Salon seems to be thick with DLC supporters lately.

Your rant about poor Joe Lieberman the Pious are, well, arbitrary and not reality based.

Issues with Lieberman include his nearly feudal loyalty to George Bush, even to the point of running to Bush’s side when Republicans are deserting him (such as on the Dubai ports deal). His vote on the bankruptcy law, his response to Feingold’s censure motion, his attacks on other Dems like Howard Dean (Spider hole of denial), his hypocrisy on criticizing the president (Lambasting critics for risking Bush’s credibility a few years after joining the Clinton impeachment witch hunt). That’s only a random sampling of his work from memory. I’m sure if I’d gotten on Google and reviewed his record I could have put together a far more outrageous list.

Basically, anytime the Dems try to conduct themselves like an effective opposition party he props up the president or undermines his fellow Democrats.

Get real indeed.

“GOPsters who pose as the fundamentalist left, greenies etc”

More likely GOPsters who pose as moderate centrists or worse (Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman ) to sink the Democrats into political disarray.

“Only if you don't value winning elections as victory. Virtually every junior senate seat we have won in 15 years has been DLC, certainly in red and purple states and many blue as well.”

And check out the story about Progressive Majority over at The Nation. PM is working to rapidly create a deep bench of avowed Progressives in swing districts across the country and in two years, are already winning house seats. A dollar donated to Progressive Majority will yield candidates that will create change much more effectively than a million dollars donated to the DLC identity crisis.

"You know what, I am not the enemy," Vilsack said, after inviting the Democratic bloggers to hold their next convention in Des Moines. "I am a pretty decent guy."

An illustrative quote. I'm sure most of the guys (and gals) running could convince me of each being a "pretty decent guy." What a non sequitor.

Oddly enough, the Democrats seem to be well-practiced at old-fashioned gladhanding, but how about old-fashioned political campaigning--the nasty, no-holds-barred type that the Republicans have been using to make themselves the primary agents of change in America since 1994.

I'd like to see a little fighting prowess mixed in with the also good old-fashioned politics of conviction.

And let's not forget the awful lovefest that Time Magazine ran off it's cover recently about Coulter, thereby helping to mainstream this fascist who advocates violence against anyone on the left or who supports Progressives.

Please cancel, or at least do not renew, your subscription to Time magazine.

“Can you not read an electoral map or what? How many states are even in play (And no Howard Dean isn't going to make them in play by hiring expensive people to walk around Nebraska or Wyoming that won't set foot in an evangelical church or go to a gun rally)”

The electorate is pretty badly shaken so a lot is possible, as foreshadowed by Hackett’s race in Ohio, Busby’s race in CA, Leiberman’s flailing against Lamont, et al. Let’s not waste time fighting the last war. Republicans have been winning elections with the politics of conviction—and the ruthlessness of their tactics—not this politics of triangulation crap. And they will beat us if we advance yet another moderated, modulated simp.

I don’t know about Nebraska and Wyoming, but Dean is right to be competing widely for both short-term and long-term gain. Short-term, because people are deeply disturbed by the (so-called) conservative project right now and real upheaval is possible. Long term, because if we don’t build in places where we aren’t, then we’ve ceded them forever.

The Democrats need a candidate with depth of conviction and credibility. Feingold is the real deal—a straight-edge public servant with morality of a Progressive bent. I agree with others posting here that you are inaccurately representing Progressive ideas out to the “far left” margins—ideas that can and do appeal to the mainstream—fidelity to the Constitution, environmental protection, fairness, sticking up for the little people. broad prosperity, taking responsibility, diplomacy, truth in journalism, science-based policy, dismantling kleptocracy, temperance in government spending, etc.

And as far as Warner carrying Virginia in his back pocket, didn’t we make that assumption about Gore and Tennessee? Warner comes off sounding like-warmed over Gore circa 2000. What Arianna Huffington said of Hillary now and of Gore in 2000 seems to also be true of Warner—you can smell the fear on him.

The anti-Semitism thing is a red herring and let’s not get distracted by it. This is fear and anxiety about identity politics projected as political instincts. If you want to think like that, let’s put a positive spin on it and note that a Jewish candidate for president might help pull rightward-drifting Jews back to the Democratic party for the 2008 election cycle. Within the party, it might attract rightward-drifting Jews back from the DLC.

Feingold is flat-out the Dems most powerful, effective candidate.