediately recruit Ward Churchill as DNC Chair, and make Michael Moore their presumptive presidential candidate. That should do it!
Its amazing that they are finally admitting to what we've been saying for years. They've become so unbalanced that they are actually saying what they think. Democrats just can't get elected that way.
Hey, they can't to that! The Republicans are Republican-Lite!
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
Can't be true; we know the Slave Party would never lie to us. /s
Please, Gavin, oh PLEASE tell us all about those core convictions, who hlds them, and how deep they go, you are among friends.
Our cup runnth over.
A lot of people here are whining that the republican party is not right enough also.
The biggest tent party will win the next presidential election, not the most intolerant party that keeps kicking out us despised moderates.
What a jerk! Newson and Dean -- the emerging face of the Democratic Party -- "We don't respect the moral or religious values of others, we want to user the government to impose our own, and we're proud of it!"
I guys like Newsome, Dean and Kennedy (just to name a few) get their way, the Dim party will be cut in half and only contain the truly amoral, immoral, Godless dregs. The lines for the final battles are being drawn and God's warriors are waiting on Satan's beasts to sound the attack.
I'm not going to state that it isn't concerning these nuts exist in this country. Reality is that they do exist and can cause irreparable harm in power.
I've just accepted their presence and set sights on the younger generation. Hopefully their numbers will dwindle as they die out.
The amusing part of this is that for the time being the Dem Party is waging its own civil war. IMO, they've created a monster by allowing it to breathe. They thought they could contain these nuts forever. Uh, no. Eventually they are going to turn against their creator and seek to destroy the mad sceientist.
The Dems are going to be faced with a choice sooner or later. If they wait too long to extinguish this group they'll no longer have the power to do so.
To put it plainly, we are going into a situation where the United States has only one and a half major parties. This will remain until the Democratic Party changes its politics, or is replaced by another political party instead.
Though the laws have been designed over the last 93 years to protect the existing major parties from competition, American history shows that major parties which fail their connections with the people and with events, do go out of business. Witness the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Whigs, and Republican-Democrats, all of whom were highly successful on the national level, and are now gone.
The reason for that benchmark is the election of 1912, after which state legislatures began tightening their laws to deter a repeat of the third-party Teddy Roosevelt challenge in that year.
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest, "Was Howard Dean behind a Daring Art Theft?"
"[says party is "Republican-Lite"]
Hey, they can't to that! The Republicans are Republican-Lite!"
Agree big-time. I vote Republican for the tax, foreign policy and pro-family issues, but grit my teeth when I see the present big-government and spending bloat. The only reason I don't go third party is that it's a death sentence or will allow the Democrats back in.
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