DLC Dance

by digby

Harold Ford has never been my favorite Democrat and now that he’s running the DLC I assumed he would set my blood boiling even more than in the past. But I just saw him interviewed by Blitzer and he did not succumb to the temptation to use liberals as his foil — indeed, he argued with Blitzer’s entire premise which was that the party was divided along crazies vs centrist lines. He even interrupted to point out that the DLC had strongly backed “progressive” legislation during the 90’s like family and medical leave.

More importantly, he came out strongly against the escalation, which was my biggest concern. True, he did use Republicans Warner and Hagel as his benchmarks for seriousness, which was annoying, but it was a minor transgression compared to what I expected. (I understand the politics of claiming bipartisanship on the war, but a mention of some Democrats in there would have been helpful.)

Ford is a talented politician. It would be nice to see him use his gifts for good. If he can persuade the DLC that they do not need to reflexively trash their fellow Democrats, even when Wolf Blitzer is tossing them opportunity after opportunity to do so, then perhaps they will not be the pernicious influence on the political discourse that they grew into during the 90’s and the Bush years. Baby steps.

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