The DLC is irrelvant YES or NO?

[Perky]

Poll question: The DLC is irrelvant YES or NO?

[BlooInBloo]

1. Not irrelevant yet, unfortunately.

[Buzz Clik]

2. The DLC is critical to give some DUers something to fume about. Hardly irrelevant.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Their big shoes aren't irrelevant when they "clear the field" and squash open primaries. n/t

[Perky]

5. examples?

[AtomicKitten]

7. Currently Specter and Gillibrand.

With President Obama's blessing, apparently.

[Perky]

8. I am not sure the DLC is involved in either of those cases.

Is Schumer in the DLC? He is head of DSCC and has been pushing to protect Gillbrand from facing a primary opponent tp save her money for the General Election.

In specter's case it was the prics paid for switiching parties. The etablishment would get behind him against any primary oppponent. That has nothing to do wiuth the DLC.

[AtomicKitten]

9. DLC, Blue Dogs, whatever. IMO virtually little difference.

They are the conservative strong-arm part of the party. Whatever their rationale, I find any faction of the party interfering in primaries abhorrent. Open primaries are the essence of democracy where anyone can and should be able to run.

[Perky]

10. Well that is fine but Shumer is certainly not a DLCer.

[AtomicKitten]

11. In the words of George Harrison, it's all part of the soup.

Gillibrand was a member of the House Blue Dog Coalition (Blue Dog Democrat Named to Clinton Seat: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/401083) and Schumer is running interference for her big time:

Schumer Tries to Block Primary for Gillibrand

The New York Times says Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is working hard to avoid a primary for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) next year. In the process, he is "surprising and angering her rivals in the party."

Said Schumer at a recent fundraisier: "There is not going to be a primary!"

"Longtime advisers to Mr. Schumer said that he likes the fact that Ms. Gillibrand is open to his guidance and is deferential... In addition, Mr. Schumer -- who close associates say harbors ambitions to someday be the Senate majority leader -- has elevated his profile by helping his party pull off a string of Senate victories, and he feels personally responsible for blocking Republicans from capturing a seat in his state."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/08/schumer_tries_to_block_primary_for_gillibrand.html

[wyldwolf]

15. Obama's the one doing that... do you consider him part of "the soup?"

[AtomicKitten]

16. already answered

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8488596&mesg_id=8488628

[wyldwolf]

17. so you do consider him part of the soup

[dbonds]

4. DLC is a small but very vocal force.

They are not representative of the populace or dem's in general and should both be purged and made irrelevant. They are basically old type of republicans trying to hijack the democratic party.

[Forkboy]

6. I wish.

[wyldwolf]

12. Nope, and in many ways more relevant than ever

With their lightening rod, Al From, gone, opponents of the DLC will have to address their policy positions instead of demonizing their leader - policy positions that have been adopted in large part by President Obama.

"I cannot tell you how important the DLC is to what we do at the White House...The DLC is fundamental to what's going on in the Democratic Party, thinking through issues, helping to come up with creative solutions to very knotty, difficult policy choices." Rahm Emanuel, June 17.

"It was Bill Clinton that recognized the categories of conservative and liberal played to Republican advantage and were inadequate to address our problems. Clinton's third way... tapped into the pragmatic, nonideological attitude of Americans." - Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

“I am a New Democrat.” Barack Obama to the New Democrat Coalition.

* 2006: Over half the newly elected Representatives joined the House New Democrat Coalition

* 2008: 13 more newly elected Representative joined the House New Democrat Coalition - giving them their biggest presence in the House since 1996.

* DLC leaders now surround Obama, including White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, top economic adviser Lawrence Summers, CIA chief Leon Panetta as well as others, like health secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

* DNC Chairman Howard Dean was replaced by DLC member Tim Kaine. Read: A DLC member now heads up the DNC.

Bruce Dixon, writer for the Black Commentator and heralded across the Netroots for goading Obama into having his name removed from the DLC's website in 2003, now admits, "...as candidate for the Democratic nomination to the US Senate in 2003, Obama urgently needed to lock down the progressive, black and antiwar vote in his home state of Illinois, and was compelled to renounce the Democratic Leadership Council. That was then. This is now."

What "progressives" did was concentrate on three little letters - DLC - as though the organization had a membership card. But the DLC is and always has been about policy. Many on the left didn't pay attention to the policy positions Obama wrote and spoke about during the campaign.

This led one DailyKOS writer to ask "Did The DLC Win After All?" And it's led David Paul Kuhn to answer, it appears so.

[denem]

13. The difference is, I think, the DLC is now in the position to play offense.

Rather than navigating a third way between ideologues, the 'radical center' is in the process of cornering them.

[wyldwolf]

14. could very well be the case - with Barack Obama

... we have President obviously sympathetic the third way, a heavy DLC presence in the Congress, and the Democrats control congress - set up Bill Clinton never had.

[Geek_Girl]

18. Unfortunately they are not irrelevant

with Republicans pretty much in disarray, the DLC is more relevant now than ever. They are now what blocks solid progressive policies and the only powerful alley left for corporate America.