Fineman: Beltway vs. Blogosphere (A Nasty Civil War is Brewing in the Democratic Party)

Newsweek ^ | September 15, 2005 | Howard Fineman

[RWR8189]

Sept. 14, 2005 - If I am hearing Simon Rosenberg right (and he is worth listening to), a nasty civil war is brewing within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton—the party’s presumptive 2008 nominee—needs to avoid getting caught in the middle of it.

“It’s not a fight between liberals and conservatives,” Rosenberg told me the other day. “It’s between our ‘governing class’ here and activists everywhere else.”

In other words, it’s the Beltway versus the Blogosphere.

What’s interesting is that Rosenberg is himself a Beltway creature, a preternaturally self-assured young insider with a cherubic face and a cold smile. He heads a group called the New Democratic Network and ran his own campaign for DNC chair. But the names he utters with reverence are net-based: organizers such as Eli Pariser and bloggers such as Daily Kos and Atrios.

Rosenberg rejects that notion that the bloggers represent a new “Internet Left.” It’s not an ideological rift, he says, but a “narrative” of independence versus capitulation: too many Democrats here are too yielding to George W. Bush on the war in Iraq, on tax policy, you name it. “What the blogs have developed is a narrative,” he told me the other day,” and the narrative is that the official Washington party has become like Vichy France.”

[Unam Sanctam]

But, in the view of the Blogosphere, the DLC model is outmoded and dangerously accomodationist, in the manner of the allegedly independent, but in reality pro-Nazi, regime of wartime of France.

Note the implied comparison of Bush to Hitler and the Nazis.

[DJ MacWoW]

By the way....Little Black Sambo is bannned in the U.s.

You can get the book in an altered form. The new Little Golden Book is called something like "A Boy and a Tiger" and the kids name is now Rajani.

[uscabjd]

Much of what Fineman writes is also true of Reps, especially when it comes to being combative. We will see what happens on the next Sup Court appointment - the one after Roberts and thte one the Dems will try to block. Are the Reps combative enough to go nuclear? If not, we shouldn't be in power. Our blogs will rebel.

[KoRn]

""Leeeeeeeeeeeet's get ready to rumblllllllllllllllle!!!""

More like screaming, crying, pulling hair, and slapping each other but we get the idea lol.

[My2Cents]

Are the Reps combative enough to go nuclear? If not, we shouldn't be in power.

Yup

[decal]

Gee, which side do I choose? It's just like the Iraq/Iran war of the 80s....

Oh, I've GOT it, I choose MY side!

[marvlus]

Hee Hee!

[Netheron]

Capitol Steps Song from that Period:

(Sung to the tune of "Joy to the World")

Oil in the world
is under the gun.
Iraq attacked Iran!
Iran attacked Iraq, and then
Iraq attacked Iran again.
Repeat step number 1,
Repeat step number 2.
They've done it for years,
and so what else is new?

I still find it hilarious.

[Lancey Howard]

The "blogosphere" will drive the rats even further left.
And Bob and Jane Taxpayer, along with their kids Billy and Erica, will grow even more disgusted with the Democrat Party and its agenda to bring Euro-style secular socialism to America and belittle the traditional family unit.

[Tribune7]

A fight between the amoral power brokers and the nihilists.

These men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

[marron]

“What the blogs have developed is a narrative,” he told me the other day,” and the narrative is that the official Washington party has become like Vichy France.”

"Narrative" is code for "delusional". The writer's complaint is that DNC leadership is marginally less delusional than the party faithful.

Somehow this cheers me up.

[glorgau]

Where do we send the Dean '08 money?

Nah, the real dark horse is the Draft Kucinich 2008 movement.

[Jim Noble]

These men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Never, NEVER underestimate nihilists.

[sourcery]

Won't be long before the leftist blogoshpere adds the term DINO to their lexicon.

The internet is enabling the extremes on both sides to have a far greater voice.

[maxter]

Prediction: Dean will run in 08 and he will beat Hillary.

[AFPhys]

I would say something like,

"Isn't amazing that the Democrat Party problems we were discussing on Free Republic five years ago are now being discovered by the Democrats themselves?"

only ... it really isn't very amazing. FR being 'way out in front of the libidiots on this type of subject has become pretty commonplace.

Personally, I've been enjoying my popcorn and cold duck at their expense for all five of these years... 'round about this here place we have had a word for it:

SCHADENFREUDE!!!

[SandRat]

Care to Join me in a PARTY-PAK?

[SueRae]

Implosion. Only a matter of time.

[finnigan2]

"A fight between the amoral power brokers and the nihilists."

- Fineman is just peeing into the wind with this drivel. The truth is that the power brokers and the nihilists value one thing above all else - political power. They would even agree to french kiss each other and unite behind Hitlery if they thought she could deliver it to them.