Temper Tantrums at Big Money's Democratic Party Embassy

[LWolf]

From Sirota's Blog, a very satisfying read, leaving me :D :

<snip>

It's been a rough few weeks for the folks at Big Money's Democratic Party Embassy, otherwise known as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). First, Rolling Stone cut through the DLC's seemingly friendly, subtly caustic, vaguely cultish rhetoric and exposed it's rather odious agenda for all to see (an agenda I also try to detail in my new book Hostile Takeover). Then, DLC posterboy Joe Lieberman lost to a previously little-known reformist challenger named Ned Lamont, despite Lieberman grossly outspending Lamont with corporate dollars flowing to him from many of the same industries that fund the DLC. Then, populist Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) dropped the hammer on the DLC in a speech at the Milwaukee Press Club - the first time in recent memory a Senator has publicly told the truth about the destructive influence the DLC has had on the Democratic Party. So, all in all, DLC staffers Al From, Bruce Reed, Will Marshall, Ed Kilgore, Marshall Wittman and the Big Money interests they rely on for their DLC paychecks are probably not so happy.

That has to explain why Kilgore, formerly a Zell Miller staffer, melted down yesterday on his blog. In an eight paragraph rant attacking me and Sen. Feingold, he tries to paint the DLC as just a small, low-budget idealistic operation struggling to advocate for the greater good in an evil corrupt Washington that the DLC had nothing to do with corrupting. We're expected to believe the DLC is the organizational equivalent of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or a garage band struggling to make it big. All "the DLC does is write policy papers, hold conferences, publish a magazine, and network amnues for 2000 will probably end up around $7.2 million."

Put another way, the DLC making itself out to be the innocent, virtuous, shoestring underdog is like billionaire Warren Buffet telling people with a straight face that he is applying for food stamps.

more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/temper-tantrums-at-big-mo_b_27124.html

[bobbolink]

1. It makes me happy that the DLC powerful are not happy.

Sirota's doing good!

Thanks for this! :thumbsup:

[LWolf]

3. Yes.

You're welcome! It gets even better further on. I especially like the comments about "centrism."

[bobbolink]

27. "centrism" -- gotta love the red herrings...

This is gonna be a real fight. Corporatism, like the BFEE, isn't going to give up without an ugly fight. I'm not looking forward to that part of it, yet... I'm looking forward to getting my country back. Onward and upward... :hi:

Over 30 years ago, I had a young friend who belonged to COPIRG, and he was warning me about the necessity of getting big business out of politics. I understood the basic issue, but I didn't GET the huge importance of it. Seemed like there were others issues much more important.

Well, now I GET IT!!

Thanks to all of you who are working so hard to reduce the impact of Corporatism on our country! :toast:

[LWolf]

28. I'll add my thanks.

I like to look for the root cause of a problem; it seems to me that corporate takeover of the country is at the bottom of every issue. They use religion as a manipulator, but I really believe it's all about maintaining power and profit in the hands of the few.

[bobbolink]

29. Corporatism at the root... yes, indeedy!

Do you have any great ideas how to get the general public aware of what is really happening with corporatism??

I've pondered this, and my brain doesn't come up with much.

But, the problem is, it's so entrenched now that even if we were to win all the elections, we still have that huge elephant sitting on us.

Actually, I think it's a dragon, cuz elephants are too nice to be threatening... :hi:

[tanyev]

2. Nice.

:thumbsup:

[Sadie5]

5. Look how the DLC has treated Dean

If you say you are a Dean Democrat you get this talking to about how Dean is a crazy fool intent on ruining the Dem party. The DLC shills have needed exposed for some time other than on here. This item will reach many people who do not know the DLC even exists.

[LWolf]

6. Yes.

I'm not a Dean Democrat. I figured Dean was the true centrist who would create a solid balance for the party. Therefore a good choice for his present position. If Dean is a "crazy fool," you can imagine what people say when I say that I think the party ought to be following Dennis Kucinich's example.

[filer]

4. I've had my belly full of the DLC.

They want us all to be Republican Lites. They think that's the only way Democrats can win. If they're so smart, how come we keep losing elections. They're as bad as the Bushies at labeling those of us who disagree as radicals or lefties. I don't care what they choose to call me, but I want change. Democrats need to offer an alternative. I think the country is ready for that. Besides, what's the risk? Listen to the DLC and we'll all be crying again in November.

[LWolf]

11. Well said! n/t

[newyawker99]

19. Hi filer!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LWolf]

21. How in the world do you do that?

Find newcomers so quickly, whereever they may pop in? :hi:

I'll chime in to second that:

Welcome, Filer!

[stepnw1f]

22. Well Said and Welcome to DU! (nt)

[lildreamer316]

26. Maybe they ARE republicans.

Never underestimate the enemy. It is always possible. I don't care if my tinfoil hat is shining brightly...we've seen the other side stoop to some levels we never thought possible. Sometimes the simplest explination is the right one. Achem's razor and all that.

I'm just sayin'.

[notadmblnd]

7. sounds like a republican organization

with companies like Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications who eagerly forked over the $25,000 entry fee to be on the DLC's "executive council.

No wonder Dems can't get anything accomplished.

[jaysunb]

8. They are !

:evilfrown:

[LWolf]

9. It's eerily like the current powers that be:

"compassionate conservatism," "healthy forest initiative," "patriot act," and all those orwellian labels for everything they do.

This label, the "Democratic Leadership Council," for what should be the "Corporate Leadership Council," is a clever way to shift the Democratic Party into something totally different, while still calling it "Democratic."

They even claim to be "modernizing progressive politics." :eyes:

I guess so, if "progressive" means training voters to run backwards blindfolded.

