Group just formed to shut Kerry's voice down right when he'll be leading net neutrality issue

in the Senate next month. Does anyone truly believe this is a Democratic group who just COINCIDENTALLY wants Kerry to stop speaking as a Democratic leader and to shut up and go away?

This Center for New Democratic leadership is either a GOP frontgroup like wintersoldier was in 2002 (turned out to be swiftliar front) who want Kerry ignored on net neutrality and big media issues, or they are fronting for the coverup, pro big business wing of the Democratic party.


Of course, all the coincidence theorists are welcome to their views, I just don't believe in coincidence when it comes to BushInc and I haven't for at least 15yrs now.

They'll do all they can to shut down any good Dem who will speak truth. Especially someone with the stature of Sen. Kerry.

Julie

they don't want him speaking as a Democratic figure.

Very odd - especially knowing the National Cable and Telecommunications Association has already started a heavy push against net neutrality on the airwaves.

I think this could be a part of their campaign.

google turns up nothing.

I really don't want to advertise it but they are calling it goawayjohnkerry. It's odd that they go as far as telling him he needs to shut up completely and not speak at all for Democrats.

This type of targetting never occurred against any other Democrat that I've ever been aware of - - hmmmmm...... maybe this is a Joe Lieberman front group - we heard he was planning revenge on Kerry for speaking against him during the Lamont race.

Ira Glass is an idiot.

the person I'm corresponding with says as much.

are talking about?

....never heard of them?

and it so far seems tp be a very professional hitjob - goawayJohnKerry - much like heyjohn was.

They seem to have their site prepared for heavy press inquiries.

They name do not ring a bell.

everywhere and feeding the fake Lefty Grassroots support for him.

entirely staffed by elected Democrats. I was just reading about them earlier today. They basically shill for mega-corporations. They can't be trusted.

I have found nothing about them. Thanks.

I think you will find it. It was on his website. I don't have a link, but it was, I think, his latest entry.

and it turned up this:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-14,GGLJ:en&q=The+Center+for+New+Democratic+Leadership


DLC, should we be surprised? The corporate wing of the democratic party trying to stop the democratic wing of the democratic party once again?

However, as they do not say who they are anymore than other attack sites against Kerry, all bets are open on who they are. Who cares? Any effort to silence somebody is not democratic and should be rejected by all democratic leaders if they are asked about it.

These two individuals have the right to their own opinion and if it is all there are, fine for them . They have the right for free speech, just as Kerry does.

If this is a more organized effort it should be blamed by the Democratic leaders. The democratic party does not need more infighting, particularly if those who are behind do not have the courage to say who they are.

All Democratic politician shoud remember, if somebody else is attacked this way, they may be the next one.

,

lies are something else. That's the platform the swiftboaters were given. Fair and balanced does not mean truth vs lie as they did to Kerry. I would back Kerry again if he were to win the primaries though he wouldn't be my first choice but he is one hell of a Senator. Wish he were mine! GOP or Dem they are in for a fight if they try to keep him from leading in the Senate.

and a buggered email address for tech and admin support.

I'm sorry, if this was on the up and up WHY post a bad email address in the domain registry? The admin is listed as Scott Pope.

They are Corporate Republicans who are infiltrating the Democratic party.

He ran an incompetent campaign and let the right walk all over him with their air headed attacks. Of course he would have won without right wing shenanigans but he still ran an incompetent campaign.

Kerry is chairing the Senate committee that deals with the net neutrality issue.

Gore and Kerry were ill-served by a DNC who failed to do their job in red and swing states and never secured the election process or countered the vote suppression and vote stealing tactics of the RNC at the county levels where the votes get counted.

Did Bush run a competent campaign or did the RNC steal it for him and drag him back into office - again?

You are however, entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it may be.

they want him out of the national spotlight in general. I suppose that means not going on the talk shows, or campaigning for Dems, or what have you. That's not cool.

and I'd much prefer he'd continue to do the excellent job he has done. Who's your senator?

is not true. You know what that means. Kerry is head and shoulders over anyone running for president at this time. He is honest, decent, intelligent and doesn't have corruption in his past. I just get sick and tired of the same old bull going around over and over again. He lost because the votes were flipped. Then you got bush. Now lets not lose site of the prize. We need a man of integrity not some myth in the future.

