Famous Bill Clinton centrism manufacturer the Democratic Leadership Council is said to be “out of money” and will soon close, likely yet another victim of Chinese labor that can sell out core values of the party quicker and cheaper. (They should have never supported that free trade stuff.) Since its president, Bruce Reed, left to go work for Joe Biden on important Joe Biden issues, the once-proud ally of some of the most annoying, gutless politicians, from Joe Lieberman to Neville Chamberlain (probably), has not been able to find a new leader or any money. Apparently the DLC’s job is done, and certain organizations, after seeing themselves bailed out, no longer feel it’s necessary. Both parties are desperate to make bankers like them now.
The DLC is already showing signs of disrepair. Its website currently leads a Harold Ford op-ed from last November, titled, “Yes we can collaborate.” It lists as its staff just four people, and has only one fellow. Recent tax returns weren’t immediately publicly available, but returns from 2004-2008 show a decline in its budget from $2.6 million to $1.5 million, and a source said funding further dried up during the financial crisis that began nine months before Reed took over.
Haha, “we can collaborate.” Did the Nazis take control of this website? Is that why it’s no longer doing anything? Also, you need $1.5 million to do basically nothing but have Harold Ford say something stupid once in a while?
Anyway, we leave you with a look at their Facebook page:
So many fans. And their most recent Twitter things:
Yep, may as well just fold the Democratic Party too. That Evan Bayh sure has some great ideas, huh? [Ben Smith]
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Isn't "Evan Bayh article worth a read" a contradiction in terms?
They must have figured that the Democratic Party has been destroyed and their mission is done.
Yes, they'll land the Democratic Party more like John McCain landed on aircraft carriers, and less like Sully landed on the Hudson.
Ding dong the Republican Lite witch is dead, the wicked witch, the wicked witch!
On the plus side for the DLC, WalMart is hiring.
Evan Bayh can suck my leftist balls.
Pamela Harriman is spinning in her grave.
Spinning. Just as in life, for that blowjob queen.
All the blue dogs got beat in the mid-terms, validating the wisdom that anything in the middle of the road gets run over.
America am funny.
It am like circus with all clowns, no lions
They had a lion once, but it was too difficult getting it into the clown suit.
And then it mauled everyone in the clown car/DLC.
You mean instead of an African Lion…
Its website currently leads a Harold Ford op-ed from last November, titled, “Yes we can collaborate.”
Good way to go out; capitulating. Harold Ford Jr. is a Scarborough "Democrat". By that I mean he's a conterist conservative. Good fucking riddance.
A Scarborough Democrat is very much like a Hannity Democrat. They just sit there and take it.
Raising money? Ralph Reed > Bruce Reed
Bruce Reed = Ralph Reed + Bruce Wayne?
Democratic Tea Party spent 1.5M for a staff of 4 people and now it's closing? Who'd of thought somthing like that would happen.
If Evan Bayh's article isn't titled "I'm A Wrong Fucking God-Damn Little Cocksucker", I'm not reading.
Or "I Got Mine."
I'm picturing the scene from the movie where Federal Agents finally raid the corporate offices of the organized crime shell coporation they've been investigating only to find a cavernous, nearly empty, abandoned corporate suite. In the middle is a single, solitary, plastic chair with a note affixed that reads: "Sorry FBI, too late. Better luck next time."
Bankrupt in ideas, bankrupt in money.
So long and good riddance.
LOL @ Harold Ford.
That is all.
Leaving Dems With No Leaders
And this is different from normal how?
Less editorials from Harold Ford?
And…..Stole my shit again!
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Another piece of the Clinton "legacy" crumbles.
The Mor(o)ning After: Fundamentally, actual Democrats despise you pissants and everything you (pretend to) stand for: Need to accept the verdict and go hang yourselves.
Headline: Rats Abandon Sinking Ship After chewing through the hull in multiple places, the rats have decided their joe is done.
Oh noes. The end of centrism. David Broder has a sad.
He still has… NO LABELS!