[struggle4progress]

16. Rightweb's take on DLC's mother organization PPI:

... Since PPI’s inception in 1989, founders Will Marshall and Al From have advocated for a “third way” .... Which translates into policy recommendations that are very close to the .. conservatism articulated by .. Bush: uncompromising support for free market and free trade economics, a strong military with a global presence, an end to the politics of entitlement, rejection of affirmative action, and an embrace of competitive enterprise while at the same time rejecting a key role for government in development policy. Expressing the opinion of many progressive Democrats, Robert Kuttner, editor of the American Prospect, wrote that the political approach of the PPI and the DLC amounts to “splitting the difference with a Republican administration” ...

The neoconservative leanings of the PPI are evident in the writings of the contributing authors to Progressive Internationalism. In a March 9, 2004 essay, Ronald Asmus and Michael McFaul assert that “a bipartisan consensus is emerging in America about the need to bring greater freedom and democracy to the Greater Middle East.” Having signed on to the neocon agenda of invading Iraq, based on false claims about Iraq’s stockpiles of WMDs, the liberal hawks after the invasion also became among the most vocal advocates of the regional political restructuring plans of such neocon institutes as the American Enterprise Institute and the Project for the New American Century. Asmus and McFaul call for a ten-fold budget increase for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental “democracy-promotion” institute that was established as a neoconservative political project in 1983 ...

PPI is part of the Third Way Foundation ... Between 2000 and 2002, the Foundation received $225,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, one of major top right-wing foundations. The DLC and its closely associated Progressive Policy Institute are the recipient of grants from many Fortune 500 firms as well from such right-wing foundations as the Bradley Foundation. Corporate contributors to the Progressive Policy Institute include AT&T Foundation, Eastman Kodak Charitable Trust, Prudential Foundation, Georgia-Pacific Foundation, Chevron, and Amoco Foundation. The Third Way Foundation, which is an umbrella group for the New Democrats of the DLC, receives funding from the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Ameritech Foundation, and General Mills Foundation. (According to a magazine report, the DLC counts on funding from Bank One, Citigroup, Dow Chemical, DuPont, General Electric, Health Insurance Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Occidental Petroleum, and Raytheon.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1534

[LWolf]

25. Sounds like a roster

of the people we were working to keep out of positions of power when we campaigned to keep GWB out of the WH in 2000 and '04, doesn't it?

[UTUSN]

10. A Zell MILLER ex-staffer is a DLC honcho? Who else? n/t

[bvar22]

12. "Hostile Takeover"...David Sirota

Great Book!!!!

Ever wonder why only DLC mouthpieces get on the Talking Head Shows?

Answer: The people who own the Networks also own the DLC. These Pro-Corporate shills get all the face time, and are often presented as "Liberals". America does not get to hear the voices of the TRUE Center of America.

Here is the TRUE Center of America:

"In recent polls by the Pew Research Group, the Opinion Research Corporation, the Wall Street Journal, and CBS News, the American majority has made clear how it feels. Look at how the majority feels about some of the issues that you'd think would be gospel to a real Democratic party:

1. 65 percent (of ALL Americans, Democrats AND Republicans) say the government should guarantee health insurance for everyone -- even if it means raising taxes.

2. 86 percent favor raising the minimum wage (including 79 percent of selfdescribed "social conservatives").

3. 60 percent favor repealing either all of Bush's tax cuts or at least those cuts that went to the rich.

4. 66 percent would reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

5. 77 percent believe the country should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

6. 87 percent think big oil corporations are gouging consumers, and 80 percent (including 76 percent of Republicans) would support a windfall profits tax on the oil giants if the revenues went for more research on alternative fuels.

7. 69 percent agree that corporate offshoring of jobs is bad for the U.S. economy (78 percent of "disaffected" voters think this), and only 22% believe offshoring is good because "it keeps costs down."

http://alternet.org/wiretap/29788/

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[LWolf]

13. Great book, great snips.

And I love this at the end:

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[bvar22]

14. Those didn't come from Sirota's book.

The central quote is from an article on Alternet, and the sig line is my own (which you or anyone is free to use).

I am glad the word is getting out on the DLC, and the shame is spreading. The DLC was forced to take down the membership roster from their website. I am glad I have played a little part on DU in exposing them.
The Republican Party is an external enemy.
The DLC is much more insidious and dangerous.
They have diluted our message, and disrupted our organization.
The DLC IS the reason people can honestly say, "I don't know what the Democratic Party stands for."
They don't belong in the Democratic Party.

:dem:

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[KoKo]

20. Kick....an excellent read! So is his book "Hostile Takeover." n/t

[MrBenchley]

15. In other words....

Feingold's gibberish was exposed as the silliness it really is.

[KelleyKramer]

17. You can smell the desperation

They know they are losing any influence regardless of how much corporate money they have.

No wonder all the attacks on the bloggs during the Lieberman race.. its not really the blogs they fear, its the PEOPLE of the Dem party they fear.. and the blogs are just one small piece of it.

And joking about the falling numbers for the New Republic is a poke in their eye, evidence of their fast track to irrelevance.

These guys are republican lite.. and when they go down its going to be just like any other desperate repub.. very ugly. They will start lashing out more and more desperately.

Get the popcorn!

[LWolf]

18. Yes.

:popcorn:

They don't really have anything of substance to say, or to support themselves with. Here at DU, they express disagreeement with derision, name-calling, and put-downs, rather than with any real evidence to support them. My middle-schoolers can argue a point with more class than that.

[dogday]

23. What can I say? I love Feingold

He just keeps on going like an energizer bunny.....

[LWolf]

24. I sure appreciate his candor on this subject. n/t