ding dong, the DLC is dead! (DLC to close its doors as early as next week)

[cali]

Democratic Leadership Council will fold

The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.

The DLC, a network of Democratic elected officials and policy intellectuals had long been fading from its mid-'90s political relevance, tarred by the left as a symbol of "triangulation" at a moment when there's little appetite for intra-party warfare on the center-right. The group tried -- but has failed -- to remake itself in the summer of 2009, when its founder, Al From, stepped down as president. Its new leader, former Clinton aide Bruce Reed, sought to remake the group as a think tank, and the DLC split from its associated think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute.

But Reed left the DLC last year himself to serve as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff, leaving Ed Gresser, a trade expert, to lead the group in the interim. Since then the board "hasn't been able to find someone who wanted to come on in a permanent capacity," a person familiar with the group's woes said, with the central problem the difficulty of raising money for a Democratic group that isn't seen as an ally of the White House.

Gresser declined to comment on the DLC's future, and referred a call to From, who didn't immediately respond to a message left with an assistant.


<snip>

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0211/Democratic_Leadership_Council_will_fold.html

[WhiteTara]

1. does this mean they have been completely

assimilated into the DNC?

[yurbud]

37. yes.

[chimpymustgo]

40. They've taken over. Everything with a D.

[annabanana]

2. I'm sure that the usual suspects opened up shop under a new name

just down the street.

[gratuitous]

7. It's called Third Way

The DLC has served its purpose; on to something else to continue the masquerade.

[stevenleser]

3. While this will be temporarily disturbing to those here who use them as a bogeyman...

I am sure they will rebound from this and find some other umbrella term with which to inaccurately label those with whom they disagree on any given topic.

[bluestate10]

21. Who will the Left pick on now?

You sound like a centrist. I am a centrist. Watch your ass. I have ordered a supply of steel drawers to protect my delicate regions. Nothing more painful to me than a knee in the groin from my left leaning siblings. To my friends on the Left. Are we fighting the wrong fights with each other? You won't change me, I won't change you. But we agree on 90% of policy issues. Why wage war with democratic leaning groups over the 10%? Time to end this. Looks like we have a milestone special election that could be coming up in California. We have preparation for the enormous battle that will be the election of 2012. We have much on our plates. Lets focus on winning the battles where we agree, then settle issues with each other once we have destroyed the twin scourges of republicanism and teabaggerism.

[stevenleser]

25. I'm a pragmatic progressive, actually.

The interesting thing is that the desired end state of policies in this country is probably the same with most of the people I argue with here. The difference is in how much I think we can move in that direction in any year or congressional session or presidential term.

[bluestate10]

28. We share the same view.

I have no argument with where the Left wants to go, I know that what they call for is mostly nobel. But I disagree on how to get their and what the impact of moderate policy initiatives are. The Left hates that Health Care reform did not have the public option, even as a policy change that seem impossible was enacted. I look at Health Care Reform as a starting point, once elements of that reform continue to prove themselves as not only inspired policy, but policy society sorely needed, the nation will be ready to move more strongly in the direction that the Left wants it to move in.

[FLAprogressive]

Their shitstain of a legacy will continue to live on for many, many years.

[Lucian]

4. Are they finally going to call themselves Republicans?

Because that's what they were.

[bluestate10]

24. They are not republicans.

Like it or not, the majority of the democratic party is in the general vicinity of the DLC. Why is it that Bill Clinton is the most popular democrat by far? Please wake up. The DLC and moderate democrats agree with you on most of what you believe in, they just disagree with you on tone and approach. Continue to insist that moderate democrats and the DLC are republicans they ARE NOT, what will happen is that you will get flesh and blood republicans along with the national stench that comes with them.

[Marr]

33. No, they don't.

DLC Democrats are essentially Republicans on economic and foreign policy issues. Their liberal positions are, for the most part, limited to a collection of a social wedge issues.

Answer me this-- if DLC policies are so popular with Democrats, why didn't Obama campaign on them?

[Lucian]

46. I agree with nothing of the DLC.

The DLC is way too conservative for me.