This comment paid for by Bloomberg-Scarbourough 2012. Meghan Mc Cain, Treasurer.
"Yes, we can collaborate" will rank in history right up there with political slogans such as "We want Wilkie."
and one of its employees has nothing to do all day but poke Sam Nunn with a stick to see if he's still alive.
I'd feel a lot better about all this if Obama wasn't doing his damndest every day to coddle the right.
Here's hoping a real centerist organization can step in to the void. I hear the "No Labels" assholes are bipartisan(rightwing), and believe toning down the hyper-bole. Unless that hyper-bole is right wing talking points.
Is the Hyper-Bole like the Super Bowl on (even more) steroids?
Spineless centrist ass wipes. I only regret that there is no opportunity to speed them on their way with a barrage of dead cats and rotten tomatoes.
Harold may not have been aware of the Clinton Global Initiative. Or the fact that Bill collaborated more with Shrub and Poppy last year. Or that Harold himself forgot that he isn't a Tennessee senator, nor a New York congressman.
Oh, man! Now where will gutless "centrist" Democrats go, in order to sell out their core constituencies in exchange for phat campaign lewt?
Oh, right. The Senate.
Heath Shuler's representing in the House!
True, he's representing. Nobody in particular, but he's still representing, all the same.
This is totally OT, but I just saw where the Bush Boy had to cancel a trip to Switzerland out of fear of having his dumb ass arrested. –
“To date, we’ve seen a handful of military investigations into detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo. But none of these has had the independence and reach necessary to investigate high-level officials such as President Bush,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Meanwhile, there has been virtually zero accountability for crimes committed in the CIA’s secret detention program, which was authorized by then-President Bush.”
Anywhere in the world that he travels, President Bush could face investigation and potential prosecution for his responsibility for torture and other crimes in international law, particularly in any of the 147 countries that are party to the UN Convention against Torture.
“As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring President Bush to justice, the international community must step in," said Salil Shetty.
It's not much, but it's sumthin'.
No bigey Bush would be just as happy at DisneyWorld. As long as there's beer and pretzels.
They could just send $kreech instead.
The only thing missing is a David Brooks post-mortem.
"This reminds me that some things are good, and some things are bad. Some of the people are upset, and other people are upset about different things. In the past some people were also upset, but some of those people are no longer upset. In the future things might be better, or maybe, they might be worse, it's hard to say."
You could enter that in WaPo's American Pundit contest and win hands down, except it would leave a 700-word hole on the op-ed page. But white space would be a vast improvement over most of what appear there.
He nailed it! 10.0s across the board
Did you actually write that or was it produced using some sort of algorithm? Either way, very convincing.
Don't forget the Malcolm Gladwell quote.
That might be true, or it might not. If it's not true now, it may be true later but it may not be entirely true. But then again, it might be entirely true. If it's true now it may be true forever or it may change to no longer being true.
You might have a point there, or you might not. Maybe you had a point, or maybe you will have a point, but here's Malcolm Gladwell mentioning a study he read somewhere that proves either my point or yours, or maybe doesn't, but something something data.
The DLC may be gone at last, but the Republican Lite infection is still killing the Democratic Party.
Thanks for nothing, triangulating, bribe-eating liars.
~
I think you meant the French, not the Nazis.
"Yes We Can Collaborate" sounds like it was a big hit in Vichy. Harold Ford would make a great chorus girl. He dances a little on his left leg, dances a little on his right leg, but between the two of them is where he makes his living.
I agree about all of that, and I voted for Bubba twice, but I really didn't want to do it. I thought him and Hilary were yuppie opportunists. I held my ample nose when I voted for him.
That practice is referred to as "maturity."
And while we're on the subject, I hate maturity, too. Also.
Maybe we could fund a War On Maturity?
That war is self-funding.
I always considered him a decent Republican president.
Eisenhowerish, but more greedy?
Except he set the stage for the great recession by starting the de-regulation of the banks. Of course, to be fair, he probably didn't foresee that he would be followed into the White House by a feces flinging fool. But he should have prepared us for that.
