Democrats and Cannibals: The Kos kids try but fail to devour party moderates

OpinionJournal.com ^ | August 17, 2007 | KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

[gpapa]

Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar is today fond of quoting a famous Lyndon Johnson line: "You know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals only eat their enemies."

Mr. Cuellar would know, having found himself the main course on liberals' election menu just last year. A centrist Democrat who is pro-business, free-trade and strong on law enforcement, the congressman was designated an apostate by the left-wing Netroots crowd. They decamped to his district and bankrolled a liberal primary challenger. Mr. Cuellar triumphed, though Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas would later swagger on his blog: "So we didn't kill off Cuellar. But we gave him a whooping where none was expected and made him sweat."

Which is the point. If the liberal blogging phenomenon deserves to be known for anything, it is the strategy to intimidate or silence anyone who disagrees with its own out-of-the-mainstream views. That muzzling has been on full display in recent weeks as Mr. Moulitsas and fellow online speech police have launched a campaign against the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Jr. was even thwacked last week for daring to speak to this editorial page (my sincere apologies, Mr. Ford)--the clear goal to discourage him from making such a free-speech mistake again.

[FormerACLUmember]

“Liberalism” is where all the hard core Marxist scum went to, along with all their treachery, lust for power, virulent anti-Americanism, propaganda, etc.

Liberals in 2007 are the sworn enemies of democracy and civil rights.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The “tolerant” and “free speech” crowd. Beware them, because they want tolerance and free speech eliminated. They are evil on this earth.

[Free Vulcan]

She spanks the KOSmunists hard.

[oakcon]

I’d really like to get my hands on the picture Colbert got of Markos doing a Nazi salute in front of a K-shaped swastika banner.

[goldstategop]

The Daily Kos crowd would like to oust the Blue Dogs. But if they run hard core lefties in GOP leaning districts, there goes the Democratic House majority. I hope they do - these people don't know when to stop digging.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[no dems]

I wish the Kos crowd well. They are doing a great job of dividing the Democratic Party.

[Ben Ficklin]

The right wing tries to destroy the RINOs and the left wing tries to destroy the Dinos(DLC-ers and third way-ers)

[Ben Ficklin]

Two other items of interest"

The Club for Growth(GOP) financially supported Cuellar.

Ciro Rodriguez, who Cuellar defeated in 2004, defeated Republican Henry Bonilla in 2006, who was the GOP's only elected Mexican.

[listenhillary]

Mr. Cuellar suggests a look at "all the passes" the leadership has given red-state Dems on tough votes like Iraq, missile defense and immigration. This is an obvious recognition by the top ranks of the party that getting moderates re-elected is the only way to stay in power. They know that "if we go the way these Internet groups want us to go, we'll be the shortest-lived majority in congressional history," he says.

Freepers could learn from this. We need a chunk of the middle to win. We can support only those that toe the ideological line, but we will be firmly in the minority going forward. This situation will not change until we end the stranglehold that liberals have on government schools.

[Ben Ficklin]

"We need a chunk of the middle to win"

Watch your step. Statements such as that are not tolerated.

[listenhillary]

How well I know.

[Lurking in Kansas]

... the left-wing Netroots Nutroot crowd.

There, fixed it.

[dirtboy]

Watch your step. Statements such as that are not tolerated.

Oh, they are tolerated just fine. It's just when the supposed answer to getting a chunk of the middle is to run a NE liberal as president, when Reagan showed center-right is the way to go, well, that's gonna receive a lot of derision on FR. And rightfully so.

[Ben Ficklin]

Oh God, not another insufficiently reliable conservative.

[samtheman]

A centrist Democrat who is pro-business, free-trade and strong on law enforcement

Then what's he doing in the party of socialism and PC coddling of criminals?

[dirtboy]

Oh God, not another insufficiently reliable conservative.

Oh, I am a very reliable conservative.

Just not a reliable RINO.

[Amalie]

We need a chunk of the middle to win.

I agree 100%. Even in conservative circles, we don't all have the same opinion about who is the 'purest' of them all. I look at a couple of social issues overall (basically, its abortion, as that is what I feel will drive good Supreme Court appointments, and the 2nd Amendment, which tells me where the candidate stands on individual liberty), and then at experience, trust, and confidence.

We complain about President Bush, but we could have done a LOT worse had his opponents won. You shoot your own army, you get overrun. In this election, we must be careful to find the balance between conservative positions we like and electibility positions that can win. We could do worse than Romney, but I think we conservatives can do better than Rudy. Thompson is undeclared, but I think that he will be tractible; as a Hollywood guy, though, we'll have to see if he is believeable. I think Huckabee is probably the most honest of the batch; if he starts getting traction, he could be the candidate, but he will be WAY behind Hillary in terms of funding, and we will all need to help.

As for the Kossacks, yes, the RATs will need to partition them into a corner or they will lose power by default. Whether this happens or not is another story, but (just like here at FR on occasion) when we live in a vacuum thinking that everyone sees the world the way we do, we do so to our peril.

To the purists, just remember that a third party candidacy from Tancredo or Ron Paul will be a vote for Hillary, just like a vote for Roosevelt in 1912 put Wilson in the White House and a vote for Perot in 1992 gave us the first round of Clinton. Do not discount for a moment that the MSM will give the far-right candidate attention to keep the GOP candidate down. The stakes are too high around this time, folks...

[Ben Ficklin]

Excuse me, I wasn't meaning to call you that.

I had recently seen that phrase, insufficiently reliable consevative, used in the media to describe those GOPers/Rinos that I had always called "not good enough", or aka "impure".

[LowCountryJoe]

A very good read.