I'm damn glad he doing it. And these lying freaks who started these smears to shut Kerry up are gonna choke on the blowback.

and this doesn't have to be a big ol' back room consiracy either.

think about it -- these are all folk who know each -- and fairly well -- and if not directly then -- their kids know each and so on and so forth.

there's probably an amazing amount of consensus over corporate ''leadership'' in our country that crosses political lines -- it certainly did in the clinton administration -- a golf game -- meeting at a wedding -- on the ski slope -- and bingo you have an attack group.

and by the way -- remember during the clinton years legislation was passed to bring the public fiber optic -- super fast broad band computer service.

it was a payoff for other services rendered -- where is that? and where is the congressional outrage for getting fucked?

japan has this, as does korea -- but we don't.

There was another president that tried to influence the media and the message. It was Clinton. Now, Bush has taken it to an extreme, but with the DLC ties and connections, it does make me wonder.

Your post confuses me about what the actual purpose of this group is supposed to be, and whether or not the only thing they are speaking up about is how they don't like John Kerry being a Democratic spolesperson on anything.

First off, no United States Senator should have his or her voice shut down, not in a Democracy where he or she was elected by his or her constituents to represent them on national issues. Second, I like John Kerry being in the Senate, I am glad he is there speaking out on issues, and I agree with him on issues far more times than not. I agree with him on net neutrality. Third, it is stupid to worry about what Democrat says what on anything in terms of our party's "image". There are many voices in oour Party and the next national election is not until 2008.

Between now and then different Dems will be competing with each other, and contrasting their views with each other's, to win the Presidential nomination. If Kerry runs and gathers great support, then his voice will become a dominant one in our party. If he does poorly it will not. If Kerry doesn't run, other voices will emerge that more people will be listening to more of the time than John Kerry's. This will all work itself out naturally. I now want to know more about the Center for New Democratic Leadership however.

same arguments concerning his speech pattern. (website is goawayjohnkerry.com, so you could not be more clear about their intentions, I imagine).

The two people who signed the petition are certainly entitled to their own opinion, but strangely, they claim to be a democratic group which, once again, does not tell us who is behind and how they are financed.

I agree with blm that it seems to be another effort to get Kerry out of the 08 race, but the problem is that I do not see the need for us to give them any publicity and I do not think they will matter any way, because Kerry does not care about people like that. He will go if he thinks he has something to offer (just as Clark will).

and the timing tells me it is all about January 2007 when Kerry takes leadership of net neutrality issue.

The site is way too professionally set up and way too focused on accomodating press.

It may be aimed at 08, or it may be something else.

Anyway, it does not change the issue: they are trying to suppress his right to free speech, and this is not acceptable.

This type of website is not difficult to make for anybody with any reasonnable knowledge of the blogosphere, so I am not sure who is behind (a small group of individuals or something more organized) and I am not sure it matters.

none of the refutations received 5% of the airtime the original attack did.

The funny thing is they are targetting someone who they CLAIM is so incompetent that he is not a threat to anyone, so why would anyone be so concerned in shutting his voice down alone, unless they WERE way more fearful of him than anyone else?

Let's face it - the DC establishment, bot GOP and Dem, know that Kerry received 60-65 million votes in 2004, and they have spent every day since then exaggerating the negatives of the campaign (as if Bush had none to speak of), while minimizing all the positives which far outweighed the negatives that ANY Dem campaign would have.

to not just discourage him on 2008 but SPECIFICALLY tell him they are demanding he shut up and not speak again in any official way as a Democrat.

We saw this during 2002 and wintersoldier where it was set up to look like nam vets attacking Kerry from the left, but it was eventually traced back to swifts in Texas.

anyway, the site is calling itself goawayjohnkerry. I just wonder how many Democrats and Dem forums and how many Dem pundits are going to join the call - completely unaware that Kerry is the lead voice on net neutrality in January?

step away from the national spotlight. As one of our top senators, he can't do that. They want him to shut up and just go quietly about his work as Senator. But then that's part of his job, isn't it.