[Mojorabbit]

47. They are the republicans of my youth.

The republican party I grew up with was nothing like what we have seen since Regan.

[TBF]

41. Who knows - ask their leader in chief. nt

[leveymg]

5. After staffing the upper echelons of the Admin, not enough left to keep the place open. Alas.

We barely knew ye.

[bobbolink]

18. You got that right. Successful assimilation.

:(

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Amazing it's such a boogeyman still on DU

Just search for how much it's still mentioned as a dangerous force.

[stevenleser]

12. There are a lot of people too lazy to debate and thus use demagoguery in debate like labeling

someone as "DLC".

[bluestate10]

26. Or.

Corporatist. Or pseudo republican, or Uncaring. On education and health care, I am disappointed when someone to the left of me politically (and only that) call me unworthy as a democrat. The DLC came about at a time when the democratic party faced extinction and pulled the party back to political relevance. The DLC served an important function for the party, just as moderate democrats now form the bulwark of the party's strength. To ignore those realities is wrongheaded. Maybe the left wants a small, politically insignificant democrat party that protest a lot, but gets absolute NOTHING done in terms of public policy. For a nation that must go where our nation has to go, insuring the election of republicans by ostracizing moderate democrats will only hasten the demise of the nation, not take it toward a brighter day.

[Marr]

36. The term has meaning. It's typically used as a synonym for 'neoliberal'.

It does mean something.

[blindpig]

8. Well, their job is done.

Think about it.

[RKP5637]

10. Good point! n/t

[leftstreet]

15. +1

No longer a fringe element within the party

[dbt]

9. Their work is done.

Republican and Republican Lite. Your choice of flavors.

[HughBeaumont]

44. More like "Republican", "Batshit Insane Theocrat" and "Symbolic but Wasted Vote"

THOSE are my choices in 21st Century 'Murka.

[Lisa0825]

11. Good riddance.

[Blue Owl]

13. Ta-Ta, Traitors

Hard to fathom just how much the anti-progressive DLC sucked.

[girl gone mad]

14. Too bad their constantly failing policy prescriptions won't die.

[SoCalDem]

16. Good Riddance It was just RNC-Lite anyway

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Joe LIEberman will be needing a new job.

He's perfect!

[DCKit]

19. AIPAC + DLC = LAIDPACC - like a retirement community, but far more dangerous. nt

[LynneSin]

20. Line forms to the left for DUers who need a tissue to wipe away their tears of sadness....

<<< listens to the crickets chirp >>>

In general I think there was some good to the DLC but too many times they did sell out to the right. Enough times to piss me the hell off!

[eShirl]

22. "It's a trick." n/t

[sufrommich]

23. Wait. I thought they were taking over the world. nt

[bluestate10]

27. In the imaginations of some, they are. And still will be even if the organization folds.

Such are the elements of dreams that are not grounded in reality.

[PassingFair]

45. No, just the party.

We will LOSE in 2012 with them unmasked and at the helm.

Oh well.

[Better Believe It]

29. They seem to be running the Democratic Party and government. Mission accomplished!

So what purpose would they serve?

[TBF]

42. It was a process to take over the party and they've succeeded. nt

[Jkid]

30. The damage has already been done.

The DLC was merely Democrats in name. They were not real liberal democrats, not by a long shot.

[progressoid]

31. Not dead,

They're working in the White House.

[bigwillq]

34. ....

:thumbsup:

[struggle4progress]

32. This merely means the usual suspects will operate front-groups with new names

[Capitalocracy]

35. What, you mean all that capitulation didn't lead to corporate funding?

Oops.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. Why shouldn't the ConservaDems close up their organization?

They now control the White House and the Senate and evidently have veto power over any left-of-center ideas.

[ReggieVeggie]

39. [phone]

my sentiments exactly...the Democrats have moved so far to the right that the DLC just isn't necessary any longer

[disillusioned73]

43. Mission Accomplished

:dem: - Why do you think they so openly bash the left?? The kabuki is no longer necessary...