DLC runs an article by Lieberman adviser Gerstein...."the realist wing"

[madfloridian]

Oh, my goodness, I thought I had heard just about all the insults they could throw at those of us who dare question the war and those who sent us there. But no...today they post an article by Dan Gerstein, who hates "grassroots" "nutroots" just as much as the guy he works for.

They are calling themselves "the realist wing"....yikes.

Here is the link to the DLC website where I found it.

www.dlc.org

Here is the link to the article:

Who bears blame for anti-war failures?

To most war opponents, the blame increasingly lies with the Democratic leadership in Congress, for not taking a hard enough line with President Bush and not fighting to cut off war funding. And their frustration is visibly bubbling over — the provocative group Code Pink, for example, has actually taken to protesting outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco in recent days

But there is a growing feeling among many Democrats, particularly within the D.C. establishment, that just the opposite is true. They may not say it publicly, for fear of arousing the grass roots’ wrath, but the realist wing of the party seems to think the Democrats’ biggest problem on Iraq these days is not that there’s too much Bush Lite but that there’s too much Bush Left.

Get that? The "realist wing" thinks there is too much "Bush Left". Oh, Dan, you poor thing. You really seem to think that is clever in a perverted sort of way.

Under this view, too many anti-war activists, not satisfied with berating the president, have too often wound up behaving like him. They have gone beyond fighting back and holding the Decider accountable to adopting the same divisive, dogmatic and ultimately destructive style of politics that Democrats have been decrying for the past seven years, with the same counterproductive results.

What’s the basis for that argument? Consider some of these stunningly similar parallels between Bush and his Democratic doppelgängers, along with the ramifications for progressives’ overarching goal of ending the war. (For the record, that is a goal I share, no matter my continued admiration and work for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut.)

Dogmatic? To speak out against a war in which some say a million Iraqis have died because of our actions, several million displaced. Dogmatic, my hind foot.

Bush and his Doppelgangers...oh, my, Dan, you must stay up night thinking of ways to be clever.

I want to thank the DLC website for linking to this great blog post by Dan. It keeps my fighting spirit going on a day I had about given up.

WordNet - Cite This Source doppelganger

noun
a ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

That is almost as bad as the article they posted about the National Conversation with this title:

National Conversation 2007: News From The Real World

The Real World? Or denial of reality by our own party?

[rudy23]

1. The DLC is to the Democratic Party what Neocons were to the Republicans

This will be the story of the next year, and hopefully not the next 9 years.

[redqueen]

2. Ugh...

*sigh*

[ralphmich3]

35. Anti-War "strategy" not working well...

That certainly is a legitimate question: why haven't the anti-war groups been more effective? For example:

1) Why DID Lieberman win overwhelming in a Blue State running against the anti-war Democrat nominee? (no one, that I know of, can example how a rabidly pro-war Senator/candidate could win an election in an anti-war, blue state like Connecticut).

2) Is the failure in the Congress to act on the war, the fact that the Dems lack the 60 votes needed to shut off debate in the Senate?? Is that the big problem? Too many defecting Dem Senators?

Is the following part of the problem (we are too internet based and not community based?):

One of the few exceptions to this rule recently came from Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice.

In the Times magazine profile on AAEI, she questioned the anti-war movement’s over-reliance on the Internet as a means of mobilizing opposition to the war, saying it has “undermined a little the more traditional approach to organizing, where you go and knock on doors and talk to people. ... People think, ‘Oh, well, I’ve signed a petition online, so I’ve done my bit.’ So I think a lot of us as organizers have become a little sloppy. We haven’t put enough attention into talking to our neighbors, talking on the shopping line.”

Do we need to do robo-calls?? Direct mailing??? Radio Ads??? Bill boards??? etc...

[Totally Committed]

3. F*ck the DLC....

"To most war opponents, the blame increasingly lies with
the Democratic leadership in Congress, for not taking a hard
enough line with President Bush and not fighting to cut off war
funding. And their frustration is visibly bubbling over — the
provocative group Code Pink, for example, has actually taken
to protesting outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in
San Francisco in recent days.

But there is a growing feeling among many Democrats, particularly
within the D.C. establishment, that just the opposite is true. They
may not say it publicly, for fear of arousing the grass roots’ wrath,
but the realist wing of the party seems to think the Democrats’ biggest
problem on Iraq these days is not that there’s too much Bush Lite but
that there’s too much Bush Left."

