Harley Sorensen: 'The DLC: Wolves in Democrats' clothing'

[mandyky]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fgate%2Farchive%2F2004%2F01%2F05%2Fhsorensen.DTL

<snip>

By Harley Sorensen, San Francisco Chronicle

I'll bet not one American in 200 knows, or cares, who Al From is. And (let's go double or nothing) I'll bet not one in 20 knows, or cares, what the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is.

I know ... now ... because I looked it up last week. And both From and his council are powerful influences in this year's presidential campaigns.

Mr. From would argue with my description of him, but I'd describe him as a kind of agent provocateur, a plant inserted by the Republicans into the leadership of the Democrat Party. His goal: Wreck the party, turn it into the Republican Lite Party.

If that's his goal, he's doing a fine, fine job. And he's using the DLC to do it. He founded the DLC, a collection of Democrat politicians, in 1985, apparently out of fear that the Democrats were done as a political party. After all, they had not had a president for five full years.

</snip>

Excellent article about the DLC and centrists!

[lcordero]

1. Repuke lite!?!?!?

"fascist heavy" or "corporatist heavy" are more suitable terms. All they do is package shit policies into gilded language.

[KoKo]

2. Actually, he said "Republican in Drag." Sort of like Zell.

:D

[Iverson]

3. another good point in the article

I saw the piece on the commondreams.org website this morning. Sorensen also points out From's association with the National Chamber of Commerce. While that alone doesn't fully explain the anti-labor bent of the DLC, it sure helps.

[ithacan]

4. here's excellent background dirt on DLC

from the old DU archives, some threads that have enormous amounts of info on who funds the DLC, who they are, what they stand for. VERY interesting stuff:

Let's be REALLY honest about the DLC, posted by Eloriel, EXCELLENT resource on DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23262&forum=DCForumID60&archive=

Outing the "New Democrats" -- Pukes in Progressive Clothing, posted by Hedda_Foil, continuing a discussion by a New Zealand DUer who described the DLC-ification of that country; again, lots of interesting info
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=1435&forum=DCForumID34&archive=