Is the DLC a Neocon 5th Column within the Democratic Party?

From 'Democratic Lawmakers Splinter on Iraq: Many Surprised as Pelosi Calls for a Fast Pullout,' by Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post, December 2, 2005

"Marshall Wittmann, a former Republican political strategist now with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said Pelosi may have resurrected her party's most deadly liability -- voters' lack of trust in the party on national security.

"If Karl Rove was writing the timing of this, he wouldn't have written it any differently, with the president of the United States expressing resolve and the Democratic leader offering surrender," Wittmann said, referring to Bush's top adviser. "For Republicans, this is manna from heaven."

David Sirota, a Democratic strategist in Montana long critical of the party leadership's timidity, fired back: "It is not surprising that a bunch of insulated elitists in the Washington establishment -- most of whom have never served in uniform -- would stab the Democratic Party in the back and attack the courage of people like Vietnam War hero Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi for their stand on Iraq."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101491.html

WHO IS DLC SPOKESMAN MARSHALL WITTMANN?

From the DLC's website:


DLC | Bio | October 1, 2004
Marshall Wittmann
Senior Fellow, DLC

"Marshall Wittmann is a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. Previously, he was Director of Communications for Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Mr. Wittmann has served in various positions with the Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, Christian Coalition and in the administration of President George H. W. Bush."
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=191&contentid=252917

DLC | Blueprint Magazine | October 7, 2004
'Moose on the Loose'
By Marshall Wittmann

Bush had a chance after 9/11 to create a bold new politics of national purpose that would make Teddy Roosevelt proud. But he blew it. A modern Bull Moose progressive now finds common cause with Kerry and Edwards.

"I am an independent McCainiac who hopes to revive the Bull Moose tradition of Theodore Roosevelt, and I support the Kerry-Edwards agenda. Don't get me wrong -- this Bull Moose is not completely in agreement with the Democratic donkey. But the Bush administration has betrayed the effort to create a new politics of national greatness in the aftermath of 9/11."

-snip-

"In the past few years, there has been an effort by the neoconservative center-right to forge a new politics of national greatness. Although this new political perspective was never spelled out in specifics, its adherents (including me) envisioned an energetic federal government that would implement a foreign policy advancing American interests and human rights, along with a domestic policy that would promote national service, and an economics focused on benefiting the middle class. (...)"

-snip-

"I had long supported regime change in Iraq. Saddam's threat to regional stability and the prospect that he would obtain weapons of mass destruction, along with his massive human rights violations, argued that he be removed, particularly after 9/11. But what I could not have anticipated was the Bush administration's abysmal incompetence in both the timing of the war and the execution of a post-war plan.

It is unlikely that the administration deliberately lied about the WMD intelligence. But it now appears that there was some hyping of the data in order to go to war sooner rather than later. We now know that al Qaeda had more extensive ties with Iran, Hezbollah, and forces in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia than it did with Iraq."

-snip-

"This Bull Moose is not all the way with Kerry, but part of the way with JFK. I am generally to Kerry's right. However, on the key issues of progressive economics and a muscular and smart foreign policy, John Kerry's ideas are far preferable to George W. Bush's. And, with his gesture this summer in approaching McCain about the vice presidency, Kerry demonstrated that he is committed to a new politics of national unity."
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=127&subid=173&contentid=252914

Do I need to switch parties? Do I need to lambaste Howard Dean? Will we Democrats unite in Nov.06'? or will
there be in-fighting like Rove the genius hopes?

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Democratic_Leadership_Council

If you want to know more, just read the many threads on the subject.

Note that despite the name, the DLC is not in fact the "leadership" of the Dem party; the leadership of the Democratic Party always has been and still is the Democratic National Committee (DNC). (just as the RNC is the leadership of the Republican Party)

The DLC is intent on maintaining Republican control of all branches of government. It is impossible to think anything else of them.

which is kind of like a neo-con who is more inclined to stress the importance of international alliances and diplomacy before resorting to military force. But neo-libs are like the neo-cons in that they believe that the US has the "duty" to spread our system of government around the world and to spread capitalism around the world too. The neo-libs are at least a little less ruthless about doing it than the neo-cons. The neo-libs are modern day Wilsonians. Some of the DLCers are neo-cons to be sure, like Al From and Joe Lieberman, but the predominant DLC thinking is neo-lib, in the mold of Bill Clinton or John Kerry.

you must admit: if you happen to be an Iraqi, you might not be able to appreciate the distinction.

