Podesta grilled by DLC over email (he criticized corporate dems)

[Cocoa]

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/032305/podesta.html

John Podesta, president of the progressive Center for American Progress (CAP), faced pointed questions from lawmakers at last Thursday’s New Democrat Coalition (NDC) meeting about an inflammatory e-mail his organization sent to liberal activists and bloggers.

In a March 9 e-mail, David Sirota, a fellow at CAP, accused 16 pro-business Democrats of supporting bankruptcy-reform legislation because they received political contributions from the commercial banks and credit-card companies that stand to benefit if the legislation becomes law.

The e-mail coursed through the blogosphere and generated angry phone calls from liberal activists to the offices of the 16 centrist Democrats. Sirota, a former minority spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, criticized 16 of the 20 Democrats who wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) March 7 urging him to bring bankruptcy reform to the House floor.

“And a look at campaign finance records shows why — the House Democrats who signed the letter pocketed a combined $750,000 in their two-year campaigns for Congress in 2004. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of the industry giving these members $1,000 every single day of the last two years,” Sirota wrote, relying on figures from opensecrets.org.

More…

[Warpy]

1. More proof that the DLC assholes are NOT on our side.

[iconoclastNYC]

2. Progressive must keep pressure on DLC

I think these people are more committed to keeping power and being kingmakers then aiding our party.

You dont' have to give big corporations everything they desire to be pro-business.

[Cocoa]

3. here's who signed the letter

which even the DLC-friendly New Republic said was shameful.

http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=2584

Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Ron Kind
Rep. Artur Davis
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy
Rep. John Larson
Rep. Stephanie Herseth
Rep. Dennis Moore
Rep. Mike McIntyre
Rep. Joe Crowley
Rep. Jay Israel
Rep. David Wu
Rep. Diane Hooley
Rep. Melissa Bean
Rep. Jim Davis
Rep. Harold E. Ford, Jr.
Rep. Ed Case
Rep. Jay Inslee
Rep. Shelley Berkeley
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks

[iconoclastNYC]

4. It's helpful for the NR to blast them

But I mean, the grassroots. We are taking our party back.

[madfloridian]

5. Here is a lot about this at David Sirota's blog.

http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/03/theres-no-crying-in-politics.html

They are sounding like cry-babies, and they should realize they are accountable for their votes.
From Sirota's blog:
(There are a lot of embedded links)
SNIP..."In the movie "A League of Their Own," coach Jimmy Dugan tells his players "There's no crying in baseball." Well, there's also no crying in politics. In the few weeks I have been out in Montana, however, that cardinal rule has been broken at least twice.

Most recently, a small group of congressional Democrats are crying about me and others publicizing where they get their money from when they disregard America's working class, and undercut the courageous work of other Democrats. I'm not going to get into a debate about this one, even though I've gotten a lot of e-mail today about this. Instead, I'm going to let Matt Singer at Left In the West do the talking. He sums it up pretty well. For other takes on the situation, see Atrios and Americablog as well.

This all came just weeks after Montana's Republican legislators started whining like infants that Gov. Brian Schweitzer was "intimidating" them. Their bellyaching was so hilarious, newspapers across the state called them "pathetic."

I'm not trying to pick any more fights right now - I'm swamped writing my book. But I do have a message for both Republican and Democratic politicians. We can disagree on just about anything - that's all fair game. But if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And let me just say it one more time: there's no crying in politics....."

[Zhade]

6. You should cross-post this over in GD:P.

Needs more exposure.