Their stated goal is to replace traditional Democratic constituencies of unions, minorities, and progressives, with corporations, banks, and Wall Street.
At one point,
http://www.blackcommentator.com/48/48_cover.html">Obama realized the group was repugnant enough to Democratic voters that he asked the DLC to remove his name from their website and said he was not a member
“I am not currently, nor have I ever been, a member of the DLC,”
said Obama, in a statement that substantially reflects a telephone conversation with Associate Editor Bruce Dixon, this weekend.
“It does appear that, without my knowledge, the DLC…listed me in their ‘New Democrat’ directory,” Obama continued. “Because I agree that such a directory implies membership, I will be calling the DLC to have my name removed, and appreciate your having brought this fact to my attention.”
http://www.blackcommentator.com/48/48_cover.html That has since proved to be disingenuous to put it mildly since with one or two exceptions (one progressive and one republican) his cabinet is composed entirely of DLCers and those the DLC actually works for like Larry Summers and Robert Rubin.
Here's an excerpt from one of the best articles on them, followed by some other links:
The American ProspectHow the DLC Does Itby Robert Dreyfuss
Representative Gregory Meeks, an African-American lawyer and assistant district attorney elected to Congress in 1998 to represent a middle-class black neighborhood in Queens, New York, was undecided last year on the divisive issue of trade rights for China. Lobbyists for big business were battling the AFL-CIO and environmental groups on Capitol Hill for every vote, and Meeks, who'd previously voted against granting fast-track negotiating authority to President Clinton, was a prize.
Sensing an opportunity, Representative Cal Dooley, a moderate California Democrat closely allied with that state's high-tech sector, moved in. As co-chairman of the House New Democrat Coalition, a bloc allied with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), Dooley was targeting fence-sitters to vote aye. Along with fellow New Democrats Harold Ford, Jr., of Tennessee and Bob Matsui of California, Dooley hooked Meeks up with a stream of corporate officials from Silicon Valley and the New York financial district. "My boss made sure there'd be support for Meeks from the business community," says a Dooley aide. "He spread the word, through groups like the Business Roundtable, that here was a guy who deserved their support."
"Congressman Dooley helped bring in businesses who otherwise Congressman Meeks would not have known, and didn't have a relationship with, to knock on his door. As a result, scores of meetings were held with the congressman," says an aide to Meeks, citing sit-downs with the CEOs of American Airlines and New York Life Insurance Company. High-tech executives helped ensure that Meeks would be one of two undecided members to accompany President Clinton on his high-profile trip to China before the vote, the aide said; and Meeks also won significant backing from industry political action committees, which ended up nearly matching labor's donations to Meeks's campaign treasury. Included were $5,000 PAC contributions from American Airlines and New York Life. And in the end, Meeks voted business's way.
The DLC's effort to win Meeks's vote was part of a vigorous campaign by New Democrats to assure legislators that business groups would replace campaign contributions from labor lost by a pro-business China vote. In The New Democrat, the DLC's monthly magazine, Washington's most powerful business lobbyist, Thomas J. Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote that even though some members of Congress risked losing the AFL-CIO's support, "business will stick by Democrats on the China trade vote."
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_the_dlc_does_it http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2973191http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-democrats-2008-choice_b_4729.htmlhttp://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-democrats-2008-choice_b_4729.htmlhttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20050103/sirota
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