Old Divides Growing in Dean, Centrist Rift

[robbedvoter]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-dlc24dec24,1,6876959.story?coll=la-home-nation
 

Old Divides Growing in Dean, Centrist Rift

With some swipes at Democratic moderates, concerns mount over his ability to unite the party.
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

December 24, 2003
WASHINGTON — The rapidly escalating war of words between Howard Dean and the Democratic Party's leading centrists is reopening old ideological divides suppressed during Bill Clinton's presidency and raising new fears about Dean's ability to unite the party if he won the nomination for president.
snip
During a campaign stop Tuesday in Seabrook, N.H., where he received an endorsement from the 1,000-member New Hampshire chapter of United Auto Workers, Dean said he stood by his remarks about the DLC. On Monday, he called the DLC "sort of the Republican part of the Democratic Party … the Republican wing of the Democratic Party."
"The staff of the DLC has injected themselves into the race because they're supporting other candidates, but I think the membership of the DLC is anxious to take back the White House and understands that we have to be unified to do that," Dean said in Seabrook.
"I thought I was having a little fun at their expense. They've had eight months of fun at my expense, I figured I owed them a day at their expense."
Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, said Tuesday that Dean was joking in his criticism.
snip
But in Walter Shapiro's book "One Car Caravan," on the 2004 race, Dean also suggests — as critics charged he did in his speech last week — that Clinton had failed to confront Republicans forcefully enough.More
"

[caledesi]

1. Dean will be our nominee. nt

[w4rma]

2. Al From and Bruce Reed seem to have declared war on the Democratic base

Dean Statement in Response to DLC's Charge that Public Servants are "Fringe Activists"

“Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as ‘fringe activists’ who do not reflect ‘the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’

“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don't need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand up for them.”

Posted by Mathew Gross at 04:27 PM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000206.html

Tell From and Reed of the DLC What You Think
Click here to sign a letter to the Democratic Leadership Council telling them that you're an active Democrat who supports Howard Dean. You can tell your friends about the link, too: www.deanforamerica.com/DLC

Posted by Mathew Gross at 01:29 AM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000240.html

Fineman on the DLC Memo
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000213.html

Former DNC-Chief Steve Grossman to DLC: "Creating Conflict is Not Leadership."
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000225.html

Liberal Oasis on Howard Dean and the DLC
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000226.html

Will the Real DLC Please Stand Up?
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000228.html

Congressional Members Call on DLC to Stop Divisive Tactics
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000238.html

Activists Are Out of Step
By Al From and Bruce Reed
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251866&kaid=85&subid=65

The Real Soul of the Democratic Party
By Al From and Bruce Reed
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251690&kaid=127&subid=900056

[Melodybe]

18. This article is trash, I don't believe a word of it.

Dean has said repeatedly that he talks to Clinton on a regular basis. If he has criticizing the established Dems, good, they are the ones that are not "in-touch with mainstream America." This article is doing nothing but trying to convince Americans that Dems are completely divided, which is not true, the majority of Dems is going to rally around the candidate whether is it Dean, Clark, Kerry, whoever. ABB is all that matters. They want us to think that we are divided so that they can STEAL another election. This article is RW crap.

[mouse7]

3. No... Al From is flailing to keep thumb on windpipe of Party

Al From is mostly in charge right now. Al From will not be in charge when a Dean administration comes into power. Al From is desperate to stay in power.

[schultzee]

13. Al From should be expelled from the democratic party. We need

to let him know how we feel.

[shance]

4. Dems concerned about Deans "ability to unite Party"?

They are concerned about us being united?

Speaks volumes.

[Sibanetta]

5. Dems Infighting

They must be loving this over in the White House...we are shooting ourselves in the foot, with all the backstabbing and name calling going on. I think 2004 is a Gimme for GeeDub...and I mught just ask
Scotty to beam me up off this rock, 'cos if he gets re-elected, times are going to get hard...you mark my words!

What if Dean doesn't get the nomination...can you guys really see him falling in behind and supporting someone else? I can't...and if he splits off and runs as an Independent, we're fucking toast!

Sibanetta

[0rganism]

6. Dean has said he would support the nominee, whoever it is

Not that he couldn't be lying, but I do think his desire to expunge bush from the whitehouse is genuine. I doubt he would run as an independent. If not the nominee, I see Dean bucking for a cabinet spot in the next Democratic administration.

[mikehiggins]

7. Why would you doubt Dean would support the Party?

I'm pretty certain his personal ego isn't that big, and I'm equally certain he doesn't want to go down in history as 2004's Nader.

If the Party somehow denies him the nomination I'm pretty certain he will fall into line like a loyal Democrat and work to get the nominee into office. I'm also pretty certain the Party would have to give him a lot of inducements to do so, like From's head on a pike or something like that.

