Meet the Press (Sunday): DailyKos vs. DLC

[Thorgrim]

Exclusive! Former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and Markos Moulitsas, editor of the DailyKos, debate the direction of the Democratic Party and 2008. Plus, a political roundtable on the Iowa Straw Poll and the race for the White House with Margaret Carlson, Michael Duffy, Chuck Todd and Byron York.

MSNBC - Meet The Press with Tim Russert - Video, Podcasts, News and Politics, Transcripts - MSNBC.com Front Page

Check your local listings or tivo it, or watch the netcast

Should be interesting to see the dying DLC facing the rising (well it's already up there) netroots

[JaJae]

It'll be interesting to see if they play the Kos clip of him slandering the DLC and how that turns out for the declining DailyKos reputation.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

It'll be interesting to see if they play the Kos clip of him slandering the DLC and how that turns out for the declining DailyKos reputation.

declining DKos reputation, that's a good one

and you know slander involves lying about non-public officials?

[WickedLou9]

If the person doing the defamation is a member of the press and the subject of the defamation is a "public figure", than the rule for proving defamation is much more strict. The person publishing the story must have knowledge that what they are saying is false, and they must publish the story with malicous intent. Further, the party who is the subject of the defamation must be able to prove damages. ( financial damages ).. it's pretty much an impossible thing to try and proove, which is why you never hear about it happening.
The rules for private citizens are much easier to prosecute.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

declining DKos reputation, that's a good one

and you know slander involves lying about non-public officials?

I wasn't referring to slander in a legal sense. I was referring to its common usage. He defamed, trash-talked, knocked, smeared, vilified, insulted... Take your pick.

For no reason whatsoever Kos got in front of a camera and trashed the DLC.

All this amid JetBlue backing out on their public sponsorship, silencing a soldier wishing to talk about Iraq, harassing Bill O'Rielly at home and putting the disgraceful man on a panel, Kos authors getting raps for illegal investments, etc. It will be interesting to see what the DLC brings to the table. Kos really has nothing going for him other than his "We are the center" garbage and the fact that the presidential candidates are catering to the netroots over the more professional and long-standing DLC. In a class-war Kos looks like the trailer trash whore picking on Bill Gates because the Democrats went to visit him first. It will be interesting to see how Kos handles himself in what I assume would be a mature setting after setting himself up like he did with such immaturity and disdain against a long-standing Democratic organization. His actions worked to further divide net organizations from professional organizations in such a way as to battle them out to achieve the most media attention victory.

In short Kos is trashing long-standing Democratic organizations that have done great things for the Democrats for the sole purpose of touting netroots which he just so happens to personally profit from... unlike the DLC which is non-profit.

[Scrum]

Declining DailyKos reputation?

Maybe among conservatives and supporters of this failed administration.

The list of offenses you named is laughable.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Scrum

Declining DailyKos reputation?

Maybe among conservatives and supporters of this failed administration.

The list of offenses you named is laughable.

It was mostly bad press. Nothing good came of the YearlyKos convention for the candidates other than groveling to Kossacks who are going to vote Democrat no matter what.

Dem-leaning votes: keep track of your changes in presidential preference here

If the DLC wants to stoop to Kos's level they could really embarrass him this Sunday.

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by JaJae

It was mostly bad press. Nothing good came of the YearlyKos convention for the candidates other than groveling to Kossacks who are going to vote Democrat no matter what.

Really? Trying to get the kossacks to vote for you before a primary? How silly.



What they should be doing is going after some Republican leaning voters. Fishing in the other pond has worked out so well for the Dems in the past.

[DosEquis]

Is that the guy who runs the kkk nazi site?

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

Is that the guy who runs the kkk nazi site?

Oh falafel Bill, will your antics ever get old?

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

I wasn't referring to slander in a legal sense. I was referring to its common usage. He defamed, trash-talked, knocked, smeared, vilified, insulted... Take your pick.

For no reason whatsoever Kos got in front of a camera and trashed the DLC.

All this amid JetBlue backing out on their public sponsorship, silencing a soldier wishing to talk about Iraq, harassing Bill O'Rielly at home and putting the disgraceful man on a panel, Kos authors getting raps for illegal investments, etc. It will be interesting to see what the DLC brings to the table. Kos really has nothing going for him other than his "We are the center" garbage and the fact that the presidential candidates are catering to the netroots over the more professional and long-standing DLC. In a class-war Kos looks like the trailer trash whore picking on Bill Gates because the Democrats went to visit him first. It will be interesting to see how Kos handles himself in what I assume would be a mature setting after setting himself up like he did with such immaturity and disdain against a long-standing Democratic organization. His actions worked to further divide net organizations from professional organizations in such a way as to battle them out to achieve the most media attention victory.

