Free Republic

Bill Clinton will be there. So will 300 officeholders from more than 45 states. But one thing will be missing when Democrats gather in Tennessee this weekend to discuss how to appeal to moderate, independent-minded voters in 2008: the Democratic presidential field. Not a single one of the eight presidential candidates plans to attend the Democratic Leadership Council's summer meeting, a snub that says less about the centrist DLC than it does about a nomination process that rewards candidates who pander to their parties' hardened cores while ignoring everybody else. "They have tunnel vision," DLC founder Al From said of...

It's du Sextidi de Frimaire and already the Democrat Jacobins are in the midst of their Reign of Terror of sending their own Girondists to the metaphorical guillotine. The object of their wrath in this case is Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council. So how bad do the DUmmies want to purge From and the DLC Girondists from their party? The title of this DUmmie THREAD will give you a hint: "Al From is a cancer on the Democratic Party." So let us now watch the Democrats begin their internal Reign of Terror in Bolshevik Red while the...

The results of the '06 election are in. The left wing of the Democratic Party has taken over Congress. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is the Speaker. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is the new chairman of the Ways and Means panel. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is majority leader, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) runs the Environment Committee. The left is empowered. But how did it achieve these majorities? It did so lifted by the wings of moderate, centrist Democrats who mastered their GOP opponents throughout the country. It was not liberals who defeated Republican incumbents in the House and Senate. It...

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exempt status of the Democratic Leadership Council on the grounds it mainly benefited a private group – Democrats running for office – rather than the community at large. The DLC has countered with a lawsuit in federal court, and the outcome could affect the increasing use of tax-exempt organizations by politicians and lobbyists, according to a Forbes magazine article headlined "The Democrats’ Little Tax Secret.” The conflict is not without its ironic twists. For one, the DLC’s chairman during the years the IRS claims it wasn’t bipartisan enough was Sen. Joe Lieberman, recently...

"The Democratic Party, and even the centrists within it, must sever all ties with Al From and the DLC. They must not be allowed access to Democratic Congressional leaders. They must not be allowed a role in the nomination process in 2008. They must not be allowed a presence at the Democratic convention. By supporting Bloomberg, Al From and the DLC have indicated they no longer are interested in participating in the Democratic Party and we should see to it that they get their way."

The ABC television network is justifiably being swamped with literally tens of thousands of complaints about its plans to air a miniseries entitled "The Path to 9/11" on September 10 and 11. According to those who have seen the script, the show dwells heavily on claims that the Clinton administration was too distracted by other issues to heed warnings about al Qaeda, or to kill Osama bin Laden when it had the chance. ABC's main reaction to reports of such inflammatory and partisan inaccuracies has been to claim that its details are based on the findings of the 9/11 Commission....

Q: Are bloggers too powerful? A: Do I think they're important? Yes. Do I think the [bloggers] and Al Sharpton alone are the future of the Democratic Party? No! Welcome in, contribute, but it's about winning in November and moving the country forward, not about a firing squad in a circle. -- Q&A with U.S. representative Rahm Emanuel, Aug. 28th issue of New York magazine I badly want to move on to another topic in this column space -- there is very little in the world that is less interesting than the Democratic Leadership Council and their ilk -- but...

The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is a more centrist element of today’s Democratic Party. After Sen. Lieberman’s primary defeat last week, I decided to go to the DLC website and see how the centrist Democrats were reacting to their defeat as well as the victory of the far left. There wasn’t a canned response at that time. I had hoped that the DLC would have prepared both win and lose positions in advance, but apparently the party just can’t figure out how to pander to their base of pacifists, appeasers, geo-political procrastinators, Bush-haters, socialists etc. while at the same time...

...Kilgore can try all he likes to dishonestly claim the DLC is just some low-budget idealistic garage band pursuing their supposedly innocent and not-yet-realized dreams of prominence. And it's likely true - there are more than a handful of corporate lobbyists in Washington shedding tears now that the DLC's star is falling and people have woken up to the DLC's destructive influence, transparently corrupt agenda, and election-losing advice. But this persecuted underdog fable likening the DLC to the main character in the movie Rudy is positively laughable. Moreover, even if you accept Kilgore's lie that the official DLC organization itself...

Six years ago Joe Lieberman was the darling of the Democratic Party. In a salute to the Connecticut senator’s character, moral fiber and steadfast moderation, Al Gore chose him to be the party’s vice presidential candidate. That made sense, as Lieberman enjoyed many positive traits Gore lacked. Lieberman’s 2000 nomination proved that the Democratic party still understood that most Americans value moderation over far-left liberalism. On Tuesday, the Democratic Party discarded that tired old notion by ousting the pro-war, strong-on-national-security Connecticut centrist in favor of an extreme liberal anti-war Democratic challenger: millionaire Connecticut businessman Ned Lamont. Lamont’s candidacy was fueled...

