DLC CONVENTION IN DENVER DOESN'T NEED TO IMPORT ANY PROSTITUTES

When I decided to share the experiences I had had as president of a record company while Joe Lieberman was on the censorship warpath with sanctimonious allies Bill Bennett, Lynn Cheney, Tipper Gore and Jesse Helms, within minutes of my blog's appearance on the Huffington Post, a Lieberman stooge wrote a secretive letter to the editors demanding they remove my story. Instead, seeing I had struck a raw nerve inside the Lieberman inner circle, I followed up with an even fuller frontal attack on his abysmal record. Eventually the anonymous Lieberman operative came out from under the shadows and he was revealed to be none other than Dan Gerstein, a long-time Lieberman consultant best known for writing the infamous Lieberman speech in which Holy Joe stabbed President Clinton in the back and made calls for impeachment hearings-- which utterly destroyed the Clinton Administration's ability to move forward with their agenda-- seem like a bipartisan effort.

In any case, I knew I recognized the name Gerstein this morning when I saw the slanted story in the NY SUN, "Centrist Democrats Ponder How To Counter Netroots" by Josh Gerstein. Brother, father, son, cousin, life-partner? I have no idea. Maybe it's just a coincidence. But judging by the writing-- and the manipulation of language-- I don't think it is. (A friend of mine pointed out that I'm probably insane and that Gerstein is a common name and that these two are probably not related by blood. Like I said, maybe it's just a coincidence that they're both shills for the corporate ass-kisser end of the Democratic Party. I'd rather imagine they're an uncle/nephew team or domestic partners though.) "At a time when centrism has become a dirty word in some Democratic Party circles," he starts, already setting up his readers to be mislead into thinking that the corporate shills and whores who make up the DLC are somehow "centrist" instead of just Republican lite bribe-addicted political prostitutes. They're getting together this weekend in Denver to discuss their agenda.

In the next paragraph he introduces the foe of the shadowy, secretive Inside-the-Beltway bribe-takers-- grassroots Democrats, the actual mainstream of the party: the "liberal Web-based activists known as the netroots."

Addressing the Democrat Inside the Beltway elitists will be Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Tom Vilsack, and Bill Richardson. Gerstein refers to Howard Dean christening the DLC "the Republican wing of the Democratic Party," something which is very apt but must have slipped my mind, and then goes on to an absurd de rigueur attack on Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos as some kind of far left radical, although if either Gerstein or any of the DLC imbeciles bothered to pay attention they would know that Markos is an actual centrist, who is just as likely-- if not more likely-- to push right of center candidates like Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Ben Chandler and Stephanie Herseth as back left of center candidates. Markos, a former Republican, is more about getting people involved in the process of government than he is in left/right ideologies.

I don't know how important ideology is for DLC President Bruce Reed. From what I can see the only thing he cares about is making sure the Democrats are slaves to the Big Business interests that keep him flush. Reed and the DLC, with virtually no support from actual Democrats, are financed by largely anti-Democratic forces with predatory, anti-consumer and anti-labor agendas (Dow Chemical, Bank One, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, DuPont, Philip Morris, Chevron, Amoco, AT&T, Morgan Stanley, Raytheon, Microsoft, Raytheon, Occidental Petroleum, Nabisco, Health Insurance Corporation of America, etc). One can look at this list and see why some actual Democrats, like Howard Dean, might think they are indeed the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

"If we're going to be a majority, we have to get bigger. We have to compete in places like Colorado and the Southwest where it's been an uphill battle in the past," said Mr. Reed, a former domestic policy adviser to Mr. Clinton. "We need to be winning over independents and disgruntled Republicans, not just talking amongst ourselves."