"Free Trade"? One - just one - who did not help pass NAFTA and/or CAFTA?

:eyes:

who were alarmed by Goldwater and disgusted by Nixon and promised the party that, as former GOP insiders, they could counteract the Nixonian southern strategy and carry the party to decades of victory.

Well, they were wrong, weren't they? Spectacularly wrong!

They just don't know when to sit down and shut up and let Democrats take over again. I sincerely hope Dean is able to dislodge enough of them from key positions that they can't wreck another candidate in 2008.

there is a handful of these vichy bastards functioning as attack dogs like freeper trolls in this forum and it appears that this war being waged against the democratic wing within the democratic party is about to go full throttle -and they seem to be after blood. it appears nothing will satisfy these bastards until Dean is finally taken down and the rest of us are diminished to oblivion. :grr:


:nuke:


well, i'm fighting back all the way.

Unfortunately, they've pretty much lost every election that Perot didn't take part of. There strategy is simple-minded and lacks leadership. They just think they can win on stupid wedge issues and then pay back the big donors with favorable legislation.

Democratic Party since shortly after I began posting here. I am delighted to see someone else picking up the meme, because I think no other phrase so accurately describes the treachery and class betrayal the Democratic Leadership Council has perpetrated: NAFTA, CAFTA, reimposition of indentured servitude disguised as "bankruptcy reform," genocidal destruction of the social safety net, the obscene profiteering built into the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord "benefit" etc. ad nauseum -- the entire corporate/Republican agenda for concentrating wealth, imposing fascism and reducing American workers to the degradation of Third World les miserables.

The DLC agenda is in fact the source of all Republican electoral victories since 1994: the oft-heard statement by former lifelong blue-collar and rural Democrats turned Republican -- "there's no longer any difference at all between the parties on paycheck issues, but at least the Republicans will let me keep my guns"; the deliberately censored (and therefore almost never heard) lamentation of people who are disabled, limited-income elderly and otherwise hopelessly poor -- "both parties want us dead, so why bother to vote at all."

The DLC is a Fifth Column indeed, and until it is recognized as such and purged accordingly, we will have no chance whatsoever of restoring the New Deal -- the only way we can preserve American liberty, the only we can save our nation from fascism, the only way we can ensure fair apportionment of the deadly burdens of the coming economic collapse.

Very well put. I wish I'd said that!

but i hope it happens ASAP - before the 2008 campaign rolls out in full gear.

:toast:

They sell their board memberships to the highest corporate bidder; they devote all of their time to keeping Democrats divided and on the defensive, weakening and undermining Democratic values while simultaneously praising Republican values... I find it incredibly hard to believe that they aren't doing all of this purposefully. But even if they aren't intentionally serving as a Repuke Fifth Column, there's no question that they are functioning as such, intentionally or otherwise and I have no doubt whatsoever that not a day goes by that Karl Rove doesn't get down on his knees and thank whatever god or demon he prays to for the DLC, without whose ceaseless efforts, he and his master would have been behind bars where they belong years ago.

Bye.

I was especially struck by your defense of Wittmann's comment about the extent of al-Qaeda's connections with Iraq.

Y'all can now return to your mindless tantrum, unhampered by fact, decency or intelligence.

Stop, stop!

NAFTA; CAFTA; the reimposition of indentured servitude disguised as "bankruptcy reform"; the perversion of a desperately needed Medicare expansion into both a bogus "benefit" and a multi-billion-dollar windfall-profit reaper for the prescription drug lords (not to mention its bonus for the Republican Party and the corporate oligarchy in general); repeated DLC treachery to torpedo efforts by real Democrats to reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord Benefit (most recently in the Senate during the first week of November); the slow genocide of "welfare reform" -- these are not facts?

