| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Hillary to Direct Creation of Democrats' Agenda |
| 2005-07-26 |
| The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections. The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton, once considered a champion of the party's left, with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion. In her new role, the New York Democrat immediately called for a truce between the DLC and liberal elements of the party, which have engaged in a ferocious war of words over the Democrats' direction since President Bush won reelection in November. "Now, I know the DLC has taken some shots from some within our party and that it has returned fire too," she told a gathering of the group here. "Well, I think it's high time for a cease-fire, time for all Democrats to work together based on the fundamental values we all share." Clinton assumed her role as head of the DLC's "American Dream Initiative" at a meeting that drew three other centrist Democrats widely considered possible 2008 contenders and highlighted the maneuvering already underway for the next presidential race. Besides Clinton, roughly 500 elected officials and DLC supporters who convened at a downtown hotel also heard from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the DLC's outgoing chairman; Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who replaced Bayh this month; and outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. The session amounted to one of the first multi-candidate "cattle calls" for the potential 2008 contenders. "I thought I was at a New Hampshire J-J dinner," joked Warner, in a reference to the Jefferson-Jackson party dinners that are frequent platforms for presidential contenders. Each potential candidate delivered a campaign-style speech that blended criticism of the Bush administration with calls for Democrats to pursue centrist policies on such issues as national defense, energy and the federal budget. Clinton's speech was built around an elaborate metaphor of what the country might look like on issues from healthcare to homeland security to a similar gathering that assembled in Ohio in 15 years. Vilsack focused on restoring a greater sense of community and "shared sacrifice," Bayh emphasized the need to persuade Americans that Democrats could effectively safeguard national security, and Warner stressed the economic competition with rising nations such as China and India. "The race is on for the future," Warner declared. Those in the audience generally liked what they heard. "We are going to be able to field an A-team in 2008," said Louis Magazzu, a local official in Cumberland County, N.J., after listening to the speeches. Despite the calls for unity from Clinton, Bayh and other speakers, the day underscored continuing divisions among Democrats about how to rebuild at a time when Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. While many liberal activists insist the party's highest priority must be to block Bush's initiatives, DLC officials universally argued that Democrats would not recover until they fill in their own agenda. "I think the nation fully understands what we are against," Vilsack said in an interview. "I think it is incumbent now to show what we are for." The proceedings also highlighted a fissure among centrist "New Democrats." While the DLC recently endorsed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Clinton voted against it in the Senate. Almost all House "New Democrats" are expected to oppose it when the lower chamber votes on the agreement this week. Several of the speakers sounded more skeptical notes toward free trade than were common among moderate Democrats in the 1990s. The meeting comes at a time when the DLC is struggling to maintain the influence in the party it wielded when Bill Clinton held the White House. Leading party centrists formed the DLC after Ronald Reagan's landslide reelection victory in 1984 over Walter F. Mondale, who was allied with the most liberal Democratic interest groups. Urging Democrats to seize the political center, the DLC helped formulate key "New Democrat" ideas for Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, such as welfare reform and national service. Clinton chaired the group from 1990 through 1991 and brought many figures involved with it into his two administrations. Since Clinton left office, though, a broad array of liberal activists, many of them clustered around left-leaning websites like the Daily Kos, have accused the DLC of weakening the party by advocating positions, such as support for free trade or the Iraq war, that they say have blurred distinctions with the GOP. David Sirota, a Democratic consultant who posts indefatigably on his own liberal web log, responded to the news of the "American Dream Initiative" Clinton is leading by warning that Democrats would be doomed to "permanent minority status" if they followed the DLC direction. "The fact is, the Democratic Party has to make a choice: is it going to continue to follow the DLC, be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corporate America, and lose elections for the infinite future," he wrote in an e-mail. "Or is it going to go back to its roots of really representing the middle class and standing up for ordinary people's economic rights?" Clinton said that she would reach out not only to centrists but "progressive people from all perspectives" to prepare her blueprint, which is due in one year. But the fierce remarks from Sirota — and only somewhat more muted criticism of liberal groups like MoveOn.org — show the challenge of devising a program that attracts broad support across the party. Indeed, Al From, the DLC founder, said in an interview that the plan was not intended to "be a lowest common denominator agenda" assembled by compromising among all elements of the party. All this suggests that strains could develop between Clinton's desire to write a plan popular with as wide an array of Democrats as possible and the DLC's hope of crafting a sharply focused centrist road map — even if that means continued conflict with liberals that Clinton may be reluctant to antagonize. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #8 "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." -- Hillary Clinton "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." ___ Karl Marx plagarist! |
| Posted by: Ulitch Hupeack2994 2005-07-26 15:26 |
#7  Seems to me she is making a very serious attempt to remake herself in a conservative image. The problem is, it's just an image. She would never give up her Liberal Left ideology. She took a very close look at the Kerry campaign and will not make the same mistakes. I don't know if she's doing this on her own or if she has some very good advisors but whoever it is is doing a good job of selling a pig in a poke.She's a blue core in a red jumpsuit. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2005-07-26 15:02 |
| #6 Besides Clinton, roughly 500 elected officials and DLC supporters who convened at a downtown hotel also heard from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the DLC's outgoing chairman; Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who replaced Bayh this month; and outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. Ahhhh: The cream of the crap. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-07-26 14:19 |
| #5 Here's a Hillary quote link you'll want to bookmark: http://tinyurl.com/2n6lr "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." -- Hillary Clinton |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-07-26 10:53 |
| #4 Dr Tongue's 3-D House of Losers and Sad Sacks One hand on your wallet at all times is my advice, boys. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-07-26 09:40 |
| #3 Notice how the Dems are a lot like the moslems? They think they're special and better than the Pfui. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-07-26 09:16 |
| #2 Let the Democrats fight out their differences now, without the pressure of a presidential election. If at least one branch understands that it is political suicide to continue the antiwar, anti-America program of their radical wing, the party, and the nation's political discourse, will be the better for it. Even if the stances taken are calculatedly hypocritical, the politicians will find it difficult to back very far away from them later. Kerry, after all, did not get very far with his, "I voted for the war before I voted against it." |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-07-26 08:31 |
| #1 Has Hildabeast changed her hair-do? Gotta have a new look for this job. I kinda liked the long bangs with granny glasses look. Or perhaps the baronness-in-waiting look with high leather boots, aka, Baroness von Hildebeast of the DLC. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-07-26 08:21 |