In short Kos is trashing long-standing Democratic organizations that have done great things for the Democrats for the sole purpose of touting netroots which he just so happens to personally profit from... unlike the DLC which is non-profit.

The DLC almost destroyed the Democratic Party, the only thing they "accomplished" was POSSIBLY helping Clinton get a second term, other than that, they led to a total string of failed elections leading up to the disaster of 2002, when the netroots finally took momentum and in 2004 made a sizeable impact, by 2006 the Democratic Party had finally given up terrible ideas the DLC had pushed and started winning elections

JetBlue never got a dime back, and they only cancelled "banners" after BillO started stalking him...no one left of center think any less of Dkos over it, BillO getting "stalked" back has recieved almost no coverage...no loss there either

They tried to talk to a disgraceful soldier but he refused to be calm and had to come to try and disrupt the event on two seperate days...everyone who understands military rules has curled their lip at that guys conduct...no left-of-center care there either

Markos's co-author for a really amazing book...again who is not a DKos editor...got a fine for a mistake he made BEFORE HE EVER MET MARKOS...it got a few lines but I doubt anyone read them or took them seriously because its like the th degrees of Bacon

I have no idea what the rest of your post is refering to...but he's been on Meet the Press before, the only complaint was by Byron York of the National Review that "he hadn't helped win any elections" well that certainly changed in 2006 when lots of netroots candidates won, both in their initial primary against "DLC" Democrats and then in the general election

[garbagemanlb]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

The DLC almost destroyed the Democratic Party, the only thing they "accomplished" was POSSIBLY helping Clinton get a second term, other than that, they led to a total string of failed elections leading up to the disaster of 2002, when the netroots finally took momentum and in 2004 made a sizeable impact, by 2006 the Democratic Party had finally given up terrible ideas the DLC had pushed and started winning elections

JetBlue never got a dime back, and they only cancelled "banners" after BillO started stalking him...no one left of center think any less of Dkos over it, BillO getting "stalked" back has recieved almost no coverage...no loss there either

They tried to talk to a disgraceful soldier but he refused to be calm and had to come to try and disrupt the event on two seperate days...everyone who understands military rules has curled their lip at that guys conduct...no left-of-center care there either

Markos's co-author for a really amazing book...again who is not a DKos editor...got a fine for a mistake he made BEFORE HE EVER MET MARKOS...it got a few lines but I doubt anyone read them or took them seriously because its like the th degrees of Bacon

I have no idea what the rest of your post is refering to...but he's been on Meet the Press before, the only complaint was by Byron York of the National Review that "he hadn't helped win any elections" well that certainly changed in 2006 when lots of netroots candidates won, both in their initial primary against "DLC" Democrats and then in the general election

The DLC are corporate cronies, also known as Republican-lite.

[Thorgrim]

Washington Post: (DLC gets 0wned)

washingtonpost.com

Three years ago things looked bleak for the Democratic Party. George Bush had just won a second term while his party consolidated its grip on Congress. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay crowed about a "permanent Republican majority," and Beltway Democrats acquiesced as Republicans built their unchallenged (and lawless) unitary executive.

Democrats appeared to be on the run, disorganized and demoralized. But outside of Washington there was hope. Grass-roots Democratic activists had seen the future of our politics in Howard Dean -- plain-spoken and unapologetic. His presidential candidacy had come up short, but its fresh, optimistic approach -- predicated on offering clear contrasts between the two parties -- was poised to redefine the party.

Dean was elected chairman of the Democratic Party despite predictions of electoral doom by the usual suspects in Washington, including the Democratic Leadership Council. In the House, Democrats chose Nancy Pelosi to lead them over current DLC Chairman Harold Ford, who warned of disaster if Pelosi won. Calling her a "throwback" who practiced a "destructive and obstructive" style of politics, Ford proclaimed, "I don't think Nancy Pelosi's kind of politics is what's needed right now." Today, Nancy Pelosi is the first female speaker of the House.

Ford, like his fellow Washington insiders, grossly misunderstood the American electorate. He and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley continue to do so [" Our Chance to Capture the Center," op-ed, Aug. 7]. Convinced that this is fundamentally a conservative nation, Ford demanded that Democrats unceasingly inch toward the right or risk electoral irrelevance. As then-DLC official Ed Kilgore put it in 2005, "If we put a gun to everybody's head in the country and make them pick sides, we're not likely to win." But we who live outside the D.C. bubble -- in all 50 states, in counties blue and red -- were hearing voices at odds with the Washington consensus. People wanted real choices at the ballot box. And given the disastrous rule of the Bush administration, they wanted a Democratic Party that stood tall and pushed back like a true opposition.