One cannot but wonder, sir, from what alleged dictionary you supposedly reason. I would especially be interested in reading your rationale for the two so-called "reforms" -- welfare and bankruptcy -- to see if you can defend either without also endorsing the racial and class hatreds that underly both.

Pout on....

Obviously, since you just denied the historical reality of NAFTA, CAFTA, Medicare Prescription Drug, bankruptcy "reform" and welfare "reform" (not to mention the casualties inflicted by each) -- you use the same sort of dictionary as is used by Holocaust deniers.

Which (given the Franklin Delano Roosevelt quote on your signature) is apparently also the same dictionary that does not define hypocrisy as pretending to embrace one set of values -- in this instance the New Deal -- while working on behalf of its antithesis: the DLC.

Quod erat demonstrandum. The picture is now in sharp focus.

Obviously, the DLC is just like the sort who deny there's a holocaust. </sarcasm>

You know, there's a party that isn't stained by the sort of people who belong to the DLC or agree with their aims. Feel free to join the Greens.

Granting/protecting human rights for those who lose everything to events beyond their control such as devastating illness, hurricanes, outsourcing, ad nauseum are not as important as appeasing the corporate money men. Silly goose, the New Deal is dead! No more Glass-Steagall, no more media regulation, no more energy regulation, nomore union protection -all sacrificed in the name of the campaign dollars brought by the slick K street suits. Welcome to the "New Democrats".

Here is the problem, they believe that they win elections by stupid wedge issues like flag burning, video games, and v-chips. And they don't believe the average voter is smart enough to tackle any issue without some irrational emotional response. Their whole idea of democracy is that there must be an "elite" who guides the "ignorant masses" through emotional manipulation.

That's why every time Dean said something true but unpopular, they would be the first to denounce him. They don't think average people can handle the truth. That's not to say this is how they handle every issue, whenever there is an issue that most swing voters are ignorant of, they just stick to a pro-corpoate-uber-alles stance.

What they want is a plutocracy under the guise of democracy.

the "ignorant masses" must be ruled by the "elite".

fact check me, on that.. but an old marxist friend of mine tried to advance that notion in a different political battle i was involved with.

And Plutocracy runs rampant.

In this case, we removed the board of directors for financial malfeasance and dereliction of duties. But it wasn't easy, it was a real "David and Goliath" battle that was waged in the public arena, in the streets, in town-hall meetings, in the media and in the courts.

while we were fighting them in court, we wrote new bylaws, seeking to democratize it's governance structure, and were calling for membership elections to elect new directors to the boards for representation.

My friend was adamantly opposed to democratization, said he didn't believe members had the level of understanding required to properly govern the organization and he argued that an elections process left open to chance the organization would become vulnerable to tom foolery, sleight of hand machinations and other kinds of corruption, and that the organization could be easily hijacked by corporatist - and said that the organization needed to be governed by a few elite members, and cited Marx with the above quote.

I was deeply offended by this notion, and fought all the harder for democratization and eventually pro-democracy faction succeeded despite the ugly and deplorable tactics that was employed in that five year long battle.

I see the same thing happening in national politics, and i see it happening on the "internets" .

People want it their way for their own personal gains, that's human nature, and the nature of poltics. And in the end, it's who ever has the best access to the media, the hierarchy of the supportive institutions and organizations generally gets to control the message and the campaign.

But once the grassroots gets going and gets behind the fight, goliath can be toppled and david can win, if people are informed of what is at issue.

... is indistinguishable from Republicans, just as most of their policies are. Funny coincidence, no?

Who needs two real competing parties, anyway, when you can have the illusion instead!

covered.

....find the Democratic Party a comfortable place to be....I'm here because I've got no place else to go....but why would a 9/10ths repug find comfort here?....unless they're on a mission....

Listen to the words of From and make up your own minds.

It seems to me that the dlc appeasers should send their hero, Al From a memo telling him he should just shut the hell up and go away....

but hey, i wouldn't suggest that From be censored like the DLC is trying to do to Howard Dean - No, i wouldn't.

I think Al From is the 'gift that keeps on giving', if you catch my drift...

and have been saying so for a very long time.

TC