The irony of course is that Edwards, Dean, Lieberman, and Kerry are all active members of the DLC. New Republic selected their primary candidate for 2004, and not surprisingly it's Joe Lieberman. It is this endorsement which has probably kept him in the race, even after those sorry primary results.
When Democrats controlled the majority in Congress, the DLC played a critical role in developing the policy agenda in 1992...which Dukakis lacked in 1988. They also played a role in giving moderates and conservatives a voice within a party mostly controlled by liberals.
Now the party leadership is dominated by moderates, but Democrats are no longer the majority party they once were. Once the DLC served as a means of coordinating two very different wings of a Congressional Party in a bid to win back the White House. Now this party really has only one wing, this includes the moderate wing in control and those motived by issue-driven voters. But now that the Democratic Party is the party of moderation, it hardly makes sense for those in the DLC to keep pushing harder for us to compromise more and more with shrub. Compromise is logical when the our party has the power to negotiate, but now repukes set the terms and Dino's in Congress always feel free to break ranks regardless of the policy implications.
But those who are rightly concerned about the damage being done have been bringing this up in the primaries, however the DLC feels that we as voters owe them our loyalty..even if it goes against our better interest.
"Paul Tsongas used to point out that Democrats couldn't love jobs but hate employers. It's just as true that Democrats can't love the Clinton years but hate the DLC." Actually I did love Clinton's leadership...although not all of the Clinton years, and I hate this kind of DLC arrogance that says corporate America knows best! One other thing this writer forgot to state was that Tsongas was not a member of the DLC, and most in the DLC hated his plans to hike the gasoline tax by 3-5 cents a gallon. So it is slightly ironic to see them quote a dead man who they worked so hard to defeat in the 1992 primaries. Will they misquote Governor Dean in four or eight years to defeat another "unelectable liberal?"
Will the DLC always oppose anything good proposed by a non-DLC democrat? And can the DLC continue to provide some constructive ideas, or will they merely seek to promote that watered-down alternative to what Shrub wants?
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=85&subid=65&contentid=252283