Today I'm going to quote extensively from an article by Chris Bowers at a Web site called MyDD (www.mydd.com), "DD" in this case standing for direct democracy. The article lays out something that I've been chaotically attempting to think about for some time, and does it more clearly than I've been able to manage. The question before the house, as it has been for some time, is: "Why are the Democrats having trouble getting elected even though their opponents lie, cheat and steal with bewildering frequency?" Below is just a partial answer, I think, but it's a darned good start....

THE CENTER-left Democratic Leadership Council has figured out rightly that the American middle class feels it is too low on the Bush totem pole, so the DLC has devised an American Dream Initiative that promises to relieve the middle class in ways that would never occur to the Bushies -- while helping to elect more Democrats. On the politics, the American Dream Initiative is brilliant. The Bushies clearly don't understand how it looks to the heartland when the administration tries to get rid of half of the IRS auditors who investigate inheritance tax returns. Bush's signing of the bankruptcy bill...

DENVER – Moderate Democrats trying to get back into a debate now dominated by liberals offered yesterday what they hope is a centrist path back to the White House, showcasing potential presidential candidates and unveiling a Hillary Clinton-produced “American Dream Initiative” designed to appeal to the middle class. Hillary Clinton The occasion was the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group that propelled Bill Clinton to the presidency and has been long favored by the party's officeholders from states that lean Republican. The backdrop for the summer session was the growing pressure from the left to make...

Centrist Democrats, led by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, yesterday unveiled a policy manifesto to win back Congress and the White House and distance the party from its clamorous left wing. Highlights included proposals to make college tuition and home buying more accessible, expand the availability of health care, and provide greater retirement security, all leavened with a smidgen of Bush-bashing. The war in Iraq, the fulcrum for angry splits between liberals and centrists in several races nationwide, was scarcely mentioned. Proposals included directing more federal money to states to lower the costs of college, expanding the home-mortgage...

DENVER— Gov. Bill Richardson came to the plate late in the batting order on Monday, but joined other possible presidential contenders in taking swings at the Bush administration. He did that while touting his own statistics as a governor. << snip >> Richardson was one of four potential candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to speak to the centrist think-tank group... But Richardson was the last of the bunch to speak, following Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Clinton, who spoke in the morning, was clearly the biggest draw of the...

Testing lines for 2008, Democrats with presidential ambitions accused President Bush and the Republicans of making a mess of the economy and Iraq while arguing that Democrats offer the best hope for a rising middle class that's preferred the GOP. "They're not taking care of America. They're bankrupting our country and failing to address the problems," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Monday, citing skyrocketing gas, college and health care costs. Speaking to the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist think tank, she and three other yet-declared presidential candidates argued that Republicans have ignored the very people who make up much...

Hillary Rodham Clinton is not at her best when she is being compared to her husband. So you have to wonder why she invites it. Monday found her in Denver at the annual meeting of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, unveiling what the DLC calls "The American Dream Initiative." It is a project that she has led for a year, and that could help form an agenda for her own bid for the White House — if, that is, she decides to run. [snip] They are variations on many of the programs that were hallmarks of Bill Clinton's presidency. But...

DENVER - Moderate Democrats think they have the key to winning back power in Washington and across the country - a package of economic proposals aimed at giving every American a shot at reaching the middle class. "We thought it was important and necessary to rekindle the American dream," said Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, a potential 2008 presidential candidate and the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist think tank. [snip] The centrist organization, best known for helping Bill Clinton secure the White House in 1992, was to unveil Monday its "American Dream Initiative," which lays out policies...

Moderates: Dems should talk about religion By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Published: Sunday, July 23, 2006 Updated: Sunday, July 23, 2006 DENVER (AP) - Rather than being bashful, Democrats should openly talk about their religious beliefs and moral values, say moderates urging the party to court voters beyond the traditional Democratic base to win control of the GOP-run Congress this fall and the presidency in 2008. "If we continue to have this perception in the Democratic Party that faith can't be discussed, we'll continue to lose elections based on wedge issues," said Terrance Carroll, a Colorado state representative. The...

At a time when centrism has become a dirty word in some Democratic Party circles, hundreds of the party's avowed moderates are convening in Denver this weekend to discuss their agenda for this fall's election and the presidential contest in 2008. The annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, a group that came to prominence in connection with President Clinton's electoral victory in 1992, takes place as the organization has become a lightning rod for criticism from liberal Web-based activists known as the netroots. The Denver gathering is scheduled to hear from the putative Democratic frontrunner for 2008, Senator Clinton,...