Good ole Lanny Davis: "Blame the Left for Massachusetts"

[madfloridian]

I told you so. I posted tonight that they would be blaming the left. Lanny heard me, and so he did.

Blame the Left for Massachusetts

Liberal Democrats might attempt to spin the shocking victory of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts by claiming that the loss was a result of a poor campaign by Martha Coakley. Would that it were so. This was a defeat not of the messenger, but of the message—and the sooner progressive Democrats face up to that fact, the better.

It's the substance, stupid!

According to polls, fears about the Democrats' health-care proposal played a prominent role in Mr. Brown's victory yesterday. In the last several months, the minority congressional Republicans have dominated the message on health care—and stamped on the Democratic Party the perception that we stand for big government, higher taxes, and health insecurity when it comes to Medicare.

How is that possible? The Democrats have a simple message on health care that has still not really gotten through: If our bill passes, you never have to worry about getting, or losing, health insurance for the rest of your life. How is it that so few people have heard that message?

Then he blames Howard Dean and George McGovern just like he always has.

Somehow, in the last 12 months, we allowed the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to morph into the party of George McGovern (or more accurately, his most ardent supporters) and Howard Dean, who called for the defeat of the Democratic health-care bill if it had neither a public option or Medicare buy-in. (He couldn't possibly have been speaking for the 31 million uninsured people in taking that all-or-nothing position.)

Good ole Lanny. We can always count on him to be the first to put down the liberals.

Then he calls himself a liberal, and blames the "strident, purist base."

He is going to divide the party far worse than Dean or any of us have. His arrogance is unbelievable.

Bottom line: We liberals need to reclaim the Democratic Party with the New Democrat positions of Bill Clinton and the New Politics/bipartisan aspirations of Barack Obama—a party that is willing to meet half-way with conservatives and Republicans even if that means only step-by-step reforms on health care and other issues that do not necessarily involve big-government solutions.

That's what Massachusetts Democrats and independent voters were telling national Democrats yesterday. The question isn't just, will we listen? The question is, will we stop listening to the strident, purist base of our party who seem to prefer defeat to winning elections and no change at all if they don't get all the change they want.

[ProSense]

1. Lanny Davis is

still an asshole.

[sallyseven]

39. And always will be..

[EFerrari]

2. Maybe his checks from those murderers in Honduras dried up

and he's looking for a new gig.

[bullwinkle428]

3. Does this guy scream "RIGHT-WING PLANT" or what?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. I think he was part of the original team who were put in charge of replacing

Democrats with their Republican Pod surrogates.

He's part of the Big Infiltration.

[Jamastiene]

14. +1000000

[JHB]

30. Not so much that as "Washington Bubblecrat"

Lifelong Washington insider, thinks he's "liberal" because his reference point is the rest of "the Village".

Wouldn't recognize what's happening outside the Serious People Cocktail Circuit if it kicked him in the nuts (case in point...)

[TornadoTN]

4. We're in for some ugly days ahead

There are going to be a lot of people calling for the party to move further right and many pleading to move left. This is going to get ugly and it's going to translate into a major defeat in November if things aren't changed quickly.

The DLC wing is already out blaming this on the left, yet they can't even look into their own glass houses before they start casting those boulders at the left.

[madfloridian]

5. Yes, we are indeed.

[TornadoTN]

11. My question is: does the party survive with this division?

Sure, we've all had our disagreements in the past, but there is such a fundamental and pronounced difference between the factions inside the party that I'm really starting to question its survival as a majority and perhaps even survival as a party (at least as we know it today).

[Blasphemer]

7. Very ugly... nt

[sallyseven]

40. We have to warn Obama that

He is trusting the wrong people. Get rid of Emmanuel both of them

[DebbieCDC]

8. Could this POS be more wrong about everything?

[tnlefty]

9. ESAD Lanny.

Sorry to trash up your thread madfloridian, but I don't like him at all.

He won't be 'claiming' me with that new Democrat hogwash and to hell with cons and repukes and those who expect that I'll play nice with them. Enough!

