This article,
Neocons in the Democratic Party, (further down below) is from 2006, but relevant still, nonetheless.
First, however, take note that one of the newer additions to the Democratic Leadership Council is
Marshall Wittmann, former aide to Sen. John McCain (R. Ariz.). He was Director of Communications for Independent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, he was the Christian Coalition's director of legislative affairs (he worked for
Ralph Reed), he is a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, was the creator of
The Bull Moose blog, is now a senior fellow at DLC/PPI and he has been contributing to the DLC's online magazine,
Blueprint Magazine, since at least
2002. In his support of Lieberman's run against Ned Lamont, he often referred to on line liberal bloggers as the
"chattering nutroots." (madfloridian gets these things)
According to Matt Taibbi, Wittman wanted to run for Democratic Party Chairman:
DLC Moose shit
A Letter to Marshall Wittman
by Matt Taibbi
What about a (Democratic Party) Chairman who hails from the reddest of red states, a former Republican, ex-union official who worked with devout Christians and is Jewish and has well-defined ties to the McCainiac-independent voter? And all of the candidates express their appreciation of the power of the Internet, why not a Chairman who resides there? The Moose—what's not to like!
The antlered one could certainly give the donkey a well-placed kick in the behind and transform him into a reform animal. And the Moose certainly knows the adversary since he was once privy to the counsels of the DeLays, Santorums, Norquists and Reeds.
The Moose shouldn't make a hasty decision. Perhaps he should embark upon a listening tour of the blogosphere and hear from the Mooseketeers.
—Marshall Wittmann
How about it, Mooseketeers? Marshall Wittmann, the former legislative director for the Christian Coalition and also a veteran talking head of such excellent organizations as the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute (which hypes him as "one of the nation's most quoted analysts"), offers himself as a candidate for the chair of the Democratic Party. Wittmann, you see, is now an operative at the Democratic Leadership Council—he got the policy operative spot that opened up when Al From and Bruce Reed were tipped off that their initial choice, Mobutu Sese Seko, had been dead for years. So they brought in Wittmann, whose chief credentials were that he used to stand guard for Ralph Reed at church rest rooms whenever the latter ducked out of evening mass to jerk off to Ranger Rick centerfolds...
Hillary's Moment
The Moose argues that the presumptive '08 Democratic front-runner has an opportunity.
Since the '04 election, Senator Clinton has done virtually everything right in her potential quest to seek the Presidency. Unlike much of the national Democratic Party, she has absorbed the lessons of the defeat. Senator Clinton deeply realizes that in order for the party to win the White House they must be credible on national security and not disparage the values of traditionalist voters.
Meanwhile the national Democrats (as opposed to the Governors) have highlighted the weaknesses of the party. In the past week, the Senate Judiciary Democrats celebrated the type of annoying political correctness that has alienated so many traditionalist voters. On the national security front, the Pelosis and Deans have reminded voters why they distrust the party on the issue of national defense. And Al Gore has done no favors for Democrats who are attempting to project a centrist and sensible image.
In contrast, Hillary has not back-tracked on her position on Iraq and she continues to decry the coarsening of the culture. Of course, sometimes she is guilty of rhetorical excess, but what politician isn't (the Moose would prefer the term "bordello" to describe the House)? And now, she has an opportunity to further convince voters that she is a "different kind of Democrat." ...
Cont'd:
http://bullmooseblogger.blogspot.com/2006/01/hillarys-moment.htmlTo the Senator, however, immediate withdrawal is the “big mistake,” and her position has drawn fire from the anti-war left and put her in a group of Senators that Marshall Wittmann, a conservative Democrat who is close to Senator John McCain, labeled “the coalition of the adults.”
“She’s a charter member,” Mr. Wittmann said of a group that also includes Mr. McCain, retired General Wesley Clark and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, who, like Mrs. Clinton, is eyeing the 2008 Presidential contest. “She has stood by her position from the very beginning. She has been critical of the administration’s prosecution of the war, but she has stood by her position that the war was right.”
http://www.observer.com/node/37992''She understands the weaknesses in the Democratic Party perhaps better than anyone else," said Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. ''The party will not be taken seriously by the American people unless it believes it will defend them."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/14/sen_clinton_unveils_bill_to_boost_army_strength/?page=2They're back ... they've been here and more keep coming ... coming to rest their hawkish wings once again in the Democratic party via the DLC.Neocons in the Democratic Party
By Jacob Heilbrunn,
The Los Angeles Times
May 28, 2006
DON'T LOOK now, but neoconservatism is making a comeback - and not among the
Republicans who have made it famous but in the Democratic Party.
A host of pundits and young national security experts associated with the
party are calling for a return to the Cold War precepts of President Truman
to wage a war against terror that New Republic Editor Peter Beinart, in the
title of his provocative new book, calls "The Good Fight."
~snip~
This new crop of liberal hawks calls for expanding the existing war against
terrorism, beefing up the military and promoting democracy around the globe
while avoiding the anti-civil liberties excesses of the Bush administration.
... These Democrats want to be seen as anything but the squishes who have led
the party to defeat in the past. Interestingly, that's how the early neocons
saw themselves too: as liberals fighting to reclaim their party's true
heritage - before they decamped to the GOP in the 1980s.
Indeed, the credo of the new Democratic hawks is eerily reminiscent of the
neocons of the 1970s, who ran a full-page ad in the New York Times called
"Come Home, Democrats" after George McGovern's crushing defeat, in a play on
his campaign slogan "Come Home, America." In it, early neocons such as Jeane
Kirkpatrick and Norman Podhoretz called for a return to the principles of -
you guessed it -
Truman and President Kennedy.
~snip~
Now, a generation later, as the crusading Republican neoconservatism
espoused by Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and others lies in the
smoking rubble of Baghdad, a new generation of Democrats wants to dust off
and rehabilitate those traditional Democratic principles...
~snip~
Where will all this lead? To an internecine Democratic war, of course.
~snip~
Just as the old neocons wanted to expel the McGovernites, so the new ones
want to rid the party of the Moveon.org types and move it to the right. ...
~snip~
The Moveon.org types are hardly prepared to go down without a fight. At the
moment, with no end to the imbroglio in Iraq in sight, they - the populist
left - are poised for their greatest influence in the party since the
McGovern era. The new Democratic hawks, like the old neoconservatives of the 1970s,
represent an insurgency, a direct challenge to the establishment. And if
they are to revamp the party, they will have to do a lot more than simply
evoke the ghost of Truman and Co.
Still, it is amusing to see that at the very moment when hawkish realists
are trying to extirpate the neocon credo in the Republican Party, it's being
revived in the Democratic Party that first brought it to life.
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