Sirota:The Louder The DLC Cries, The Farther They Know They Are Falling

[cal04]

David Sirota
Ed Kilgore and the DLC again meltdown over people calling out the truth about their operation (For those who aren't interested in the ultra-personal attacks the DLC is unleashing on me and just want to look just at the political implications of the DLC's behavior, skip down to the third paragraph). Before I go into what this all means, let me first acknowledge one addendum (though not exactly a correction) to my earlier post - the Washington Post's report that Ed worked for Zell Miller is is 100 percent true, but as the Post did not report and I have since found out, he worked for him way before he went crazy, And though I didn't know how close to the Miller meltdown he worked for him or how close to him he had been in the lead up to the meltdown, I regret not including that fact in my original post. Ed, I do apologize sincerely, and I have made an addendum on the original post.


Now, as for Ed's claim that I supposedly "sought" a job with the DLC (it was in 1998, not 1997) - sure, I went in for an informational interview when I was a senior in college, though for him to claim "I didn't get it" is an eerily similar and dishonest slander to the one peddled by DLCer Joe Lieberman's campaign about me. What actually happened was that immediately after that informational interview I accepted a job with Joe Hoeffel who was running for Congress in the suburban Philadelphia district where I grew up. Joe had lost a very close race against GOP incumbent the election season before, so I had been hoping to get a job on his next campaign (which we won and turned a longtime red district blue), and had applied well before I even talked to the DLC. During the interim between when I applied for the Hoeffel job and when the offer actually came, I also looked around at some other possibilities. And yeah, as a politically inexperienced college student who had previously volunteered in high school on Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, I was naively misled by the DLC's endless labeling of itself as "progressive" and went in for an informational interview. So, sure, I guess I'm guilty on charges of ignorance and inexperience, and I throw myself on the mercy of the court of public opinion where apparently Ed Kilgore wants us to believe the charge of - gasp! - talking to all sorts of different people in politics as a college kid constitutes the capital offense of hypocrisy.

Of course, all of this ultra-personal nastiness coming from Kilgore is a very tired and frankly ineffective distraction technique that insults readers' intelligence. The heart of the matter is that the DLC has been bullying progressives around for years - even, including bullying its own original members like Al Gore when they thought he was straying too far from the corporate line. When this indisputable reality is brought up and factually substantiated, the DLC has no answer. You will notice that Kilgore doesn't factually refute even one thing I wrote in my earlier post, and refuses to even mention the core points about the DLC being funded by corporate cash, and the DLC pushing things like destructive trade pacts and the Iraq War. He doesn't want to talk about that actual substance because he knows he has no response. Instead, he wants to talk about being outraged that I said he lied when he lied, and then go on to make gossipy claims that - oh, what a shocker - some people don't like me, David Sirota, personally.

For instance, he claims that unnamed "bloggers" hold "the same private opinion" of me as the DLC does. Of course, he doesn't say who. But again, that's not the point, and actually, I hope he's right - I hope some of his friends who blog in Washington like former Christian Coalition official Marshall Wittman hold "the same private opinion" of me because I see that as a badge of honor. I make no apologies for exposing the facts, supporting progressives, and going after those who have helped fuel the hostile takeover of our government - and I will put my record of working to support and elect progressives of all stripes up against anyone's.



a lot more
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/13/1721/62941

[IChing]

1. nominated and kicked..n/t

[Cha]

2. dlc sucks corporate

teat. David Sirota Rocks the Blog down!

Does anyone ever wonder why there has to be such a fake organization known as dlc when there are so many problems to solve in the world?

They're not leading, they're not helping..so why don't they just get the fuck outta the way?

