(OMFG! The DLC/PNAC Connection!) No More Moore: DLC Joins the Witch-Hunt

[JohnOneillsMemory]

http://nypress.com/17/48/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

"We've got to repudiate, you know, the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there sometimes on our party's left... We can't have our party identified by Michael Moore and Hollywood as our cultural values."
— Al From, CEO, Democratic Leadership Council

"You know, let's let Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival fawn all over Michael Moore. We ought to make it pretty clear that he sure doesn't speak for us when it comes to standing up for our country."
— Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute, the think-tank of the DLC

>snip<

In addition to his duties as the president of the PPI, Marshall kept himself busy in the last few years. Among other things, he served on the board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization co-chaired by Joe Lieberman and John McCain whose aim was to build bipartisan support for the invasion of Iraq.

Marshall also signed, at the outset of the war, a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) expressing support for the invasion. Marshall signed a similar letter sent to President Bush put out by the conservative Social Democrats/USA group on Feb. 25, 2003, just before the invasion. The SD/USA letter urged Bush to commit to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning."

One of just a handful of Marshall's co-signatories on that letter was Bruce Jackson, who also happens to be the head of the PNAC (whose letter Marshall also signed) and the founder of the aforementioned Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Jackson is not only a neo-con of high rank and one of the chief pom-pom wavers for the war effort. He was also a vice president in the weapons division of Lockheed-Martin between 1993 and 2002—meaning that he was one of the implied targets of Bowling for Columbine, which came out in Jackson's last year with the company.

Clearly, Marshall was thinking about the good of the Democratic Party, and not the integrity of his grimy little network of missile-humping cronies, when he and Al From made the curious—and curiously conspicuous—decision to denounce Moore, Hollywood and France at the DLC meeting in early November.

[BayCityProgressive]

1. FUCKING SICK

How can any of us even vote for a DLC Democrat anymore?

[mike_c]

5. I can't-- that's why I left the Democratic Party....

eom

[ooglymoogly]

25. i just went to their site and sent them a blast of anger

who have been dlc candidates in the past.

[neuvocat]

2. ...hmmm...

[livinbella]

3. Does this bode well for the future of the Democratic Party?

Hell no.

[shraby]

4. There are two men who need to collect walking papers.

[BayCityProgressive]

6. I am really having a hard time supporting the Democrats as

of late. I would rather vote independant, Green, or socialist rather than half of the Democrats we have in office now!

[movonne]

7. There has to be something done about this....we all have got to

write the DNC and tell them what we think...I'm not sure they care. We may have to start our own Democratic party committee...and soon. They should be on their knees to Michael Moore and Moveon. Maybe we could make Moveon our committee. This just makes me furious.

[cyberpj]

10. Prog Dems - I'm throwing my support this way -

http://www.pdamerica.org/

[EFerrari]

18. Remember, the DLC isn't equal to the DNC

I'm no expert on this, but remember a lot of people in the party feeling really pushed around by the DLC during the primaries.

There's something undemocratic, for example, for the DLC to attack Dean during the primary season, instead of polling the DNC membership.

[Sugarbleus]

8. Sooooooo glad you brought this up!

I learned of PPI through another website. I was floored when I read their "agenda" way back months ago!

I quaintly called it: the Liberal PNAC agenda--but no one paid attention. Who knew this info would finally be brought to the forefront!

Furthermore, since the election, I've been opening my mind, taking a chance and really LOOKING at the agenda of our party...especially the moderate to conservative wing. I DID NOT LIKE WHAT I FOUND.

Some DUers may have seen me post in here that: "WE'VE BEEN HAD", well, this article backs that opinion even more.

There is NO QUESTION in my mind that I am NOT supporting DLC or any centrist Democrat ever again. It's old school democrats for the future or I'm outta here. Socialist, Green, Independent,etc. is the way for me. I've had it.

As PPI more or less represents, the Neo Liberal movement has become way to haughty, controlling, and corporate-connected than I care for.

I ONLY vote Democratic (all my life) to bring back or maintain a BALANCED DOMESTIC/SOCIAL agenda. I'm looking for a party that CARES about the countries everyday citizens. We are a "community" of citizens; we have to "pay it forward" so I EXPECT/DEMAND we have the proper representation--where the rubber meets the road. I'm fed up with platitudes and high minded ideals that do not help this "community of citizens" one iota.

I'm not anti-war per se; if we are attacked it's appropriate to respond..........BUT wars for profit and imperialist gain are NOT OKAY. I'm sick to death of those "suited ones" up in Washington moving their plastic soldiers around a composite map and dreaming up fresh ways to make the rich richer!! I could give a flying fuck about competition with foreign businesses--hence sending our jobs to a cheap labor market (exploiting them in the process).

