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Emboldened Democrats court party's left wing
WASHINGTON -- Former senator John Edwards got high marks from labor for a new effort to unionize hotel workers, and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's demand this week that President Bush be censured was music to the ears of activists on the left. Meanwhile, Mark Warner, former Virginia governor, recently hired one of the leftist blogosphere's biggest names to run his Internet outreach campaign, and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana began a blog on the liberal Huffington Post, peddling his foreign policy views.

The next round of prospective Democratic presidential candidates, even those with centrist credentials, is actively courting the Democratic Party's left wing -- which speaks loudly through its blogs, enjoys rising fund-raising clout built on Howard Dean's 2004 campaign, and is imbued with a confidence that it can build on Republican disarray. The Democrats are rushing to fill a void left in the hearts and minds of many liberal activists by New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts to move to the center, particularly on the Iraq war.

''It's very important for them to know we'll fight for their beliefs," Edwards, a former vice presidential candidate, said of the party's liberal activists. Having run in 2004 as a moderate who supported the Iraq war, Edwards is busy building a large base of support on the left.

Liberal Democrats have long played a powerful, though not always determinative, role in choosing the party's presidential nominee. And after Dean, a centrist as governor of Vermont, rose from obscurity by moving to the left and tapping into Internet-fueled anger at conservatives, candidates are scrambling to court a wing of the party that's even more organized and flush with cash than in 2004.

Recently released 2005 Federal Election Commission reports indicate that five of the top 10 richest tax-exempt 527 political issue groups were liberal. Of the top 10 political action committees, eight were liberal or affiliated with organized labor, with substantially more cash on hand than conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association or GOP-friendly corporate PACs such as the National Association of Realtors.

Democratic centrists who look at the voter math worry about candidates who court the left, fearing that their party will turn off too many swing voters to be able to beat Republicans in a general election. A nationwide survey by pollsters Penn, Schoen, and Berland -- who represent Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, among other clients -- found that self-described liberals make up only 16 percent of the population, compared with 36 percent who call themselves conservatives and 47 percent who say they are moderates. But liberals have disproportionate sway in the primary campaign, and they're already chiding Clinton for distancing herself from some of their causes.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, creator of the million-visitor-a-day DailyKos.com, calls Senator Clinton ''irrelevant," because she's not viable in the minds of progressives, while Anna Burger secretary-treasurer of the politically influential Service Employees International Union, contends that Clinton ''has serious problems. . . . Is she going to articulate a position on Iraq and for working families?"

Clinton's supporters, and others on the left, maintain that she still has plenty of credibility among liberals. But if, as expected, Clinton seeks her party's nod for president, she will face an increasingly crowded field of candidates who are already picking up support among the left-wing voters and activists whose voices dominate during primary season.

Jerome Armstrong, founder of the popular leftist blog MyDD.com, has joined Warner. Many of Armstrong's colleagues in the blogosphere support Feingold, a longtime hero on the left for his stance against the Iraq war and his lone vote against the USA Patriot Act in 2001. This week, Feingold called on the Senate to censure President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without a court order.

But at SEIU, which runs the nation's richest labor PAC and helped make Dean a household name in 2004, Edwards is the clear favorite. ''People were incredibly enthusiastic about everything he said; they really thought he cared about them," Burger said of the former North Carolina senator's four-city swing last month to organize hotel workers. Edwards emphasizes an antipoverty message that has generated a strong following among labor, which has great clout in the nominating process. SEIU spent $64 million in the 2004 presidential election and has the largest union in New Hampshire, a key primary state. But now it also operates a political alliance with other unions called Change to Win that represents a combined membership of six million.
The union leadership may be behind Edwards and other democrats, but the rank and file members may have different ideas
Three months ago, Edwards renounced his vote authorizing the president to invade Iraq, an act of contrition that is considered a requirement for support from the left. ''As long as they're suitably contrite and admit they made a mistake," Zuniga says of the blogosphere's willingness to support senators who cast that nettlesome 2002 vote.
"Bow down and worship before the Great God Kos!"
Likewise, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts has renounced his own vote in favor of the Iraq war.
How many times does this make?
He has also proposed an exit strategy for Iraq. His troop withdrawal plan is ''among the most aggressive and progressive. Without a doubt, John Kerry has burnished his Iraq credentials for progressives," says Tom Mattzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org, which had the nation's fourth-richest PAC in 2005.

One of Kerry's major assets is his mostly liberal, activist-donor list of three million names. The 2004 Democratic nominee's last-ditch call for a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. may have failed, but for his fund-raising efforts it was a huge success: His campaign added nearly 80,000 names. Donor lists, PACs, and 527 groups aren't the only signs of the left's wealth. The newly launched Democracy Alliance has drawn together 85 well-heeled donors willing to commit $1 million each over five years to fund left-of-center think tanks, media operations, and other institutions designed to influence the national debate.

While their courting of the left hasn't been as vigorous, activists say, two other potential presidential candidates, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa have some appeal, especially on domestic issues. The antiwar stance of Wesley Clark, a retired general and former NATO supreme commander, has made him a popular pick among bloggers.
Bwahahahaha!
Warner has been able to largely avoid the fray about Iraq that haunts Clinton, Kerry, and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. But he's asking for support from the Web-based liberals known as ''netroots" voters that Dean first inspired, and has hired MyDD's Armstrong to build his Internet operation. Warner is perceived as a centrist who won the governorship in a conservative state. But Armstrong, who co-wrote a book with Zuniga that assails the Democratic Party establishment, says Warner is popular because of his potential to rout the Republicans from the Oval Office. ''Why does he do so well with the netroots?" said Armstrong. ''Because he wins."

The 2008 prospects appear especially eager to stay in the good graces of bloggers, who enjoy growing influence though only a small percentage of voters read or write them. Even a solid centrist like Bayh felt compelled to take his message for a ''tough and smart" foreign policy to the liberal Huffington Post, founded by commentator Arianna Huffington. And Bayh sought to win liberal credibility by voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- though Bayh introduced his fellow Hoosier to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Still, if recent history is a guide, the winner of the Democratic primary will be decided more on the power of the purse than the power of the left. ''It isn't just camps and ideas that get the competition," said Rob Stein, founder of Democracy Alliance. ''As we get closer to the primary season, it's who can raise the money." The hands-down winner on that score, even her critics concede, could well be Hillary Rodham Clinton.
She may have more money, but if you troll through the lefty blogs, you'll find utter hatred for her. And the grassroots activists are the ones who turn out for the primaries.


Posted by: Steve 2006-03-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=145761