I have a friend like that, too. Lives in NYC, where she believes a "modified Bill of Rights" is in effect because the population is too dense for normal freedom. She's quite happy with that.
She also makes allusions to all the whackjob rantings on DU and daily kos, but says she has never visited those sites, and I believe her. I think there is a "trickle down" mechanism where the lunacy of those sites gets filtered, and then passed on to the "normal" party faithful. What one day is insane screeching on DU becomes accepted fact the next day by the "sane and sober" liberals.
My own opinion is the Slimes and Compost (thank you, Mark Levin) are published with an intended audience of a few thousand movers-and-shakers in mind. These are semi-important people inside the Beltway who don't merit a daily fax, email, or conference call from on high, but still need to know what the day's party line is.