Sincerely... just F*CK the ALL.

TC

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. And there you have it:

Democrats within the DC Establishment. The people who want to keep their lips superglued to their financial sugartit. Dan Gerstein is one of them.

Trust me when I tell you, because I have worked with some of them, they couldn't find a clue, regarding the things that effect us one-fodder-units, with both hands, a flashlight and a GPS. They don't care. All they want is the corporate contributions to them and their projects to keep rolling in.

[robinlynne]

11. They need to go.

[madfloridian]

5. My life has been lived in the "real" world...in the "realist wing".

I am sure most here have lived there.

The heartaches, the problems, the joys, the sorrows, of raising a family, of having careers, of life and death...

How dare he insult any of us by implying that he lives in the "realist" wing.


Most recently, Gerstein, 39, helped engineer Joe Lieberman’s historic re-election in the nationally-watched U.S. Senate race in Connecticut. He served as communications director and a lead strategist for Lieberman’s general election campaign, which was honored by National Journal as the political “Comeback of the Year” for 2006.

Political comeback? Sure, with the Republican engineering it for him.

[Totally Committed]

8. Hey, Gerstein.....

And, I mean that sincerely, you A**HOLE.


:rofl:


TC

[kenfrequed]

6. The Gall of this man

This guy who fronts for an org that has sold out Democratic principles all the way and cooperated with Bush's war is now trying to tell us it is the Progressive movements fault for having the temerity to stand up to the DLC Dems, the Blue dogs, and the rest of his corporate croney friends?

[Totally Committed]

7. "May they be forgiven, for they know not what they do."

"The 'unrealist Progressives' are the sinners, God.

Without them, I'd still be a Democrat."


That reminds me... as one of them pesky 'unrealist Progressives', I'm still waiting for my THANK YOU Card from the Democratic Party.

:rofl:

TC

[The Count]

9. Now that Joementum is no longer a Democrat, shouldn't the DLC drop him?

Isn't their "D" stand for "Democrat"? Inquiring minds want to know....

[rudy23]

15. Very, very good question.

Kind of tells you why Lamont didn't have any support in the election.

We should've seen this brand of Congress coming.

[Oakland]

21. Joe is the epitome of the DLC..

Getting rid of Joe would be like cutting off their own legs.
Never forget that Bill Clinton campaigned for him against Lamont.

[JTFrog]

24. But he's registered as a Dem.

http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/stamford_templates/stamford_story/289850115142016.php

:shrug:

[ralphmich3]

36. Why did Joe win in 2006???

What happened to the anti-war vote in Connecticut??

[GeorgeGist]

10. Karl Rove has more disciples than Moses or Jesus or Muhammad

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
http://www.ronsuskind.com/articles/000106.html

[AtomicKitten]

12. The US Congress has an 11% approval rating --

because the Democratic Party en masse isn't happy. That disapproval extends well beyond the so-called "netroots."

Lieberman is such a tool.

[donkeyotay]

13. The neocons have become the neoliberals, just like they said they would. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. "The realist wing" Tastes like chicken...!

...hawk

[madfloridian]

16. United for Peace and Justice attacking AAEI??

This is a big bunch of BS.

"One of the few exceptions to this rule recently came from Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice.

In the Times magazine profile on AAEI, she questioned the anti-war movement’s over-reliance on the Internet as a means of mobilizing opposition to the war, saying it has “undermined a little the more traditional approach to organizing, where you go and knock on doors and talk to people. ... People think, ‘Oh, well, I’ve signed a petition online, so I’ve done my bit.’ So I think a lot of us as organizers have become a little sloppy. We haven’t put enough attention into talking to our neighbors, talking on the shopping line.”

Not exactly a stinging rebuke, but it is revealing nonetheless — in large part because it helps to explain why the anti-war movement has failed to force a wholesale change in our Iraq policy.

As Cagan suggests, AAEI and its allies have been borrowing a page from Karl Rove’s discredited playbook and talking the most to the people who agree with them most — and, it should be noted, in terms that won’t resonate with the people they need the most. In doing so, they have failed to enlarge their base and enhance their strength — which is precisely what they have to do to swing moderate Republicans in Congress to their side."

This is the website for Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, AAEI:

http://www.noiraqescalation.org/

"SEIU
MoveOn.org Political Action
Center for American Progress Action Fund
USAction
Win Without War
Vote Vets
Campaign for America's Future
USSA
Working Assets
Americans United for Change
Campus Progress Action
National Security Network"

The link is from the OP in the Politico article.

