Harold Ford to be next Chairman for centrist DLC

[bigdarryl]

It's just posted on the Huffington post. What is a DLC Chairmans job anyway

[Daylin Byak]

To make sure

All the Democratic Politicans in America are far-right Republicrats.

Knew we haven't seen the last of Mr. Ford, good to see his seat was taken by a progressive Democrat.

[Ken Burch]

3. If he runs the DLC as well as he ran his last campaign

we may finally be rid of them.

[ProudDad]

33. You got it!

:rofl: :rofl:

[Clark2008]

49. Huh? His campaign was run splendidly, actually - the problem

in Tennessee is that we have no alternative media outside of Memphis and there was a lot of voting booth racism.

Ford was a MUCH better choice than that idiot Bob Corker, but too many people in the rural areas wouldn't vote for a Democrat, no matter what it depended on.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

1. to hide the member list.?

[LittleClarkie]

2. They used to show it

I wonder why they hide it now.

[peacetalksforall]

4. No surprise - when the right wing loves you - it must mean because

you are DLC.

[AtomicKitten]

5. sounds about right

I don't begrudge Ford that position; he's a very bright man. I also don't have any problem sharing space within the Democratic Party with the DLC. They aren't inherently evil and I don't feel I need to agree with anyone 100% to accept them. But that's me.

[wisteria]

12. The problem is they don't want to share, they want to dominate

and totally control the agenda. I resent that. I am a member of the Democratic party, the party of the people. Not just corporate America.

[AtomicKitten]

15. just like the far left wants to dominate

too many cooks in the kitchen - too many egos trying to steer the ship.

The bottom line is if you truly believe in democracy, everybody has a voice. It's the everybody part some of you find unpalatable.

[Spiffarino]

45. Corporatist values are anti-Democratic

And I mean that with a capital "D". A basic tenet of the Democratic party since FDR has been protecting "little" people against the tyranny of corporate wealth. The DLC embodies the principles of the old-line Republican party by ensuring corporations maintain their status as the power elite.

I'm for a big tent, but I want it filled with democrats of the small "d" variety. Oligarchs, tyrants and their enablers need not enter.

[beaconess]

57. Duck!!!

[Jim Sagle]

6. Fuck'm.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Carville's attempted coup to replace Dean with Ford at DNC failed

so now we have Ford as head of DLC a few months after he had endorsed Lieberman over the Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont.

[AtomicKitten]

8. there was no attempted coup, IG, and I suspect you know that

When pressed, Carville made a stupid comment. He NEVER sought to replace Dean.

Despise him all you like, but I do believe there are some here at DU that think the truth still matters.

[wisteria]

13. Oh, he was pressed? Not what I witnessed. He came out attacking Dean.

That is the truth.

[AtomicKitten]

14. no - that is not the truth

I am paraphrasing here but a reporter asked him point blank, "Should Dean be replaced?" and he said, "Yes."

That's the coup of which IG speaks, not any snotty remarks Carville made about Dean. That's the monster conspiracy that is dissected here at at DU at frequent intervals.

Now you have expressed a particular loathing for Hillary:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2920815#2921018 and so you have a vested interested in trashing all things having anything to do with Hillary.

Short of my intention to not vote for anyone that voted 'yes' on the IWR, I don't have an agenda and the truth still matters to me and I suspect to many here at DU.

[madfloridian]

18. Carville called the NYT to attack Dean. They did not call him.

It was a direct hit on Dean.

[AtomicKitten]

19. BFD !!

It was a post-contest testosterone fest, comparing penis size, just words. BFD!! Dean is a big boy; he handled himself quite admirably. He doesn't need you or anybody else to fight his word battles.

This isn't junior high school. We shouldn't fell compelled to choose up sides in a contest of words when it is none of our business, and we particularly shouldn't exaggerate facts to rally support for one side as an attack against the other.

3,019 soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq to date and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. We have more important issues to occupy our discussion than gossiping about who said something mean about somebody else.

[madfloridian]

21. The truth needs to be told.

I am sorry you don't think I have a right to do that.

[AtomicKitten]

23. you just want to gossip, mf

Nobody gives a crap about the "truth" when it entails politicians talking dirt about each other. The allegation was an attempted coup, not who started the dust-up. Seriously, who appointed you Dean's wingman? He's an adept politician and can handle this quite nicely on his own.