Here's their website: http://www.goawayjohnkerry.com/

I just don't like the way they pretend to speak for their whole generation. In their open letter, they keep saying we, as if they spoke for the American people. That's horribly arrogant and offensive of them. Speak for yourselves. What is that fallacy called? Ad Populum? The bandwagon effect?

I won't give them the satisfaction of going to their web site. A nameless group of people calling themselves the Center for New Democratic Leadership is also pretty arrogant and offensive.

At the bottom they mention too many MSM responses. It is more like a prank from repub high school or college kids.

That was a telltale.

they probably meant they were passing it around and laughing at the Kerry bot.

Actually, I thought the debates were his shining moment during the campaign. He worked like a dog to make sure his answers for the first one especially would be short and to the point. He made sure he could stay within the time limit. So that's horseshit.

Sadly, these could still be Dems, or progressives. Some here have shown that they feel about the same about Kerry. Could be the staffers of a different Dem. Could be freepers. They try to make themselves sound official, then come out with infantile crap.

... a bunch of College Republicans, jumping up and down like chimps on a hot floor waving "Vote Thune" signs at street corners. Yep, seen them do it myself over two years ago.

...that was formed for the purpose of shutting any politician up. There have been groups that were set up to oppose a politician, sure, but never explicitly to shut them up. Not even to shut Zell Miller up. Not even to shut Lieberman up!

I think they are a Republican front group, probably not a Corporate-Democratic one.

I ever heard about and they don't berloing in my Democratic Party.

:rofl:
I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh at other peoples typos, but that one just cracks me up for some reason. Berloing!

Which any pol would ignore.

What makes you think they are more organized than just "Gee kids lets put up a website?"

Ahm, everybody in public life has advocates and detractors. That is just a fact of life for pols. Why is this one a threat, where is the connection to net neutrality and why the alarm?

BTW, on EDIT, their rationale is stupid. They don't want Kerry to do anything cuz they are post-baby boomers. Ahm, duh!

Why shut down the Dem voice about to take on net neutrality issue in January? Love ya Tay, but I never believe in mere coincidence. I also knew wintersoldier was a front group in 2002, as well - as their supposed leftiness never rang true to me. And I turned out to be right on that one, too.

but what are the links and what are you basing the alert on?

I opened up the site. They do't want John Kerry to run. Well, a lot of people don't. (Ahm, so what. If kerry listened to everyone over the years who said, don't do this, he wouldn't have investigated Iran-Contra, BCCI, gone on the POW/MIA panel and so forth. )

Why is this site raising the alert and what about it make you think it's a front group for 'The Powers That Be' particularly in telecom? I am not seeing the linkage.

and they have to know that Kerry is going to be the leading Dem on the issue.

If it was only about 2008 it would be one thing, but adding that he needs to shut up and go away and not speak as a Democratic voice on anything is way beyond election maneuvering.

The other possibility is that this is part of Lieberman revenge we knew to expect.

The biggest one against it in the last Congress was the Chairman, Ted Stevens. He pitched a hissy fit because his buddies wanted that sweet money that might come from having different levels of net access.

Ed Markey of MA is also point on net neutrality because he will chair the House sub-comm Telecommunications. He is very influential and can refuse to let this issue out of his committee.

As far as issues go, January is Iraq month. The Foreign Relations Committee will have the following Dems on it:

Foreign Relations

CHAIR: Biden
Dodd
Kerry
Feingold
Boxer
Nelson (Fl)
Obama
Menendez
Cardin
Casey
Webb

Ahm, I would think that if anyone is 'out to silence' someone's voice, it would be in those SFRC committee hearings where differences among Democrats will stand out. In that committee, Kerry, Feingold, Menendez and Boxer voted for the Kerry/Feingold withrawal amendment in June. It seems more likely to me that any pre-emptive 'go away' action would be to discourage a strong stand on Iraq that is different from more moderate Dems.

I'm not saying that it's not possible for the telecom stuff, just less likely. Who would front this? The Bells? That merger will go through, so there is no immediate on that.

Who gains and on what with something like what you are suggesting?

You're right about Iraq, Tay, but there are also groups who have a vested interest in the immediate shutting down of and shutting up anything and anyone who favors net neutrality.