[ibegurpard]

10. Huh?

He's all over the fucking map

[Forkboy]

12. Well, as a party we've been doing our best to avoid facing this split for over a decade.

It's getting a little hard to run from it now. Maybe it's best if we just address it and let whoever go their way. If the party wants to go one way and some people the other, than maybe it's time to get it over with so both sides can get to work on what they feel is best without having to worry about the other anymore. The center clearly has no respect for the Left, and vice versa. The center thinks they can survive on the middle plus the Right's leftovers....and maybe they can. The Left thinks the Dems can't survive without them...and maybe they can't. Let's just find out one way or the other and get it over with.

Of course, that will mean Republican rule for about 2 decades.....

[LSK]

13. what planet does he live on???????????????

"Somehow, in the last 12 months, we allowed the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to morph into the party of George McGovern (or more accurately, his most ardent supporters) and Howard Dean"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Jamastiene]

16. It's all the same Party.

He's on another planet, for sure.

[dflprincess]

15. "We liberals need to reclaim the Democratic Party with the New Democrat positions of Bill Clinton.."

One minute he's blaming liberals the next he's talking about "we liberals" - like he is one. And by what stretch of anyone's imagination is either Clinton or Obama a liberal. For that matter is there and "New Democrat" that can be called liberal?

This guy is on drugs, isn't he?

[TornadoTN]

17. It's a brilliant strategy really - they are confusing the definitions to cover a further rightward

Shift.

It's marketing and branding strategy that they are employing, and I have to say, they've got some really good ones employed at the DNC and the DLC these days. Keep muddling the message and relabeling positions so they can change the very definition of what is a liberal. Pretty soon, today's traditional Republican is going to be considered a Leftist Liberal.

[madfloridian]

22. They have done it for a couple of decades now.

and it just keeps on working.

[Goldstein1984]

18. I've alway said, there's nothing worse in this world than being

pure and strident. Imagine the moral vacuum when one has nothing but principles to guide them.

The future of democracy is a simple function of whether we as a people listen to those who would "reclaim" the Democratic Party by transmogrifying it into an imitation of the Republican Party.

[otohara]

19. Under The Bus We Go.....

and further to the right the Dem pols will go.

[burning rain]

20. Lanny Davis is a Fox News Democrat.

So far from being purist, leftish Democrats were willing to settle for a public option in the absence of sufficent support for single-payer. And public option was not just a lefty position but a mainstream, moderate one, as shown by the fact that once it was dropped, public support for health care reform went underwater, meaning that in polling, the numbers of those "against" health care reform rose above those "for" once and for all.

We're not asking you to be a liberal Democrat, Lanny, but you could at least be a mainstream, and not a conservative Democrat.

[nxylas]

37. There *is* sufficient support for single-payer

It's by far the most popular option, everywhere except the Senate.

[Goldstein1984]

21. It's like I always say sometimes...

There is nothing worse in this world than being strident and a purist. Imagine the pragmatic vacuum of a life based on following one's principles.

The future of democracy depends on people rejecting the notion that the Democratic Party should be transmogrified into a watered down, neoconservative version of the Republican Party.

Here's what I would like to see: All the moderate Democrats ("New Democrats") give the Democratic Party back to the democrats; all the moderate Republicans ("Neocons") give the Republican Party back to the republicans. The "moderates" can band together and form their own centrist party, where they'll be free to pursue their bastardized platform. The rest of us return to an honest debate between opposing yet loyal people with the country's best interests in mind.

Here's what bothers me about "Moderates" or "Centrists": I can never figure out if they have a belief system of compromise, or if they have a compromised belief system.

[madfloridian]

25. "a belief system of compromise, or if they have a compromised belief system."

Good point. I would say both. :evilgrin:

[NICO9000]

43. I think the same for most so-called independents

Like many here, I've had lots and lots of problems with the Dem leadership for the past 30 years or so, but I could never get rid of my core principles are strongly to the left of the modern Democratic Party. That said, never in my life have I voted for anyone with an R after their name, mainly because I have never heard anything from any of them I could remotely agree with. As a Californian, I stopped holding my nose to vote for DiFi since '92, so I just throw my vote away on whatever fringe candidate is up against her and that's about as independent as I can get.

