The second in a series of In These Times dispatches from the convention.

Yesterday morning during a CNN discussion from the floor of the Democratic convention in Denver, I told anchor John Roberts that despite the personality tiff between the Obama and Clinton people, and despite some blemishes on Joe Biden's record, one thing is undebatable: The progressive wing of the Democratic Party - the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, as Paul Wellstone famously called it - has finally defeated the corporate wing of the party.

ARENA, n.
   In politics, an imaginary rat-pit in which the statesman wrestles with his record.

ALLEGIANCE, n.

       This thing Allegiance, as I suppose,
       Is a ring fitted in the subject's nose,
       Whereby that organ is kept rightly pointed
       To smell the sweetness of the Lord's anointed.

Well - SOMEONE had to do it...

Thank you, David Shuster, for exposing a couple of the PUMA leadership today for what they are - irrational, right-leaning, Democratic Party-subverting, baseless nitwits with no backing and no valid ground to stand on for their raison d'etre.

The claim that "Obama is not the Democratic Party's candidate, but the DNC's candidate - the DNC no longer represents the Democratic Party" were the parting words of Will Bower, co-founder of the massively influential "Just Say No Deal" - and so-called, self-proclaimed Democrat.

Interesting.

There is a big difference between movement ideology and pure partisanship - a difference pretty well spelled out in today's story about Evan Bayh in the New York Times.

No More Clintons!

I know this isn't exactly the thing on everyone's minds right about now, nor should it be, what with the exciting premise of new Democratic President and an expansion of the Democratic Congressional numbers in a very short amount of time, not to mention the veepstakes we've been hearing about quite a lot this summer.

Which is why I thought it would be interesting to take a bit of a step back from it all and do a survey of sorts when it comes to my fellow users, and that is one centered on Bill Clinton, of all people.

I've had a wierd convergence over the last couple of days.

First, I've had a lot of my Progressive friends asking me WTF with regard to my intense dislike of Barack.  

Second, I've seen and listened to some of the recent resurgence of DLC tripe on both TV and at NN.

And I had a realiziation (not quite an epiphany): we thought we were nomintating Bobby Kennedy, and we really nominated Harold Ford.

A short diary for people to comment on this keynote discussion between Markos and Ford on Democratic Party infrastructure. Right now they have MeetTheBloggers on.

You can also watch live on the Netroots Nation website, here.

Recommend this if you like. The stream is also frontpaged by Scout Finch.

This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising at Amazon.com or through your local independent bookstore.

OUTSIDE OF WACO, TEXAS - I'm filing this weekly column dispatch at a rest stop outside of Waco, Texas on my way to the Netroots Nation conference. On the drive from Dallas, I've been listening to talk radio and obsessing over the concept of "the center."

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Does my title seem provocative ?

Well, it should. It's been a little late in coming but I've had some homework to do, researching linkages of the Democratic Leadership Council in terms of its origin, founding membership, and ideology to the shadowy, antidemocratic, elitist and right wing Washington fundamentalist cult, "The Family" which is, as the title of Jeff Sharlet's new book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at The Heart Of American Power (excerpt from book and a review) suggest, "at the heart of American power."

From its inception the DLC and The Family were intertwined, both in terms of membership and also ideologically. I'm not going to bother proving that here on this post because that's the gist of my entire upcoming series...

Here's my first installment:

87.5% of "Family"/DLC Affiliated Senate Democrats Voted For FISA

The pundits like to talk about "moving to the center", as if voters actually selected candidates based upon their proximity on a one-dimensional left-right vector.  The Clintons made of this an art.  Obama tried it over the past month, to the support of many MSM pundits but vexing his strongest supporters in the process.  And his numbers have dropped, not risen.  This should have been predictable, because the pundits have it all wrong.

There is no "center", because there is not a straight line.  Instead, it make more sense (if you are looking for an oversimplification) to look at politics more like a conical volcano.  It's roughly round, not linear, and there's one place you never want to be.  

Meet the Press, August 12, 2007:

MR. MOULITSAS:  ... I do agree with Harold the, that we, we do need to work together, and I hope you’ll be at next year’s YearlyKos conference...

REP. FORD:  I hope you’ll come to ours, too.

MR. MOULITSAS:  ...nicknamed -- it’s going to be called Netroots Nation, but, but what we need...

MR. GREGORY:  Would either of you go...

MR. MOULITSAS:  Yeah.

REP. FORD:  I would go.

MR. GREGORY:  ...to each other’s conventions?

MR. MOULITSAS:  I would, I would go.

REP. FORD:  I—I’d—I’ll make clear that I will be there next year.

Now:

Whose Movement?

Since its inception, one of the primary goals of the Netroots has been to examine the future of our movement.

Who are our leaders? Where should we build infrastructure?

And after last year's YearlyKos Convention, Markos went on Meet The Press to debate that very topic with Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Now, the two are meeting again at Netroots Nation for a lunchtime keynote discussion about party infrastructure.

This won't just be any keynote. This will be a chance for you to hear a casual discussion between the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and a Netroots favorite. Then, you'll have a chance to ask questions of your own.

