This has to be great news for Republicans. Daily Kos is officially calling out the DLC, calling them sad and ridiculous. He argues that the future of the Democratic Party depends upon them tilting further to the left, towards populism, and abandoning the middle.
The DLC's principle success, the election of Clinton in 1992 and 1996, wasn't significant he argues because he only won by pluralities. He promises solid majorities for the Democrats if they abandon the middle and push progressive candidates: "We helped build this majority. Not the DLC's 350 or so members. This is no longer their party. And as such, we can look forward to finally being truly competitive for years to come." He is almost certainly over reaching in this assessment. Scandal, incompetence and Iraq won Democrats the majority vote for Congress.
They are responding to an opinion piece in the Washington Post by two leading DLC Democrats urging the party not to ignore the "vital center." Losing the center risks elections, but a strategy shutting the center out makes it easier for party activists to pass their agenda--if in fact they do win. Kos argues that this is just the party establishment preserving its position of power, and there is certainly truth to that.
But the divisiveness could well turn out to be the Democrats' Achille's Heel. Republicans will certainly do what they can to drive the two sides apart. If the coalition cannot hold, the Republicans win. They may even attempt to stake positions on issues designed to lure some of the DLC'ers off to their party. It worked with Lieberman. This National Journal story about how Karl Rove charmed a meeting of DLC friendly Democrats hints about how it may be done.
