We had a thread about the founding of the DLC and the funding.

[madfloridian]

I have done a search several ways, and I can not find it. I am looking through my old bookmarks to no avail.

Could someone help me on this, and I will keep looking. I know that some of the funding was from some very right wing guys.

[madfloridian]

1. Found a little. Interesting.

http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html
SNIP..."The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included. Some donate enormous amounts of money, such as Bernard Schwartz, the chairman and CEO of Loral Space and Communications, who single-handedly finances the entire publication of Blueprint, the DLC's retooled monthly that replaced The New Democrat. "I sought them out, after talking to Michael Steinhardt," says Schwartz. "I like them because the DLC gives resonance to positions on issues that perhaps candidates cannot commit to."

A key member of the event committee for the 2000 annual fall dinner was Mike Lewan, who runs a boutique lobbying house that has represented clients such as Oracle and BellSouth. In the late 1980s, Lewan, who joined the DLC because he was "one of those disaffected Democrats," went to work as Lieberman's chief of staff--and promptly introduced the Connecticut senator to the DLC. Today, Lewan helps recruit support for the DLC on K Street. "It's astonishing to me how much support the DLC is getting from the professional Washington people, the lawyers, the lobbyists," he says. "There's a relationship and a trust level that's been built up."

Joining Lewan on the event committee were several dozen of Washington's elite lobbyists, including representatives from the Dutko Group, Greenberg Traurig, the Wexler Group, Verner, Liipfert, and SVP Kessler and Associates, all with blue-chip clients, along with lobbyists for Chevron, Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney, and others. One was Arthur Lifson, vice president for federal affairs at Cigna Corporation, one of the nation's largest health insurers and a company that stands to gain enormously if, say, Medicare were privatized along the lines proposed by the DLC and by one of its founders, Senator John Breaux of Louisiana. "The DLC is trying to bring some fresh ideas to Medicare and to dealing with the uninsured," says Lifson, whose company is listed as a member of the DLC's policy roundtable. "It builds on changes that are taking place in the marketplace, rather than turning everything on its head Hillary Care." Lifson frankly endorses the DLC as a counterweight to "populists ... at the other end of the party."


http://www.progressive.org/nich1000.htm

SNIP..."Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, whom the DLC dismisses as "a cranky peddler of corporate conspiracy theories," says publicly what many veteran Democrats admit privately. "You had Al From and the DLC and the corporate lobbyists running the Democratic Party convention this year, picking the candidates, writing the platform, just as they'll run things in the fall and after November if they're given a chance," says the consumer activist. "Even if Al Gore wanted to do the right thing, which I do not suggest that he does, he would be told by the DLC and its corporate contributors, 'We're sorry, that's not in the script.' "

[worldgonekrazy]

7. No wonder they despise Dean

Lifson frankly endorses the DLC as a counterweight to "populists ... at the other end of the party."

There you have it. I have taken to describing Dean to people as a "pragmatic populist"...gets a very positive response.

[Lars39]

2. Lots of links to wade through......might be in this thread from old DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4443&forum=DCForumID22&archive=

[hedda_foil]

3. Yep, Lars. That's it.

Eloriel's master thread on "What Every Dem and Every DUer Needs to Know About the DLC."

A compendium of threads from when DU was the best research and analysis site on the web ... back in the day before the candidate food fights.

[worldgonekrazy]

6. It still is

You just have to wade through the crap.

Take the 9/11 LIHOP, MIHOP scenarios for example. I have learned more from discussions on this site that anywhere else on the web.

[shanti]

9. hey, where is eloriel?

i've missed her posts.

[jonnyblitz]

10. she said she wasn't going to spend as much time on DU

anymore. Supporters of a certain candidate were getting on her nerves I do believe. She wanted to focus her efforts more on helping her candidate elsewhere and not hang out in here. That is how I interpreted the last post of hers that I read. I might be wrong. :shrug:

[ithacan]

4. here's another one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23262&forum=DCForumID60&archive=

[lovedems]

5. Did anyone see the head of the DLC on Jim Lehrer tonight?

I don't even care to know the guys name but he wouldn't say anything particulary positive about Dean. He made pretty damn clear that he wasn't thrilled about Dean possibly winning the nomination. Believe it or not, I am still undecided about which dem I like the best. When asked if he would support whoever the candidate was, his reply was "yes, but..." I tuned him out. The DLC is out of touch if you ask me so if the funding leans right, it wouldn't surprise me any.

[madfloridian]

8. Al From is who you mean.

He bothers me. Yes,it was Eloriel's thread I was thinking about.

[legin]

11. Sort of on topic

Capability Brown calls tycoon summit

IF they all had a whip-round, they could probably plug the £37 billion black hole in Gordon Brown’s spending plans.

The world’s wealthiest businessmen and women are teaming up with the chancellor to find Britain’s next generation of tycoons.

Brown has persuaded dozens of company bosses including Bill Gates, founder chairman of Microsoft, to join him at a summit in London this month. The event is part of Brown’s drive to turn Britain into a nation of entrepreneurs.

<<snip>>

Speculation that Tony Blair might be tiring of his job and may stand down before the end of 2004 has given credence to the view that Brown is establishing his authority as a future prime minister by hosting high-profile events. Whitehall insiders have dubbed the conference “Gordon’s first cabinet away-day”.

<<snip>>

The gathering at a London hotel will see Gates as the star guest. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, may also attend. Brown is a close ally of Greenspan and is said to have been influential in arranging his award of an honorary knighthood.

Other business stars will include Jean-Pierre Garnier, the controversial chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of the media group Pearson, Sir Niall FitzGerald, chairman of Unilever, Sir Tom McKillop, chief executive of AstraZeneca, and Eric Schmidt, chief executive of the internet firm Google.

More industry chiefs will come from BP and other oil companies, from Diageo, the drinks conglomerate, Wal-Mart, the supermarket chain, Monsanto and Goldman Sachs.

<<snip>>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-950643,00.html