That's how grownups play this game.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. This is absolutely hilarious...

especially when one considers that of the candidates for the nomination, Dean is more conservative than any save Lieberman and perhaps Clark. Howard Dean is no liberal; he's at best a moderate conservative along the lines of Bill Clinton.

[schultzee]

15. He is more conservative , but he is flexible and wants to regulate

mega-corporate media again, and just that would restore democracy. Big media has created a nation of sheep. He is trying to do things that would maintain democracy and the right of our vote to make a differnce. If Diebold steals this election, we should peacefully take to the streets.

[Melodybe]

19. I agree, dressed in Sunday's best, we will DEMAND our country back.

[Gloria]

9. What a mess. Dean, the pretend liberal, going after the centrists...

and people falling for it.
I find the whole thing distressing. My my stomach is telling me that Dean is not really uniting a Democratic base, but just those active in a primary season who hooked onto his purported anger and won't let go....
Meanwhile, their candidate put his foot in his mouth and leaves a trail of flip-flops in his wake. And he isn't the "liberal" they think he is, but that's OK with them, since he's attacking the centrists that he is really a part of. Half of his agenda in VT was passed by Republicans not Democrats, but that's OK with these true rebels.

Meanwhile, many people equally angry at Bush are now starting to get angry at the "one note song" being sung by the media and some pols wanting to get on the bandwagon early. It smells. Of lemmings.

Frankly, I'm just turned off more and more. Bush bamboozled the general electorate in 2000 and I have this weird feeling that the Democratic primary voters (or maybe some GOP'ers registering as Dems, like they may be doing here in NM) are being bamboozled, willingly bamboozled, too.

Then you have the broader Democratic set of voters. People who will wake up about October and see Dean and figure, "Dang it, I don't agree with Bush on a lot of things, but heck, at least he's protecting America and he know foreign policy now and look, the stock market is doing better." Mushy Democrats who won't hold their nose and vote Dean, but will pull the lever for Bush. As one reporter noted at the focus group that was shown last night, how much of the anger towards Bush really be directed at him in 2004?? Will that anger, if it's still there, trump the fear of terror that Bush will continue to nurture?
And why would they pick Dean if it comes down to that?

Wake me when it's over.

Flame away, I don't care. I've seen enough of this sort of stuff over the years ....and my stomach usually doesn't lie. Unfortunately.

[Sibanetta]

10. I Empathize

I'm not going to flame you! I think that all of the points you made are well considered. I think we Dems have to wake up to and admit the fact that we are so busy ratting out each other that the other guy wins...or at least gets appointed!

I don't trust the Bu'shists: I think if he gets elected again, we're going to end up as serfs in a new feudal aristocracy, where the rich get richer and richer, and we poor slobs bust our buns ensuring that they do!

I saw a thread, on the BBCi site, where some guy proposed that Bush is the Antichrist! I am not of a religious persuasion, but you know...it's totally weird how such an ignorant, draft-dodging, awol, lying, cheating, drunken SOB can get elected to be the leader of the free world...and how "The People" love him...think he's "One of Us"
Huh? The guy is the son of American Eastern Aristocracy with a phoney Texan accent....surely American isn't THAT dumb?

Oh by the way...Merry Christmas!

Sibanetta

[schultzee]

14. I have thought that if there is an anti-Christ, then Bush could be him,

because he is after the riches of the world above all. But the real thing I want to say is that we have to all rally around Dean. The DLC is bad and is a rePilican infiltrate of the democratic party.
Read the Spiders Web and the new book. The author's last name is Paige.

[schultzee]

11. DLC are nothing but rePiglicans. And Clinton, though much better

than Bush helped Bush inadvertly. Clinton pushed NAFTA through and now we have massive unemployment,and it helped Bush push CAFTA, and there will be more unemployment. Clinton and Gore reduced regulations on the media and now we have a neo-con media.
In short, Clinton was paid for by the DLC and he pushed their damn republican agenda that is destroying the values of the core democratic party now. We need to get rid of the damn DLC and get our party back!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. Wrong

Gore lost in part because he tried to distance himself from Clinton. Had he run on the peace and prosperity of the previous administration he would have dusted the floor with Bush.

[schultzee]

16. democracynow.org had an interview with the author of the Spiders

Web, and during the interview, it came out that the rePigilican party had infiltrated the DLC or even created it. Clinton did some very bad repiglican things like de-regulating the media and creating the monster we have today that kneels at Bush's feet. NAFTA that has ruined the economy, and other things. He paved the way for a beast like Bush. Only Clinton did care about the middle and working class and did not harm them. Bush is trying to eliminate them
But the DLC needs to get the hell out of the democratic party: we don't need republican medium.

[schultzee]

17. You are right about the distancing..Gore should not have done it.

And though Clinton's policies only negatively affected democrats, no one rally knew was a DlC darling or repuglcan purchase until much Later. We need to fund Dean so he will be free of the DLC