The new leadership responded. A concerted grass- and Net-roots effort, bridging online activists and the labor movement, forced Democratic officials to reject any "compromise" with right-wing interests seeking to gut Social Security. Democratic poll numbers rose in the wake of this victory as Bush's fell. Standing strong for a core Democratic program was not only good for our country, it was smart politics.

Months later we championed Ned Lamont's victorious primary challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut. Beltway insiders predicted that our success would cost Democrats the U.S. Senate, and consultants allied with the DLC fretted that activists were "pushing the party to the left."

In fact, we pushed the party so far left that we positioned it squarely in the American mainstream and last year won a historic, sweeping congressional victory, something the "centrist" groups had been unable to accomplish for decades -- not even in the DLC's glory days of the 1990s.

By early 2006, so-called centrism had offered up Iraq, a tax regime that puts the burden on the middle class, bankruptcy reform that gave away the farm to irresponsible credit card companies, an outdated physical infrastructure, legalized torture and a crippled disaster-response effort in New Orleans. The American people, infinitely smarter than Washington insiders, had had enough. Unapologetic, muscular Democrats swept into office in dramatic numbers in state and local races nationwide.

A new day is dawning for the progressive movement. The distrust between Net-roots activists and more traditional progressive players in the party establishment and issue groups has given way to respectful cooperation as we all adjust to new technologies and the promise they hold for institutional change.

Last week, at the YearlyKos convention, all these players came together to celebrate our newfound unity and to organize for the coming battles in 2008 and beyond. The DLC was nowhere to be found -- unless you looked in Nashville, where its members continued to preach, in empty halls, about the "vital center." Even the Democratic presidential candidates have figured out where the heart of the party now lies: with the new, unashamedly progressive movement.

The DLC had two decades to make its case, to build an audience and community, to elect leaders the American people wanted. It failed.

Its members number in the hundreds, compared with the millions that the people-powered movement can claim, and they are reduced to attacking our movement from the studios of right-wing Fox News and pleading that in the next election they'll really prove that the mushy, indistinguishable "middle" is where the American people want to be.

Their time is up. The "center" is where we stand now, promoting an engaged and active politics embraced by significant majorities of Americans.

Susan Gardner is a contributing editor to and holds a fellowship with the Web site Daily Kos. Markos Moulitsas is founder of Daily Kos

[JaJae]

Washington Post: (DailyKos gets 0wned)
washingtonpost.com

Some liberals are so confident about Democratic prospects that they contend the centrism that vaulted Democrats to victory in the 1990s no longer matters.

The temptation to ignore the vital center is nothing new. Every four years, in the heat of the nominating process, liberals and conservatives alike dream of a world in which swing voters don't exist. Some on the left would love to pretend that groups such as the Democratic Leadership Council, the party's leading centrist voice, aren't needed anymore.

But for Democrats, taking the center for granted next year would be a greater mistake than ever before. George W. Bush is handing us Democrats our Hoover moment. Independents, swing voters and even some Republicans who haven't voted our way in more than a decade are willing to hear us out. With an ambitious common-sense agenda, the progressive center has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win back the White House, expand its margins in Congress and build a political and governing majority that could last a generation.

As the caucuses and primaries approach, candidates will come under increasing pressure to ignore the broader electorate and appeal to the party faithful. But the opportunity to build a historic majority is too great -- and too rare -- to pass up.

[JaJae]

Potomac Watch - WSJ.com

The party's most impressive gains last year all came from politicians straight out of the DLC cast. Four governors spoke at the DLC convention this year; all four had beat Republicans. The vast majority of the pick-ups in the House came from DLCers in red states in the South and Midwest. The Senate wouldn't be in Democratic hands were it not for Montana's Jon Tester.

"The reality is, without the DLC, and without candidates who subscribe to our platform, Democrats wouldn't be in the majority today. If we abandon that group, we will lose the majority and we will lose the White House," says Mr. Ford.

[Thorgrim]

Which is all lies...(not you, the "claims")

They got 4 governors not to decline an invitation...very impressive

Notice how he didn't specify the "DLC" candidates from the House

He did mention one person, from the Senate, Jon Tester who is so liberal he said the PATRIOT ACT should be tossed out...Also, there was a primary, and Jon Tester was branded as the outside liberal (he was an organic farmer who used to be a high school principle) who was going to be taken down by the establishment democrat...the netroots got behind Tester...the DLC taking credit is laughable...there was ZERO support for Tester in the primary by the DLC

[thomez]

I watched it

[Thorgrim]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10386260/

Markos didn't get nearly enough time to make his points, but what can you expect

It's very educational if you want to know what Markos/DKos is all about

It was hilarious when Ford tried to take credit for Tester when the DLC opposed him in the primary as too liberal

However, it's nice to know that even the DLC is now going to kowtow before the Netroots next year