They'll come after us every which way and we'll have to keep on our toes. There is an excessive amount of big-money people out there whose sole job is to keep our side from accomplishing anything that would benefit our nation as a whole. There will be groups, wedge issues and swift-boating coming out of the woodwork to keep us from investigating all the issues & people; from protecting (restoring) our Constitution; from doing good for Americans and their families; and so much more.

I'm with blm, the timing is too coincidental.

We're going to very busy riding shotgun to assure our Congress can do their job. We may not have the money, but we have each other to observe, listen, keep tabs on, report in and analyze the lies, deception and thievery - one very good reason to protect the net, and protect our voices!

:)

We have seen it in the past and we know that there are elements in both parties that don't want to rock the boat with the telecom interests. (That money is sweet. opensecrets.org has a noice chart that shows what money from what special interests goes to Congressional committees. Commerce gets a fair share from telecom. You can even see at that web site who gets the money, by special interest and by individual Senator on that committee. )

Kerry will be pretty busy with Iraq in Jan/Feb. He called it his #1 priority in the new Congress. That pork-laden Telecomm bill has to go back to committee now that Congress has changed hands. I defintely think it merits watching, but I think the Iraq stuff, with all the contracting problems is more likely.

There is also a possbility of oversight hearings on contracting for Katrina reconstruction that could involve the Small Business Committee. There was some really shady stuff that went on and Small Business is involved because of sham contracting that was supposed to go to genuine small businesses but wound up going to Big Companies. Maybe that too. It's a little under the radar, but you never know.

believe that net neutrality has nothing to do with it. The issue has been flying under the radar and that is exactly the time that the opponents will set their attacks in motion.

Once it became apparent that Dems would take the Senate, the tactics had to become more aggressive, and the piling on against Kerry was so far out of proportion to the flub that it raises eyebrows of those concerned with the specific issues he tends to lead.

to shut Kerry down 'for the good of ...'

Trial balloon.

Not even worth my time. If this little group represents the "New Democratic Generation", we are all in trouble. I may have to leave the country when they become of voting age.

not take them too seriously. Looked at the site and was unimpressed. Just a few pages... not a lot of money went into this site or imagination. Their argument was vapid to say the least. I say ignoring them is the best solution.

Is there an article on this?

Is there an article on this?

Hello,

I am just dropping you a note to inform you that you do not speak for me and I resent the wording of the letter on your front page implying that you do.

Speak for yourselves, and only yourselves. Do NOT speak for me, please.

He has a perfect right to run for president again if he so chooses. And if that next generation doesn't want him, they will let him know. They do not need you to presume to speak for them.

Furthermore, if he runs again, which is not a done deal by any means, he will have my support and my vote.

Thank you for your time.

Erica
Gen Xer

Here's their address if you want to drop them a line as well.
info@goawayjohnkerry.com

The thing that gets my goat is that they're speaking as if the speak for a generation of people. That's awfully presumptuous.

They just don't want him to run for Prez. Fine. Put up a website for that purpose if you like. But don't presume to speak for more than yourselves, damn it, because you sure don't speak for me.

I thought the whole notion of the site is pretty pathetic. Then again, who really cares...I'm sure they don't get a couple things...that Kerry did win if you consider the Ohio story and how anyone running for President will be under the same intense scrutiny that Kerry has been under.

John Kerry is not going away anytime soon...not if I can help it. And, as you mentioned, they certainly don't have the presumptive appointment to be a voice for their generation...

Funny how they've emphasized that word. Eh, at least they're responsive.

"Thank you for sending your (civil) comments regarding "goawayJohnKerry.com" to CNDG. Many of our staff are former supporters and even contributors to Senator Kerry. We are providing a forum for those who believe Senator Kerry can best forward the Democratic agenda by focusing his efforts on his duties as a Senator from Massachusetts, not by inserting himself in the national spotlight.

Your comments are appreciated, as they will be used to gauge whether our campaign has positive momentum or negative momentum. If the latter is the case, we will end the campaign. It is not our intent to create undue dissension within the Party, but enable productive discourse regarding the means by which we can best move the Party forward."

I, for one, am suspect about the origins of this bunch.