[Hydra]

17. You know, it's bad enough that these people think the "left" need to go

But I see many regs here on DU saying basically the same things.

Here's my problem with that: They are attempting to legitimize an illegal war.

[madfloridian]

18. I would not have noticed this article if they had not linked to it..

I think they meant for us to see it and react. I resent that.

I am far more a part of the "realist wing" than any of them.

[Cobalt-60]

19. This is pretty weak. And yet I am insulted.

I wish I could officially call this dog out, his choice of weapons.
To draw a similarly between us and the Fascists is a mortal insult.
And it's ridiculous.
The DLC are a pack of Republican fifth columnists.
They are traitors to Party and country.
Does anyone doubt that Lieberman was reporting to the enemy in 2000?
He was undoubtedly presenting this sort of drivel to Gore as advice.
Each and every one should be targeted and eliminated in the upcoming primaries.
But perhaps until we can be rid of them they can be employed to deliver disinformation to their Republican handlers.

[xxqqqzme]

29. but the lead dlc cheerleader

is the media darling and presumed Democratic party nominee - HRC!

[Cobalt-60]

32. this could become a problem

if she wins the nomination.

[ShortnFiery]

20. MSNBC just reported new poll numbers for support: Dear Leader = 29%, *His* Congress = 11%

Hello?!? Democratic Leadership in the Congress?!?

Allowing the DLC to run the party is NOT working. :grr: :thumbsdown:

Steny?

Harry?

Nancy?

:(

[emanymton]

22. Given That "The D.C. Establishment" Is About 0.00001% ...

.
in touch with reality, why is one surprised that they be out of touch with the people?

The DLC is a cork in the bottle of progress. The people rule. The DLC is on its way out. Maybe the GOP will take them.
.

[LWolf]

23. Denial of reality by our own.

:grr:

[riona]

25. Dear DLC

We are shocked that your roots are showing! You certainly have tried every known method to cover them up including our finest product, Rovian Formula for Permanent Root Coverage. Please accept our deepest sympathy. The prognosis is bad - the blue the roots have spread all over your head and can no longer be covered or contained. May we suggest that you work to enhance your natural blue color rather than fighting it.

Sincerely,
Rove's Flabbergastian Spin, Inc.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

26. Certainly the hard left is counterproductive...

You see it in the D.U. every single day. It ain't just "Blame America First", it's "Blame Democrats First". You can see that in the way the spittle-flecked crowd found a way to blame Senator Kerry when that attention-whore student who pushed his way to the front of the line got restrained by the police.

But of course Gernstein is about the worst person to be noting this. Especially since, in arguing that the Move-On ad was counter productive, he shows no sense of realism. (According to the polling data, the ad didn't help, but it didn't hurt either.)

So yes, both the DUers who hate the DLC, and the DLC who hate Sheehan/Randi-Rhodes/Mike-Malloy/Chavez screamers are right - when they comment on each other's idiocy. It's just too bad they can't see it in themselves.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[madfloridian]

27. Oh, hell, tell me where I fit????

How superior you are to be reality based.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

31. You tell me (and the world) by your own words...

There's no need for me to get involved.

I mean, until you see the irony of posting a critique that says in part:

"(Leslie Cagan) questioned the anti-war movement’s over-reliance on the Internet as a means of mobilizing opposition to the war, saying it has “undermined a little the more traditional approach to organizing, where you go and knock on doors and talk to people. ... People think, ‘Oh, well, I’ve signed a petition online, so I’ve done my bit.’ So I think a lot of us as organizers have become a little sloppy. We haven’t put enough attention into talking to our neighbors, talking on the shopping line."

...and thinking you're deconstructing it by attacking it on the D.U., then I really can't help.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[madfloridian]

34. I did not post that. That is not the truth. Misleading

.

[ProudDad]

33. C.D.

proud member of the Problem...

[madfloridian]

28. "the realist wing" just voted against free speech.

I doubt they even know what they did. I doubt they cared. They worry more about Bush's base that the Democratic base. They worry more about appearances than reality.

[Zodiak]

30. I got an answer to the DLC

Fuck you.

We are on to your shit and have cut you off from giving us "friendly" advice. Are you lamenting it yet? You will.

I'll say it again....the pukes and the DLC have one thing in common....they HATE liberals. And yes, it is the "H" word.