JOE LIEBERMAN AND HIS DLC ALLIES DECLARE WAR ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY-- JUST IN TIME TO SAVE BUSH'S FALTERING REGIME

The Republican Party is completely owned, lock, stock and barrel, by Big Business. That's pretty much their purpose-- representing corporate interests over the interests of consumers and workers. The trickle down accrues to the individual legislators who embrace their corrupted system and back laws and regulations devastating their own constituents but that encourage Big Business to lavish millions and millions of dollars on the GOP and on individual legislators at every level. If you don't expect that from Republicans you've been asleep... for a very, very long time.

To me, the tragedy is when Democrats slip into the same honey trap-- and many do. The largely discredited DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) is in every way the antithesis of a grassroots group. It has more in common with the traditional pro-business Republican Party than it does with the pro-worker Democratic Party.

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), the DLC was formerly headed by Joe Lieberman. The membership reads like a list of the worst Democrats in Congress-- people most likely to be sucking at the corporate teat and most likely to join Republicans to pass the most harmful legislation for the working and middle class.

Among the members you will find almost all of the Democrats with low Progressive Punch scores and almost all the Democrats who consistently vote to back Bush's reactionary agenda. Some of the worst of the worst: Max Baucus (MT), Evan Bayh (IN), Ed Case (HI), Rahm Emanuel (IL), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Harold Ford (TN), Jane Harman (CA), Stephanie Herseth (SD), Mary Landrieu (LA), Rick Larsen (WA), Lieberman of course, Blanche Lincoln (AR), Dennis Moore (KS), Ben Nelson (NE), Bill Nelson (FL), Mark Pryor (AR), Loretta Sanchez (CA), Adam Schiff (CA), Ellen Tauscher (CA), etc.

When George Bush's and Ann Coulter's favorite Democrat, Joe Lieberman, declared he would be running for "his" senate seat regardless of what Connecticut Democrats decide in their August 8th primary-- severely jeopardizing the Democratic Party's #1 priority of re-taking the House of Representatives by throwing a monkey-wrench into the 3 targeted Republican seats in Connecticut-- Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Howard Dean and other loyal Democrats said they would support whomever wins the August 8th primary, Bush's rubber stamp Lieberman or actual progressive Democrat Ned Lamont. Hillary said she hopes Lieberman wins but that she would abide by the will of Connecticut Democrats, Feingold hinted that he hopes Lamont wins but said he would come and campaign for Lieberman in November if he wins the primary. That's how a political party functions.

It was with sadness and dismay today that grassroots Democrats found out that several corporate hacks within the Democratic Party, particularly right-leaning Senators Ken Salazar from Colorado and Mark Pryor of Arkansas said they don't give a damn what Connecticut Democrats decide in their primary; they'll campaign for Lieberman against the official Democrat Party nominee this fall. That isn't the way a political party functions. Pryor and Salazar have declared war on the Democratic Party and on grassroots Democrats. Neither is up for re-election in November or they would never have the balls to do this. But grassroots Democrats should never forget this betrayal and grassroots Democrats should think in terms of running primary opponents to both of these Republican Democrats and anyone else who tries to destroy the Democratic Party from within.

One of the smartest guys on the grassroots side, Matt Stoller, who helps run MyDD, has a short and pointed column about the kind of support Lieberman is generating from other incumbents, both from corporate hacks like Salazar and Biden and from progressives who should know better like Boxer and Obama. It's worth reading it and worth reading the lively debate about it at MyDD. And if you like that, you'll love Jane's and the firedoglake community's take on this as well.