My question is this: do you think most of these self-identified "independents" are just Republicans who don't want to admit it? I think that's definitely true for the people who call themselves Libertarians and the Ron Paul acolytes.

[Sebastian Doyle]

23. Well that pretty much confirms my suspicions about this being an offcial DLC talking point.

First Tweety. Then Lieberdouche. Then Bayh. Now Lanny Clinton Suckup Davis. This will be repeated ad nauseum by every DLC sycophant for the rest of this week, if not longer.

The list of guests for the Sunday talking heads shows this week should be especially pathetic.

[Jim Lane]

24. My nomination for the single most idiotic statement in an unusually idiotic piece.....

Quoth Lanny Davis:

The question is, will we stop listening to the strident, purist base of our party who seem to prefer defeat to winning elections and no change at all if they don't get all the change they want.

By golly, Lanny, I think you've hit it. The problem was that Obama listened to those strident purists and made that sharp left turn.
* Obama should've continued the Bush policy of bailing out Wall Street, in a bailout supervised by other Wall Streeters, but instead he made Joseph Stiglitz his Secretary of the Treasury and nationalized failing banks.
* Obama should've continued the Bush policy of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and maybe even escalated somewhat just to show his toughness, but instead he began prompt withdrawals of troops and is now close to ending our involvements there.
* Obama should've continued the Bush policies of Don't Ask Don't Tell and leaving DOMA alone, but instead he signed an executive order ending DADT, and he made a forceful push to Congress to repeal or substantially amend DOMA.
* Obama should've continued the Bush policy of making sweeping claims of executive privilege, but instead he initiated prosecutions of Bush, Cheney, and other war criminals, while urging Congress to repeal the PATRIOT Act.
* Obama should've continued the Bush (and pre-Bush) policy of relying on private, for-profit corporations to provide health insurance that would in turn provide health care, but instead he backed single-payer, making sure that every American heard the simple slogan "Medicare for all".

Because Obama has been listening to those damn purists, the Massachusetts loss is all their fault.

At least, on Planet Davis it is.

[Myrina]

46. +10

N/T

[still_one]

26. It isn't the left's fault, nor is it Obama's fault. The sad fact is that a lot of problems have

been inherited, and though people would like a quick fix, it isn't going to happen

The other unfortunate thing is that the country has been shifting right for some time now

[madfloridian]

28. I disagree with the shifting right theory.

I think it is just the opposite. The conservative Democrats and the GOP want us to think it is shifting right.

[still_one]

29. I hope you are right /nt

[Joe Chi Minh]

49. I think that's a constant with them.

[Orsino]

27. The Left had little to no voice in this election.

I blame the Left only for being insufficiently numerous.

[dgibby]

31. Lanny probably blames the Left for mankind's fall from grace in the Garden of Eden.

I'm sure he thinks the serpent that tempted Eve was a Liberal.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

32. Fuck Lanny Davis with a chainsaw.

That is all.

[democrank]

33. Hey Lanny..

Know what the POS after your name stands for?

[Individualist]

34. Every time things go wrong, DLC blames progressives,

when the simple fact is that the neocon enabling DLC wants to destroy the party from within.

[jonathon]

35. I don't see how expecting your elected leaders to represent your interest is divisive

[wilt the stilt]

36. Lanny davis grew up in a professional family

He never wondered how it was to struggle. When I backed Mcgovern he backed Muskie. Anyone who was involved in the antiwar movement knows what McGovern stood for. He was my first vote and to this day my proudest. Read the story of Mcgovern and his wife Eleanor and how she flipped him from being a repuke to a Democrat. This is a man of honor. Fuck Lanny Davis.

[PVnRT]

38. McGovern lost (in part) because the party centrists refused to rally around him

Which was apparently OK; however, liberals better rally around every single centrist candidate the party puts forth, or everything is their fault.

Yes, the Eagleton nonsense also played a part. He shouldn't have picked that jackass in the first place.

[wilt the stilt]

41. Eagleton wasn't an asshole

He suffered from depression and in those days they treated with shock treatment. Depression is a real
issue.