Mr. Reed, meet Markos Moulitsas; meet Jerome Armstrong; meet Arianna Huffington. They are disgruntled former Republicans. They're not looking for Democrats who want to be Republicans. They were attracted to the Main Street values of the Democratic Party, not the Wall Street values of the Republican Party and the DLC. The DLC's arch nemesis are not corporate lobbyists, stealing everything for Big Business (with pay off to political insiders like himself, other DLC-ers and, of course, Republicans); no the bad guys are the horrible "liberal lobbies" trying to force the Democrats to stand up for consumers, workers, the environment, civil rights and social justice. What scum! And how they hate those awful "union bosses," so unruly and gross compared to the corporate managers whose lifestyles and point of views they share! To them Big Pharma is not an "interest group." An interest group is a labor union agitating for a living wage or at least a reasonable minimum wage or a civic group trying to push for affordable health care. "Republican wing of the Democratic Party" is a polite way of saying what the DLC members are. They ARE Republicans by any definition but their own.

Take DLC posterboy and past president, George Bush's and Ann Coulter's favorite Democrat, Joe Lieberman. Joe Lieberman is in trouble with Connecticut voters today because he has sold them out for the corporate agenda, unfair trade policies, and Bush's wars of aggression, all DLC-approved policies. Gerstein writes that Reed doesn't think the Lieberman primary fight should be viewed "as a referendum on the DLC, in part because 'diehards' are more likely to turn out for a mid-summer election. 'He's a great Democrat and a good friend, and we think he'll win,' Mr. Reed said."

Gerstein also quotes my favorite current author, David Sirota, whose book, HOSTILE TAKEOVER, is a must-read for any American, regardless of party, who wants to understand how the Insiders of both parties are screwing the rest of us over-- and what we can do about it. Encouraging people to get involved in politics, the way Sirota's book does and Moulitsas' blog does, is pure poison for the strictly elitist DLC. With the DLC as enthusiastic about the unfair trade policies that have enriched the already wealthy and further impoverished everyone else as the Republicans, Sirota is adamant that "the DLC's stance has muddled the party's message. 'That has been in part responsible for Democrats losing blue collar, middle-America and losing election after election,' he said. Mr. Sirota scoffed at the notion that, with Mrs. Clinton's prodding, the DLC can lead a 'big tent' coalition. 'You can't put the steelworkers, working class people, in the same tent with an organization that continues to push trade policies that sell out workers," he said. "I don't care how big a tent you have. You just can't do it.'"

Of course since the DLC is already distancing themselves from the trainwreck that Lieberman's campaign has become, they are unlikely to learn any useful lessons from his much-deserved political demise.


MONDAY UPDATE: WHAT ARE THE CLINTON'S AND THE DLC UP TO IN CONNECTICUT?

Connecticut's Colin McEnroe has an interesting article in today's Salon, contrasting Maxine Water's visit to African-American neighborhoods with Clinton's. And he asks the question-- and tries to answer it, as well-- "Why is Bill Clinton stumping for the man who famously rebuked him from the floor of the Senate during Monica-gate eight years ago? Part of the reason is personal. Clinton and Lieberman have known each other nearly 40 years... Part of the reason is selfish. Lieberman may have chastised Clinton, but he has also provided a template for the other politician in the Clinton family. Hillary Clinton has undergone a gradual but very public transformation into a kind of Bride of Lieberman, hawkish on the war, adamantly pro-Israel and tracking right on social issues. She even likes to bash video games, just like Joe. Hillary's politics are Joe's politics. If Lieberman sinks, it will raise a lot of questions about the current Clinton strategy, which is really just a post-millennial version of that old-time DLC religion. When I asked Waters why she thought Clinton was coming to Connecticut, she said there were rumors in Washington that he and his wife are freaked out by the sudden progressive insurgency. The DLC is putting down a small rebellion before it spreads. Thus, Bill, the DLC's greatest success story, will be standing alongside former DLC chairman Lieberman in Waterbury mere hours after Hillary gives the keynote speech at the DLC's annual national convention in Denver."

And if it doesn't work out for Lieberman (which current polls seem to be predicting with greater and greater frequency and certainty)? According to McEnroe, "the Clintons will cut Lieberman loose like a sandbag on a sinking balloon. They already have, sort of. Each has made separate statements promising to support the Democrat chosen by party voters in two weeks, so no matter how many nice things the ex-president says in Waterbury, we should understand that today's Joe Cool could be Aug. 9's Joe Who?"