Those tax-exempt Heritage Foundation interns like to believe they are a clever lot but they aren't nearly as sharp as they think they are.

The case of the mediocre Democratic Party: Pretty silly!

.

"Thank you for your reply.

It is my opinion, though, that part of his job as
Senator, and as committee chairman, will include being
in the public eye.

If he announces that he's not running for president,
but he does continue to make appearances, will that be
enough of a "go away" for you?

Running for president or not, he does get invited to
speak and appear. And he did help us to win in 2006
with his fundraising and appearances (the last one
notwithstanding.)

Personally, I'll still support him even if all he does
is run for dog catcher. But then, I'm a stubborn
German, and I know a man when I see one.

At the least, if he decides not to run, I will be
pushing his name for Attorney General, or Secretary of
State.

Thanks again for your time. If you're getting a few
emails right now (civil or not), it may be because a
link to your site is in a thread on Democratic
Underground. That's where I learned of you. There is a
fairly strong Kerry group on that forum. I believe
your site has made them ... grumpy.

Cheers,
Erica"

(sigh, that was supposed to be "a GOOD man" not "a man". I'd hope I'd know a man if I saw one. The stem on the apple is a dead giveaway. But they seem to have known what I meant. I feel like a shmuck, nonetheless.)

and the answer was:

"You make very fair points, ones that we've considered. We haven't launched this very far or wide as of yet. Mainly message testing (a few Dem blogs, friends of CNDG staff) to see if it is constructive or not. We may end up making the open letter less acerbic or deciding the effort is not constructive at all. We'll see over the next few weeks.

Our main issue is that Senator Kerry sets back the Dem agenda by trying to be its senior spokesperson. And he is trying to be its senior spokesperson because of his presidential aspirations. So if he decides not to seek the nomination, that will resolve the issue.

He is a great man. Every person in our organization voted for him and volunteered for him in 2004. But in our opinion (and it is that, just an opinion) he can do his best work by sticking to issues associated with his role as a Senator, not by trying to lead the Party.

And again, thank you for this constructive criticism. I have already forwarded it around to CNDG staff."

Evidently, not. In this excerpt below, they seem to dispense with just about every Dem who might be running.

http://www.goawayjohnkerry.com/about_cndg.htm

Well, as you can probably tell from our open letter, we have a serious name but we are not particularly formal. In fact we think the stodgy, patrician manner in which leaders like John Kerry speak is part of what alienates formerly core constituencies, like the South and the working class, from the Democratic Party. And it’s truly a shame, because our Party has their interests at heart and in our agenda. But leaders in our Party have difficulty speaking with a conviction and in a vernacular that appeal to anyone beyond urban liberals. John Edwards and Barack Obama probably communicate better than anyone in the Party right now. Too bad neither has a deep political resume. Joe Biden is also not bad. Al Gore? Let him speak on topics he's passionate about and he does a decent job. Hillary Clinton? As much as we like her, she doesn't stand a chance in the general election. Let’s not do that to ourselves. Bill Richardson? Well, he just can’t speak at all. Joe Lieberman? Don’t get us started.

They don't think she can win in 2008. They seem to like Obama and Edwards somewhat, think Gore is okay on the right subject, and Biden is okay as well. I disagree with them on Biden.

At that link you provided, they talk in general terms about what they'd like to do. So great, have a website address like www.cndg.com. Even after they're done with their Kerry project, surely they don't want to be stuck with www.goawayjohnkerry.com for the rest of their existance.

Unless of course they are indeed a front organization. Or if they have more than one url pointing to their site.

Clearly the target of their attack is John Kerry - adding that paragraph is just a CYA so they can claim that they aren't just hacks for some other potential 08 candidate. I mean, maybe they aren't, but that paragraph makes me more suspicious of the possibility.

Who or what is CNDG?

-Hoot

a tad pretentious

Could it be Pearle and Feith? Sounds like Plan for a New American Century.

-Hoot

take them seriously? I have no doubts that this is just another variant of the swiftboat/RNC/corporate interest at work. Gee, in the last 2 days, we've had Hillary and Kerry petitions asking them to not run or step away from the spotlight. If this keeps up, we'll be left with no one to lead on the issues. Guess I won't be paying these too much attention to these idiots.