You create such a stink out of nothing. You wage your jihads almost always anti-Clinton oriented and expect others to reach your same level of fake outrage. You will find the only ones willing to sign on to that nonsense are those happy to trash the same targets.

[madfloridian]

24. You would prefer I not talk about the attempted coup.

Perhaps you should just ignore what I say. I posted fact, and you call it fiction. That is just not fair.

[AtomicKitten]

27. there was no attempted coup, mf

Shall I reiterate? A reporter asked Carville if Dean should be replaced and he answered yes. That's it. Other than some unkind remarks to punctuate it, that was it.

Again, there was no attempted coup. I realizes it hypes the drama you are selling, but it simply isn't anywhere in the vicinity of truthful.

[LittleClarkie]

38. mf?

You're not calling him something, are you?

[Hippo_Tron]

41. I think he's abbreviating madfloridian with mf

The same way I often address AttomicKitten as AK.

[LittleClarkie]

42. Oh silly me. I should go to bed.

Thought he was calling her an... ahem... m-er f-er

[Hippo_Tron]

36. AK, with all due respect, being a political junkie is partly about process stories and gossip

I agree with you that making Carville's bashing of Dean out to be a coup d'etat is a joke. Carville doesn't have nearly enough influence anymore to do that, plus if Hillary becomes President (which seems to be what everyone is saying Carville's ultimate objective is) she can appoint whoever she wants to be DNC Chair.

That said, some of us are fascinated by the inter-workings of Washington and what the well known figures in our party say and do. Personally I plan to work in politics some day and so I try to get as much information about what goes on in Washington as I possibly can.

[NashVegas]

48. Political Professionals Don't Attack Party Members For the Hell of It

As a Southernor, especially, Carver knew exactly what he was doing when he made that phone call. He knew who he was talking to, and he knew it would get spread.

At the very least, it was a way to give people who aren't Dean admirors an idea who to call, should they wish to run against him.

[madfloridian]

17. Yes, Carville made the first move by calling the NYT unsolicited. Link.

Then he said it again on CNN.

You are right.

James Carville makes an unsolicited call to the NYT to diss Dean

[JI7]

29. Carville is trying to keep his wife out of prison

[AtomicKitten]

31. well, I'm convinced - NOT

George Clooney once commented that he didn't like blogs for precisely this reason. They aren't gospel for crissakes. They are gossip. Gossip about stuff that has nothing to do with any of us. It's talk. Yada, yada, yada.

Now that you are here as reinforcement to back up this epic nonsense, knock yourself out gossiping. I've had about enough of DU for tonight.

[Cha]

59. I don't think anyone is trying

to fuck to "convince" you of anything.

[Clark2008]

50. There was no coup.

Ford didn't want, nor care about, that position. That was all Carville's mouth and very little behind it.

[New Earth]

9. he is so hot

[msongs]

10. the republican wing of the democratic party -> DLC: Ford will belt u with his bible

if you stray too far from his religious path.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art

[Lord Byron]

11. We need to work to make the DLC a thing of the past, or completely irrelevant N/T

[madfloridian]

16. That's not a good sign for Dean's role as party chair.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/602

That's all I am saying.

[AtomicKitten]

20. baloney - and links to your blog do not prove your point

If you spent less time rallying intraparty unrest and directed that energy toward something worthwhile, you could be doing something positive and constructive. Instead you choose to incite and perpetuate controversy over petty issues.

The Democratic Party is indeed a big tent whether you like it or not.

[madfloridian]

22. Carville attacks Dean after a big win....and you blame me..

for inciting party unrest. That's too bad.

[AtomicKitten]

25. fodder for the internetz

and for people with too much time on their hands ...

[JI7]

28. are you serious ???????

[fuzzyball]

26. I hope he will run for president in 2012 if not in 2008.

[Ken Burch]

34. Why? If he couldn't win this year, he's unelectable nationally.

Ford's not worth it. His hostility to progressives didn't get him into the Senate in what should have been an easy win for him, so it can't help him anywhere else.

Ford's deadwood now, and we all know it.

