The National Conventions of our great parties are grand traditional events. Like so many of our great institutions, they have become quite meaningless in and of themselves, but they do produce such wonderful publicity.

With this in mind, and given the close and loving relationship clearly building between the Corporate Host and its Democratic Guests, I volunteer a convention theme song by the great Cole Porter, written way back in 1943. It echoes the stark and lonely yearnings stemming from must have seemed like an endless foreign war, but is also tinged with the anticipation of long-parted lovers:

You'd be so nice to come home to

You'd be so nice by the fire

While the breeze on high, sang a lullaby

You'd be all that I could desire

Under stars chilled by the winter

Under an August moon burning above

You'd be so nice

You'd be paradise, to come home to and love

.

It's not that you're fairer

Than a lot of girls just as pleasin'

That I doff my hat

As a worshipper at your shrine

It's not that you're rarer

Than asparagus out of season

No, my darling, this is the reason

Why you've got to be mine

.

You'd be so nice to come HOME to

You'd be so nice by the fire

While the breeze on high, sang a lullaby

You'd be all that I could desire

Under stars chilled by the winter

Under an August moon burning above

You'd be so nice

You'd be paradise, to come home to and love

.

This is a good one too, from Washington--

No compact among men...can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.

Digby quoted this the other day, it is from Washington's farewell address, I believe.

If anything, the fading away of the DLC is a function of the fact that its worldview predominates in the Democratic Party and there's thus no need for an organization like that to try to "reform" the Democrats by making them "centrist."

I think that's it exactly. DLC did the job so well that there's nothing left for them to do.

Could Netroots Nation, and the Netroots in general, have a similar fate? Could the Netroots have such success in transforming politics and parties that they too will simply morph into the terroir of the parties themselves, and diffuse away?

Somehow I doubt it. And I have to admit to a bit of unease regarding the closeness of NN and the Democratic stars that come to visit and play to the hicks for awhile. Unease, because the Netroots stand for something, and the Democratic Party currently stands for very little. Yes, the Netroots might have a positive impact. Hell, they already have. But influence and impact travel on a two-way street, and it would be such a waste to see the NN turned into some sort of Democratic convention, or the convention of any other party.

I saw some numbers on Barr the other day, can't remember where, but I believe you're right that Barr is going to take a big bite out of McCain's ass come November. He's polling as high as 8% in some states, if I remember right. While many of those states are so red that it may not matter (McCain can afford even huge cuts in some states and still win them), in others, they may allow Obama to squeak out some surprising victories.

I think Barr can hurt McCain much more than Nader can hurt Obama. Over the longer term, two-party behavior should continue to drive voters to seek alternatives, and generally this will have more good than bad impact, imo.

This perfectly illustrates Democratic leadership's position regarding accountability:

Later Ford was quizzed on why he would support granting telecommunication companies immunity for their participation in the FISA program. His response - that it wasn't the companies who should be held to a fault but rather the public officials who ordered their participation - was challenged by several different questioners, who demanded "accountability" for privacy violations.

"I think that accountability was brought in 2006 when [the GOP] lost in the House and the Senate," Ford responded said. "And we have only eight more months of George W. Bush..."

"When is he going to prison!" screamed an audience member to a few claps.

I think this is it, in crystalized form. "Accountability" equals loss of majority for ones party. Majority--power--is all that matters. "Law" comes in a distant second, if it is considered at all.

Ford proudly terms himself a "centrist" in the Democratic Party, but this position is radically un-democratic, and when viewed logically, is every bit as bad as the logic of Rove, Yoo, or Addington. It is anathema to a truly functioning democratic government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/18/harold-ford-heckled-over_n_113663.html