I am curious to know more about this group and the authors of it.

say that who wanted to be taken seriously.

"P.S. Oh yeah, we also want our money back from the 2004 election. We worked really hard for it and you squandered it. It’s not losing that kills us as much as never having thrown a punch. You laid down on the tracks and let the Republican train roll right over you. The consequences will reverberate for generations. Now, we want our money back. If you don’t have it, sell more ketchup."

Sell more ketchup?!

Freeper alert! Freeper alert!

Fuckers.

And referred to it in my email. Needless to say I wasn't as generous as you.

They're either obvious-as-hell RW "psyops" or hacks for some other 08 candidate. If they wanted to be taken seriously, they wouldn't have added that obnoxious p.s. Fuck them.

And now I'm REALLY grumpy.

between net neutrality and the site you reference. Not even an anorexic connection, but I suspect that is not the point of the OP. Whatever.

in coincidence and the NCTA has started saturating the airwaves with vicious ads against net neutrality. To go as far as this site is going, and to SPECIFICALLY demand Kerry to not speak as a Democratic voice, this is way beyond just a 2008 thing - if they believed Kerry was such a flop for real, they would also believe there was NO NEED to put up a site. And since Kerry will be leading on net neutrality issue in January, then I submit that this could very possibly be a hit to neutralize his impact, just as the media has been doing on every crucial issue he has led on.

I wouldn't sign a dumbass petition to tell Hillary not to run as I don't think ANYONE should be discouraged from running AT ALL, but it's interesting what some of you will tolerate out of pure loathing for the anti-corruption wing of the Democratic party.

And you can claim NOTHING is ever connected and that big media wouldn't pull a stunt like this, but as a long time tracker of Bush-related coincidences, I don't believe in coincidences.

as opposed to being dismissed out of hand.

I made no such claim:



And you can believe whatever you want, but there is no evidence that either of these issues - net neutrality and the website you reference - are at all connected.

The fact that you are livid about both I think is the coincidence.

Whatever. I only responded because of your hysterical accusation that I said something I did not say, not even remotely.

come on folks vote it up... Net Neutrality is important and the "DO-NOTHING CONGRESS" did plenty to screw up the internet with that dead of night communications bill they passed.

Thanks !

I wouldn't post a negative link about my favorite candidate either, for fear most of the people on DU would agree with what that group was telling Kerry in their open letter to him.

it's about stopping whatever he hopes to accomplish in the Senate and anywhere else. especially since he has said he will focus on the Senate.

Did they say that or something? Did ANYONE else say that? If so, got a link? Or is this just a theory of yours?

other than the fact that the whole point of the site is to ask Kerry to shut the fuck up.

that they want Kerry to NOT SPEAK OUT as a Democratic voice in any official way.

Pretty darn odd demand, isn't it?

- PLEASE go to the website and look at the petition. Then look at how many people have signed it. 4. FOUR people have signed the petition.

FOUR isn't a group and it isn't a conspiracy and it isn't Swifties or Bush Inc. It's one guy with who has put up a website and an internet petition to yank everyone's chain. Looks like he did a great job of it.

And this is just a similar tactic to wintersoldoier, who started more quietly on the web in 2002 while fronting for the swifts as a lefty group.

What's odd is that anyone would think this is just a benign move. The history of these type of groups would show otherwise.

it's a pretty pathetic one. or maybe the cover up is just extremely effective. :evilgrin:

It was set up quietly till it caught hold and many thought it was a left site.

and the swift boat people were (a) truly evil, and (b) well financed.

this is a bullshit little petition.

the kerryites have plenty of things to be worried about, but this is
NOT one of them.

Read the Hunting of the President. Right after Bush1 took office in Jan 1989, his operatives were out trying to set up traps for those Dems they perceived would be running in 1992.

and a waste of bandwidth. the only people who could take this site seriously are the freepers which i believe is who is behind this website.

remember people-kerry did win the election

money into them. These stooges bear watching at the least.

The "sell more ketchup" pretty much gave away that it's a bunch of ignorant freepers. Redundant, I know.

Where's the connection? All in your head I think.