[SharonAnn]

39. I don't know where you get the idea it should've been an "easy win".

This was an extremely tough race and was a long-shot for him. He really took a risk and did better than many thought he would.

TN is still pretty solidly "Red" at the national level.

[Clark2008]

51. Thank you for interjecting the truth, Sharon Ann.

:hug:

[fuzzyball]

58. No kidding, Ford was trying to break new ground in TN

as a black person running for US senate. As close as
he came to winning proves he is an excellent politician.

[AtomicKitten]

30. self-delete

delete

[FredScuttle]

32. Sic semper loser-annis

Thus always to losers.

[Hippo_Tron]

35. The DLC's message resonated with a lot of people in 1992...

Of course it certainly helps when your salesman is Bill Clinton. Since 1992 I haven't seen the DLC do much of anything. I suppose since Al Gore had the election stolen from him we didn't get to see the third way agenda truly play out.

[Cascadian]

37. Bill Clinton was the best thing to ever happen to the DLC.

And now they want to restore the DLC reign by bringing in Hillary as a candidate for president? You got to be kidding! Hillary won't stand a chance. The DLC's only real win was in 1992. You cannot say the same thing about 1994, 1996 (The GOP had a weak candidate in Bob Dole!), 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. It was one loss after another and now the word is out on the DLC now that Howard Dean changed the course of the party to a more winning strategy.


As for Harold Ford, I will just direct everybody's attention to my quote line at the bottom of my posts by Harry Truman. Be a Democrat acting like a Republican and people will vote for the Republican candidate everytime.


John

[Hippo_Tron]

40. I don't count '96 because we had an incumbent President

Incumbents are re-elected or thrown out of office based on how they govern and also how many factors beyond their control play out. The political organization surrounding an incumbent President has very little to do with his re-election, the exception of course being 2004. But never in recent history has an incumbent won by such a narrow margin.

Also, I should note that we didn't do particularly well on the congressional level in '96.

[leesa]

43. Please stop calling them 'centrist'. 'Corporatist' will do just fine.

[Cascadian]

46. Thank you!

Republican Lite, Corporatist all sound good to me. They are not representative of the regualr working people of America and must be stopped.


John

[CTLawGuy]

44. he impressed them with his losing campaign

with it's "look at me, I'm a Republican too" theme.

[NashVegas]

47. Here's a Link

Includes memos:

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/01/harold-ford-to-take-over-dlc.php

[Hell Hath No Fury]

52. Uh oh, I just threw up.

:puke:

Why I am not surprised the only two policy agenda items talked about are "global terrorism" and "economic competitiveness" -- can't let the war profiteers and corporations down. :eyes:

[madfloridian]

53. That is a most fascinating memo...

and everyone should read the Radar Online page you link to as well.

"The memo also contains the surprising suggestion that the DLC is already writing off Vilsack's hopes of winning the White House in 2008 in favor of backing Hillary Clinton, another member of the group's Leadership Team. "I assume there will be an effort to help Senator Clinton's campaign, and I would support such an effort," Ford writes. "But the bottom line is that we will need a competitive candidate to endorse some or all of our policy agenda.This is a high priority."

He says they need to get out early with their agenda, target the press, and they are doing it so far very well. Their advocates are in many cases already CNN or MSNBC consultants. He mentions forums, blogs, interviews. That won't be hard since many bloggers are already openly collaborating with Rosenberg's NDN/NPI. They have a voice, a powerful media voice.

This is a group that does not have to disclose their funding. They are not supposed to be advocating for candidates. They are a 501, I believe. Yet he says some thought should be given as to how to integrate their policies into the presidential primaries. I guess that is ok if they don't advocate for a candidate.

[Clark2008]

56. He's alluding to Edwards here...

Edwards is DLC (or was when he was an elected official).

Bank on it.

[JunkYardDogg]

54. Ford is a Fucking Conservative Rethug

He is not even close to being a Dem
He's an oportunistic Conservative Right Winger Christo Freak
He's against Abortion
He's for Prayer in Schools
He has the 10 Commandments printed on the back of his business card
There is NOTHING about this guy that is vaguely or remotely related to Dem values

[SaveElmer]

55. Excellent Choice...

Ran a very good campaign in a very red state...

Well spoken and appealing...and should he decide to run for office again, the DLC connection will definitely help him...