[change_notfinetuning]

42. Yep. Good ol' boy. Good ol' boy. That just about says it all. But that's Lanny,

and if that's a true representative of today's Democratic Party, then may God strike this web site with a bolt of lightening right now.

Good aim, God.

The best Democratic candidate I have had the chance to vote for in my entire life was George McGovern. Anyone who thinks Davis is a better Democrat than McGovern should reregister as a Republican.

Oh, and Mass voted for McGovern, but not for Democrat light. I have no doubt that a real Democrat would have swept the state.

[Mithreal]

44. Preview for November 2010 DLC Excuse-a-Palooza

They will learn from our response how to marginalize liberals even more unless we become too unruly and less manipulable.

[tnlefty]

45. He's going to be on Ed's show in a few minutes, and I

hope that Ed rips into him but good.

[Myrina]

47. .. if Ed handles him the way he handled Gibbs ...

:popcorn:

I bet Gibbs' ass is still hurtin', he got spanked so bad!

[tnlefty]

51. It was a little rowdy, and Ed let that ass get away with

saying that the President didn't campaign on a public option without challenge, but it was still good.

[Joe Chi Minh]

48. No. A visit to the polls to vote Democrat shouldn't be an epic of fraud and/or persecution,

and endurance.

A lot of people who don't normally vote made a costly effort to get the Democratic candidates elected in the last few elections. However, like boxers sometimes need to knock out their opponent, cold, just to get a draw, the Democrats need a landslide victory to pip the Republicans at the post.

There's just a teeny suspicion that the patent-protected, privatized voting-machines manufactured by companies tend to come up with those home-town Republican decisions. Supreme Court judges, if it comes to that. The Democrat senator may have won handsomely enough. But in US politics, if you're a Dem, that may not genough.

The only question that it prompts from me is, was it really such an extraordinary miscalculation on Obama's part? Or was it all 'written' in Mammon's scripture? Sounds crazy, but I can't imagine Obama being so ingenuous. I expect that for politicians, even to be a one-term President would be viewed as a coveted prize. For once, I'd accept accusations of conspiracy nuttinesss, but it's all so crazy.

[Generator]

50. On the Ed show he suggested we reach out to McCain, Hatch and

Lindsay Graham on health care. You know, the "good" Republicans. And get whatever SCRAP of shit they allow us. You know,if that is the wisdom of the advisers or the beltway to the white house, the Democratic party is becoming a joke before our eyes.

[bertman]

52. Fuck that putrid sack of shit!! Can you tell I hate that slimy motherfucker? And he's

considered by some to be a good representative of the Democratic party.

Disgusting.

Rec.

[Eric J in MN]

53. Lanny Davis' idiotic analysis is that making the Health Care bill...

...which is bad to unions slightly less bad by postponing the excise tax for union agreements caused people to vote for Scott Brown.

=========
Then there were the two "deals" that put congressional Democrats in a worse light than the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere"—as impossible as that might have seemed—as an emblem of the special interest politics Barack Obama ran against. We Democrats had to explain to Massachusetts voters and other Americans why non-Nebraskans and nonunion members have to pay more taxes, while Nebraskans and union members get to pay less. Those two deals seem to have alienated most people across the political spectrum. That's not easy.
=========

Yeah, people are "alienated" by which year the excise tax applies to union agreements.

What an idiot!

[pmorlan1]

54. Shame on you, Lanny

Lanny Davis should be ashamed of himself for writing such a disingenuous piece. He knows darn well that what he wrote was total BS. You would have to be totally delusional to believe such nonsense.

[xxqqqzme]

55. "...to reclaim the Democratic Party with the

New Democrat positions of Bill Clinton and the New Politics/bipartisan aspirations of Barack Obama—a party that is willing to meet half-way with conservatives and Republicans..."

Then that means 'we liberals' are standing out in a hard icy wind. Conservatives and rethuglicans don't meet anyone halfway. Their RW purity precludes left turns for any reason or any distance, no matter how minimal

[David Zephyr]

56. I'd seen this somewhere else, but thank you, madfloridian, for putting it here for all to see.

Edit: Kick!