[quiet.american]

3. Man, these fightin' words from Sirota are pure poetry --

What really becomes obvious is that in the Washington Beltway, presentation of the actual facts is automatically tarred and feathered as as unacceptably caustic "tone." Present irrefutable facts showing that the Bush administration's WMD justifications for war were deliberate lies and by D.C. standards you are "too strident." Help continue dishonestly justifying the "stay-the-course" policy that has brought death and injury to thousands of American troops and by D.C. standards you are considered "reasonable." Prove that this lawmaker or that organization was marching to orders from its Big Money backers, call that behavior "corrupt," and by D.C. standards you are "too angry." Buy off votes, spread dishonest corporate propaganda, sellout working Americans' economic interests, and by D.C. standards you are a praiseworthy "centrist." Expose the corrupt forces within the Democratic Party that have sent it down to election loss after election loss after election loss, and by the DLC's standards you are someone who needs others to tell you "that there are a few lines in intra-party debate that should not be crossed." Viciously tear apart Democratic icons like Al Gore, Howard Dean and others in national newspapers and television interviews as the DLC made its name doing, and by D.C.'s standards you are supposedly engaging in a "respectful discussion about the Democratic Party's future."

I'm not going to change my tone, because I'm not going to play Washington's rhetorically acrobatic game - a game that more and more Americans know is a scam. As Rolling Stone noted in its recent article, Washington insiders like Ed Kilgore and the DLC get all hot and bothered by passion, outrage and most of all idealism. They are afraid of actual emotion, and the justifiable anger that Americans throughout the heartland feel right now at a government that has sold them out. They are similarly afraid of people who tell the blunt truth. Why? Because insiders in Washington aren't outraged and they don't want the truth out there - they are very comfortably enjoying the status quo. So they throw out superheated red herrings attacking George McGovern, attacking truthtellers, attacking the netroots - and above all else, attacking the very concept that ordinary people should have a say over a political process we are supposed to own. What they want, in short, is for politics to continue on as the exclusive property of the elite, whereby bloodless, money-drenched automatons in Congress obediently carry out the wishes of their corporate puppetmasters.

[Old and In the Way]

4. We could use a 1000 David Sirota's fighting for change.

You are right, his words are pure political poetry. He won't be getting any Christmas cards from the DLC this year...

[quiet.american]

6. I second that emotion. Reminds me I need to get busier, myself.

And I don't think he'll be crying in his beer about the card. :) :) :)

[glitch]

5. He has joined the ranks of the extremely well-written must reads.

Along with Krugman, Conason, Chris Floyd, Naomi Klein, William Greider, George Monbiot. Sidney Blumenthal.

[Raster]

20. Hear, hear! Agreed, Sirota rocks!!!

[KoKo]

7. "Insiders in Washington aren't outraged and don't want the truth out there

He NAILS IT! They are so bought off and sold out the passion is long gone. It's easy to see how one could lose it given the "K-Street" corruption...but "Status Quo" as Sirota says is the deathknell to any reform. That's why we need to clean it out in DC!

Sirota's one of the best writers we Progressives have. He's always clear and to the point. Go Sirota...keep at it!

[bvar22]

8. K&R

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT,
but there is NO ROOM for those who advance the agenda of THE RICH
(Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.


:dem:

[OneBlueSky]

9. DLC = PNAC Lite . . . enablers of the BushCo agenda . . . n/t

.

[donheld]

10. Kick hard and Recommend

Let the DLC die

[cmkramer]

11. Wow

He actually wrote that as if he thought he had any credibility regarding the DLC.

The fact that it was in Dailykos makes it doubly suspect.

[Turn CO Blue]

14. Is that you, Ed Kilgore? LOL!

Which big corporation do you shill for?

[cmkramer]

21. No, but I consider that a compliment!

And David Sirota is still a person with zero credibility about the DLC.

[LWolf]

12. Ironic. One of their favorite comebacks.

My experience reflects this. DLC and DLC shills don't ever have anything of substance to say in opposition. They jeer, <snicker,> and engage in juvenile personal attacks because they don't have substantive facts to support their "savvy spin."