This brings us back to the Blame the Bushes explanation of everything: Clinton's boom was the result of Chimpy's dad's policies; Obama's bust is the result of Chimpy's reverse-Midas touch.
Bank deregulation started before him. Remember the S&L failures of the 80s. Repeal of Glass-Steagall was stupid, but castrating the remaining regulators during the reign of George II really finished the job. And us.
Bush II combined deregulation with putting former industry lobbyists in charge of regulating their own industry; a perfect recipe for failure. The sad thing is we still have Randian idiots screaming that we need more free markets and less regulation, even though the free market just proved it doesn't work.
"The sad thing is we still have Randian idiots screaming that we need more free markets and less regulation, even though the free market just proved AGAIN it doesn't work."
Fixed.
Here's the thing you have to explain to wingtards: government isn't the enemy of business. Government is the thing that makes orderly business possible, by providing common currency, enforcing contracts, keeping out furrin competition with tariffs, protecting private property, and throwing kids in jail for having one joint in the pocket of their jorts.
Anyone wearing jorts has it coming, though.
Oh no, where are we going to get spinless Democrats who think sound economic policy is doing what Wall Street says?
And is Harold Ford ok?
He's getting by but it's not easy. Probably had to cut back on the martinis with his lunches in Manhattan. Or even have to use a car instead of a helicopter to get around New York – the horror!
It was no longer needed. In 2008 Joe Lieberman finally achieved peace in our time.
Jane Harman headin' for the door yesterday was the foreshadowing of the DLC circling the drain.
The DLC (douchebag loser centerisits) is the 1985 afterbirth of the
CotillionCoalition for a Democratic Majority, a turd that Senator 'Pooper' Scooper Jackson crapped-out after beloved McGovern got whomped by Trickie Dick. Good riddance DLC, don't be lettin' the door hit ya in the ass.I'm guessing she pulled a Nathan Dean to get out of the reach of the Ethiics Committee; which is kind of like leaving town to get away from Barney Fife.
Bye, bye, Evan. You won't be missed by anyone but the DLC. Which means no one will miss you.
Without the DLC, where will the moderate Republicans go? Oh, that's right, there are no moderate Republicans, just a bunch of lockstep nazi types that want to march this country back to the 1800s…or into the nearest toilet – or both.
Maybe Obama can cut loose the Democrats and found new, third party. All those Republican lite voters who like lower taxes but are uncomfortable with the Tea Bag crazies could get on board.
Under those circumstances, maybe a real Democrat could be elected.
No doubt Chinese labor has played its part but the final nail in the DLC's coffin was probably the introduction of the triangulation app. It came out for iPhone only at first but once it was released for Black Berry everyone started using it, most notably our most famous Black, Barry. He's been wearing that thing out lately.
Bravo!
A few years from now, when Geraldo Rivera breathlessly cracks open the DLC policy-vault, you know what he'll find?
[crickets]
The DLC has been folded into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its "Rancid Onion Skin" section.
What the DLC could never face is that our problems are not just that the financial sector has raped and abandoned the productive economy but that the underlying market-money structure is fundamentally flawed and must be reformed if we are to survive as a species. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
"… if we are to survive as a species." As the HIV of the galaxy, I'm not sure we've earned survival whore-diamonds.
Want to know how to get a half way decent Republican president? Elect a centrist Democrat.
Good times!
Everything good about the Clinton administration–those eight years of peace and prosperity that lifted a lot of people out of poverty and might have set the basis for decades of economic growth–have been undone by W's disastrous reign.
Only the rotting corpse of the DLC and a few arthritic Blue Dogs were left, strange mutations of the Democratic Party.
And now they have shuffled off to the garbage heap of failed ideas, only about15 years too late.
Didn't Clinton continue to raise the defense budget, not decrease it?
That Arabic calculator is like a ticking time bomb…
Will the last person to leave please put a dust-cover over the sole remaining idea?
meanwhile Carter Center is still alive and kicking…
ironic isn't it,, a former president who is portrayed as symbol of failure is actually has a living, growing legacy
You might want to google Yugoslavia and that aspirin factory in Sudan.