The noon session will be moderated by Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of Democracy for America.

The session's scheduled for lunch on Friday, July 18.  Will you be there?

The Proverbial "Center" is THE only path to assured ascendancy to the Presidency of the United States of America. Yes It Is.

The bow-tied bloviators have said so repeatedly for the past 8 years, and , two blown Presidential elections and numerous mid-term defeats thereafter, the "experts" are still saying it.

They would know.

http://www.politico.com/...

At the Politico we get a nice story on how Obama has "snubbed" the DLC.

Here's a striking mark of the distance between Obama and the centrist/Clintonite Democratic Leadership Council: The DLC kicked off their "National Conversation" over the weekend in Chicago, a block from Obama's campaign headquarters.

Obama, who had time to get a haircut and shoot some hoops on what passes for a down weekend on the campaign trail, didn't make it by.

The DLC has "officially lost its mojo," Taegan Goddard concludes.

(Part of the problem may be that a member of the Clinton-backing branch of the feuding Pritzker family played a major role in the gathering.)

So I jetted to Chicago on Sunday to sit on a panel at the DLC's annual conference. To say this was weird is an understatement, but it was something I promised to do during my Meet the Press appearance with Harold Ford. Ford will be at Netroots Nation in a few weeks to uphold his side of the deal.

I can't speak for the entire conference since I attended just my session, and am on the first flight back home Monday morning. But my panel played to my strength -- pure horserace analysis. In fact, I sat on the panel with the non-partisan Cook Political Report's Senate and House editors -- Jennifer Duffy and David Wasserman, both lovely people who are forecasting fairly big Democratic gains this year (as is everyone else).

The panel was non-ideological, and focused on the kind of House and Senate handicapping you see here all the time or at places like Swing State Project. But there were two standouts -- while me and the "Cookies" agreed on much of our race analysis, Wasserman and me are staked solidly on opposite sides on the question of Orange to Blue candidate Gary Trauner's chances in the Wyoming at-large House race. I think it'll be competitive, Wasserman still thinks the state's hard-right tilt makes that unlikely. We'll see who was right (it'll be me) in a few months.

The second was more fun -- in the process of answering some random question, the words "that asshole Joe Lieberman" came out of my mouth. Now if you recall, Lieberman was head of the DLC for five years or so, and has been a favorite of the organization for decades. In fact, I'd venture to say that Lieberman is the epitome of the DLC philosophy (though they'd vehemently deny it these days). Remember, the DLC's ideological allies at the New Republic endorsed Lieberman for president in 2004, and former top DLC'er Marshall Wittman is now Lieberman's communication director.

So there I was, in the lion's den, calling Joe Lieberman an asshole.

And people applauded and cheered.

I'm not sure what that means, but I got the DLC to applaud me calling Lieberman an asshole. That means something.

There seems to be much consternation on DKos that some on the left are criticizing Obama on FISA. Obama has always been a mainstream Democrat, and always cautious about taking positions that will move him him out of that center. His speech in 2002 against the Iraq war is exceptional precisely because it came from a politician  right smack in the political center.

The Right Wing claim that Obama is the most Liberal Senator is  silly. Hello..?Feingold? Saunders? Among the Presidential contenders, was Obama more liberal than Kucinich? I supported Obama not because he was the one I agreed with most, but because he was the most talented candidate and I agreed about 80% with him. That is a pretty high percentage. You don't get 100%  in politics.

So of course, we will lobby Obama on an issue of importance to us. Obama is running a new kind of campaign with  new tools for feedback from his supporters. Such as his website. We must take advantage of those tools. But always keeping in mind that this is not the only issue that matters to us. We lobby him as supporters, not by threatening to abandon him or work for the other side. Leave that sort of idiocy to the PUMAs and the Naderites.

Meow.  Meow.  Meow.  

Things are heating up in Tennessee after Fred Hobb's stupid comment on whether Fox News gave him incorrect information regarding Obama being a terrorist.  Argghhh. Fred Hobbs sits on the TNDP State Executive Committee; yet, relies on Faux News for his information about the Democratic candidates.  He has since apologized and it is posted below the flip.  

The foray  continues with Vichy Dem Lincoln Davis (TN-04) and DLC Chair Harold Ford, Jr. each adding comments to the media.  Beecher Frasier, Lincoln Davis's chief of staff, weighed in with some ugly statements too.  

Being somewhat of a moderate Democrat (a distinct minority hereabouts), I am regularly bombarded with venom about the evils of the DLC.  If memory serves me, the group was created to address the number one complaint of citizens about their representation in Washington - namely, that nothing ever gets done because of gridlock and partisan bickering.

I personally think that bipartisanship is not a bad thing by definition.  It requires honest brokers on both sides, and people of good will that put parochial interest aside in favor of the common good.  By any yardstick, we have not had this in DC since before the Reagan era, and it has only gotten worse.  The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right that any compromise makes us give up far more than they.  Indeed, much Democrat-crafted legislation begins life less progressive than it should.  And yet...