<snip>

But these critics like Kilgore usually have little - if anything - to say on the facts I present, because at the end of the day facts are facts and they are unrefutable. For those who have read some of the reviews of Hostile Takeover by Washington establishment writers, for instance, you will notice the thread running through them is that they endlessly criticize my tone, but have little to say about the actual facts.

The irony is in the toxicity of their own tone as they decry others for being "strident" or having "an unacceptably caustic tone."

[Ian_rd]

15. How's this for a scenario.

Guy hits another guy's car and flees the scene. Victim catches up to him.

"Hey! You nearly totaled my car, you rat bastard!"

"I'm sorry, I can't respect your argument because you have such a caustic tone. And you're so angry. I mean ... angry!"

How correct. It's been a common debate tactic of the right for years - calling liberals "shrill," "hysterical," "whiners," and one of the newer ones, "the angry left," but never actually addressing their comments or arguments with a meaningful response.

Edit: And of course, the DLC sucks. With Democrats like them, who needs Republicans?

[LWolf]

19. Zing:

The DLC sucks. With Democrats like them, who needs Republicans?

I see a new sigline coming.....

[Avalux]

13. Yay - I love David Sirota.

Happened to catch him on CNBC debating Ann Coulter - he was awesome and did get the best of her. He's also easy on the eyes. ;-)

[ronnykmarshall]

16. The sexy,sexy David Sirota!

[Missy Vixen]

17. He's a sexy, sexy wonk!

LOVE those smart guys!

Julie

[Kolesar]

18. The obscure references in the first paragraph made my head spin

so I quit reading

[LWolf]

22. I guess he was talking to you when he said,

"skip down to the 3rd paragraph." I'd go a little further; perhaps the 6th paragraph, and read the rest. Here's a <snip> from the last half:

What really becomes obvious is that in the Washington Beltway, presentation of the actual facts is automatically tarred and feathered as as unacceptably caustic "tone." Present irrefutable facts showing that the Bush administration's WMD justifications for war were deliberate lies and by D.C. standards you are "too strident." Help continue dishonestly justifying the "stay-the-course" policy that has brought death and injury to thousands of American troops and by D.C. standards you are considered "reasonable." Prove that this lawmaker or that organization was marching to orders from its Big Money backers, call that behavior "corrupt," and by D.C. standards you are "too angry." Buy off votes, spread dishonest corporate propaganda, sellout working Americans' economic interests, and by D.C. standards you are a praiseworthy "centrist." Expose the corrupt forces within the Democratic Party that have sent it down to election loss after election loss after election loss, and by the DLC's standards you are someone who needs others to tell you "that there are a few lines in intra-party debate that should not be crossed." Viciously tear apart Democratic icons like Al Gore, Howard Dean and others in national newspapers and television interviews as the DLC made its name doing, and by D.C.'s standards you are supposedly engaging in a "respectful discussion about the Democratic Party's future."

I'm not going to change my tone, because I'm not going to play Washington's rhetorically acrobatic game - a game that more and more Americans know is a scam. As Rolling Stone noted in its recent article, Washington insiders like Ed Kilgore and the DLC get all hot and bothered by passion, outrage and most of all idealism. They are afraid of actual emotion, and the justifiable anger that Americans throughout the heartland feel right now at a government that has sold them out. They are similarly afraid of people who tell the blunt truth. Why? Because insiders in Washington aren't outraged and they don't want the truth out there - they are very comfortably enjoying the status quo. So they throw out superheated red herrings attacking George McGovern, attacking truthtellers, attacking the netroots - and above all else, attacking the very concept that ordinary people should have a say over a political process we are supposed to own. What they want, in short, is for politics to continue on as the exclusive property of the elite, whereby bloodless, money-drenched automatons in Congress obediently carry out the wishes of their corporate puppetmasters.

[Kolesar]

23. thanks

I don't dive too deep into the DLC threads. However, I am sure that DLC consultants lack in passion and conviction. Their policies have nothing that will enable Dem candidates to establish credibility and/or authenticity with the electorate.