Is there anything Harold Ford touches that doesn't turn to shit?
Aw, fuck all you pinkos. Without the DLC, GHWB would have won a second term, followed by President Dan Quayle, followed by an inadvertent spiral of the earth into the sun.
The DLC post-Clinton was a waste of time, but it had its day.
well to be fair, braden deckard with popped collar is still a fan….
Clinton did keep the Beast on a diet.
The late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a politician and scholar, said a decade ago: “If you want to accomplish something big, you need to compromise big.” Americans are unhappy with politicians who prefer partisan bickering to getting things done.
-from Harold Ford's article
Americans are unhappy with the economy, and a very vocal minority of voters seem to think cutting government spending will help, even though almost every penny the government spends goes back into the economy.
-from Me, just now
Harold Ford is the worst kind of politician in the Democratic Party. A political hanger-on that treats politics like a flippant hobby from a politically well-connected family. There is not a genuine bone in his entire body.
Harry, why don't you do what you do best and go eat out some bunny at the Playboy mansion, m'kay? God, do I hate that man. As much as I despite Corker, Tennessee doged a bullet with missing this self-righteous, amoral muthafucka.
When you're right, you're right.
I hate to admit this, but I gave up on the Democrats when they gave away true HC Reform at a time when they had a real opportunity to make a difference. I have no hope, no heroes, my only joy is providing what comfort I can to the afflicted and what affliction I can to the comfortable.
the American Street knows they have been lied to
both of our corrupt political parties
all of our corrupt controlled media
19 Dancing Oswalds
I was 33 when President Saint Ronnie commenced his first term. After watching Uncle Teddy nuke Carter's chances for re-election, and then observing the USAmerican electorate's responses to the legitimately liberal Mondale and Dukakis, I was rather pleased to see an organization that was focused on actually electing a Democratic — even if not liberal — President. It was kind of important to break the Repo trend (8 years of Nixon/Ford, 4 of Carter, 12 of Reagan/Bush — 20 years of R to 4 of D).
For instance, if you don't like the SCOTUS now (I certainly don't), just think what it would be like if, instead of Ginsburg and Breyer, we had two appointees of President Quayle.
Bubba was a disappointment to me, not so much because he wasn't a flaming liberal, but because — smart as the fucker is — he lacked the common sense to realize that his dick couldn't enjoy the same freedom of action as that of his idol JFK, and he basically fucked away (or, more precisely, had blown away) all of his second-term leverage. Nevertheless, he filled two SCOTUS vacancies and many Federal judgeships, and at least interrupted the filling of the Executive Branch with Republican toadies.
Mah fellow Wonketeers, I believe that despite my age-hardened synapses I am more liberal (nay, social democratic) than most of the next guys. But 63 years in USAmerica has forced me to realize that maybe 10% of the electorate is to my left; and no more than 30% can properly be called "liberals". And yes, I know the real description of electoral attitudes is n-dimensional and the very term "liberal" is a vast over-simplification, but it is still true that a Presidential candidate who scores progressive on most of the n-dimensions CANNOT BE ELECTED. The 70% or so of voters who are more afraid of rapid change than they are of the evils they now live with will see to that.
The DLC has shriveled because its fundamental reason for existence — to promote a Democratic Presidential nominee who has a real chance of being elected — has been adopted by the Democratic Party itself since 2000. From the comments, it appears that many Wonkers think this is a bad thing. I think that it is an unavoidable defensive tactic. Try to preserve as much of the social safety net as possible, while waiting for the gradual changes in ethnicity and average age to make possible a new majority liberal coalition. I don't expect to live that long, but with luck my kids will.
You mean I wrote a check to that nice young man in the tee-shirt who came to the door for nothing? Oh, snap!
I'm sure the money went for something that directly erodes maturity, such as a flat-screen TV in every room. Did the young man look suspiciously like Bristol Palin?
He did, come to think of it. I should have realized it was her when I saw the broken chastity belt hanging from her left ankle.
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