They can stick NAFTA and all the other treaties (and PNAC) up their collective asses!
We've become like the lobby in the unemployment office...just waiting around for some crumbs to be thrown our way. A huge labor pool in waiting while the Dick tators in Washington hold the purse strings and set the agenda according to their OWN whims....piss on the masses...it's every man for himself say they.

I believe in AMERICANS FIRST. Where will we ever find a leader who has the same chutzpah as * to stand up and say "Enough, we are doing things "this way" and the rest of ya can bite me!?" Where's our new and improved version of FDR? Even Eisenhower knew this country was on thin ice with the rise of the military/industrial complex. These "New Liberals/Democrats"(Clinton & Kerry et al) don't seem to mind playing the republican games--they are republican lite when it comes to domestic policy, no question about it.

You've heard of the "white wall" (doctors behind each other), and the "blue wall" (police)....now we have the BLACK WALL (politicians)..they will ultimately "protect each other" right or left.

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[agincourt]

9. Gosh all hemlock,

with such hard-nosed fighters as these, it's a wonder we don't win more elections. Sticking it to Michael Moore, they really want to go out on a limb for progress now.

[hansolsen]

11. There is a battle on for the soul of the Democratic Party. I am a warrior

in that battle and I am on opposite sides as the DLC. The DLC is a cancer on the Democratic Party. It is a malignancy -- today's news is just one more example of the rot at the core of the Party. We will never be healthy until we cut this mess lose.

[IndianaGreen]

12. If you let the DLC define what is acceptable as Democratic views

What From, Marshall and the other DLC speakers were doing last week was not just ruminating out loud about the need to shy away from certain demonized liberal icons. They were, instead, announcing their willingness to embrace the other side's tactic—I hate to lean on this overused word, but it is a McCarthyite tactic—of branding certain individuals as traitors and anti-Americans. What they were doing was sending up a trial balloon, to see if anyone noticed this chilling affirmative shift in strategy and tactics.

If you let the DLC define what is acceptable as Democratic views you will have signed the death warrant of the Democratic Party. As Pat Buchanan has said in the past, we are in the midst of a cultural war. What is now becoming apparent is that part of that cultural war is being waged against us not by the rightwing, but by people that identify themselves as Democrats. The DLC has turned its back on the party of Jefferson, Jackson, Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy, by embracing the ideology espoused by Taft, Nixon, Reagan, and the Bush dynasty.

[d_b]

13. elites are truly scared shitless of him

[LibertyorDeath]

14. Being anti-Moore is definitely anti-American imo.

Dissent is the life blood of Freedom.

[reprehensor]

15. And there you have it.

Corporations 'reach across the aisle' to condemn Moore.

Is not perfectly clear to anyone here that the DLC is WAY out of the loop? That it does not reflect the values of the working class?

Why don't they just become Republicans and get it over with?

Who needs Republican enemies when you have the DLC.

[Angelique]

16. The DLC doesn't speak for me or my family..

We need to clean house, perhaps we should have a good old fashion SPRING CLEANING, and throw out the trash and start afresh..

[Bread and Circus]

17. They better watch it, M Moore can do the same thing to them...

that he did to Bush. The only difference is that in their
case, it would stick.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. Well, Moore did say that he's doing a follow up to F 9/11

People forget, Michael Moore was AGAINST BUSH, but he is not a Democrat. He is an independent who supported Nader in 2000. His support of Kerry this time around was only because he was the only candidate who could beat Bush. Actually, Moore was very happy when Wesley Clark decided to run, again, because he thought he could beat Bush.

[piece sine]

22. actually...no

Moore is a registered Democrat in New York City. And that's a fact.

[talk hard]

20. The DLC can stuff it.

The DLC is so out of touch with Democrats.
They have been completely irrelevant.
Michael Moore bent over backwards for the
Democratic Party and deserves some damn
respect. We don't want Republican Lites.
And we'll remind the DLC of that during the
primaries for the 2008 election.

[bluestateboomer]

21. Thanks for posting this

I wanted to post this article but I still have a low number of posts and couldn't start the thread.
This article made me extremely angry. The DLC are just repubs in donkey suits. We should all go to the DLC website and tell them Michael Moore speaks for more of us than they do.

[nedbal]

23. I support Moore

I support Moore and I also understand he doesn't speak for the DNC just like Rush doesn't speak for the RNC. But the RNC does quietly support the direction Rush goes to. The DNC should phrase it in the same way and not denounce Moore.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

24. Well said...

Yes, Mr. From is correct that Michael Moore does loose some votes for the Democrats. But I also believe he probably creates more votes than he looses. People listen to, and find themselves agreeing with, Mr. Moore's message, even if they don't always like how he says it.

Still, the general point From makes is correct. One Democratic positive in the minds of voters is that our representatives generally have a sense of decorum that Republicans lack. We don't nominate frothing-at-the-mouth lunatics.

Al From just has to understand that Michael Moore isn't running for office (where he'd be shot down in flames).

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community