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.”

[onyx]

LOL! I'm with you all the way, save for the cold duck. Yucky stuff.

[MNJohnnie]

Wow looks like both Reps and Dems have a war going between their Left and Right wings.

[Owl558]

"...the party will eagerly slide off the cliff of electoral collapse for years to come...."

One can only hope, eh? What amazes me the most is that these people actually believe that their far-left socialist agenda is something voters will respond to. They really think that Americans are desperate for higher taxes, more government control over their lives, and sub-standard, socialized services.

[citizencon]

Fineman believes his own lies.

[johniegrad]

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

Totally and completely incorrect. The battle will be between the Massachusettes liberal Kennedy branch of the party and the Clinton pseudomoderate criminal branch of the party. This has nothing to do with the Blogosphere and the Beltway.

[dynachrome]

You win the kewpie doll. Watch Hillary the "moderate" battle Kucinich? Howler Dean? Heck, maybe Jerry Springer.

[Jim Noble]

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

Of course he will.

Hillary is running as a Bull Moose Democrat with John McCain, anyway - the Democrat nomination is worthless, and she and Bill already know that very well.

[ken5050]

Wasn't there a story from the Daily Kos a while back saying they would "take down the DLC" sometime in mid-September?

[WOSG]

"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.”

The "narrative" is a series of tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory, obscene Bush-bashing, and a complete lack of sanity, truthfulness and reason.

Great way to send liberalism off a cliff.

[185JHP]

BTTT

[schu]

Like many articles on the Demos political situation, as well as their policies/philosophies, I find this one to be long on slick rhetoric, but short on substance. Just what is Fineman talking about?

schu

[JasonC]

The grass roots resents the remaining shreds of connection to reality the discipline of actual possession of office brings, and wants to just have one big hissy fit forever and rule by divine right.

[JasonC]

Methinks defending spies giving nukes to Stalin was already well over the cliff. All that has happened recently is they have lost power.

[ladyinred]

Thanks for bringing the popcorn and the candy!

[AD from SpringBay]

Haw haw on those dumb democrats - I'm certainly glad the Republicans in Washington represent conservative values across the nation and that there's no disconnect between them and their respective bloggers.

I'm also glad government keeps growing no matter who is in charge and that we're turning into a Mexican speaking nation.

[kcvl]

Rep. Joe Crowley & Simon Rosenberg

Simon B. Rosenberg is President and Founder of the New Democrat Network (NDN). "Rosenberg has helped make NDN one of the nation's most influential political organizations. NDN has helped bring nearly 50 New Democrats to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and elected New Democrats to state and local offices in 35 states."

"Rosenberg has nearly 20 years of media and political experience. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he worked as a television news writer and producer, for programs that appeared on ABC News, PBS, and various cable stations."

"He served as a key member of two Presidential campaigns, working for Michael Dukakis in Iowa in 1987-88 and for William Jefferson Clinton in the New Hampshire primary and the Little Rock War Room in 1991-92. He also worked at the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Leadership Council before founding NDN in 1996."

"Rosenberg and his work have been featured in numerous books and articles and two well-known movies about the 1992 Presidential campaign, Feed and War Room. He is a member of the Aspen Institute's 2001 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and a 1985 graduate of Tufts University."

[Kryptonite]

The money flows to the beltway, not the blogs.

'Nuff said.

[Tench_Coxe]

I wouldn't get too excited. Similar things are happening on the Right.

[TexasNative2000]

The great thing about a fight between liberals is that neither knows how to win, nor do they think they should. . . .

[kcvl]

Simon Rosenberg for DNC Chair
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