In case you’ve been ignoring dKos lately, he’s called for a jihad/crusade* against The New Republic. Apparently, it’s not liberal enough for him: I imagine that Chait’s Dean-o-phobe blog is giving Kos fits, itches and the galloping staggers, too (although I’m surprised that he’d be down on &c, too, as it’s more likely to tell him what he wants to hear properly mainstream).
At any rate, the guantlet has been thrown down. Will TNR pick it up? Will dKos succeed in its quest? Is any of this actually going to help the Democrats win the election? Opinions welcome – my answers are no, no and you’ve got to be kidding me, but then I’m an evil Rightie firing up the popcorn, so what do I know?
Moe
*Choice of words deliberate.
I think Kos inadvertantly hit the nail on the head when he wrote
Sure a lot of Red States are getting redder. But a lot of Blue states are too.
TNR will ignore him (too bad really).
They’ve got some good reporters, who do good investigative work occaisonally, but they’re on the whole quite annoying. I don’t see them as right of center, but they’re about exactly in the center (left of it on domestic policy, right of it on foreign policy) and they’re trying to move the Democratic party in a direction I find destructive. Chait’s blog is ridiculous. And “even the liberal New Republic” is the oldest trick in the book. So I can see why he wouldn’t accept their ads.
I don’t even know what them “picking up the gauntlet” would entail. I don’t really see how this could hurt the democratic nominee’s chances. TNR, like the DLC and Joe Lieberman, seems more interested in moving the Democratic party to the right than in getting it elected & that will remain true for the foreseeable future. Kos’ complaints and boycotting of their ads are a drop in the bucket, but working the refs with charges of unfair media coverage has a cumulative effect.
“So I can see why he wouldn’t accept their ads.”
Oh, I’d agree that refusing their ads makes sense, from his point of view. I also think that the Chait blog is a bit over the top – and while I don’t think that the direction that TNR is trying to lead the Democrats is all that wrong, frankly my opinion isn’t what you’d call relevant.
It was just that I’m amused by dKos’… well, ‘hubris’ isn’t quite the right term; perhaps hubris’ kid brother.
Katherine,
Moving the party in a direction you find destructive? Same way I feel about Dean. Going to have to deal with the fact that there are more of us Democrats than you think that aren’t aboard the bandwagon of old-fashioned so-called “liberalism.” And blocking ads from TNR doesn’t make us go away.
Now, hold on a second, guys: laser-beam eye blasts are all very well, but how is this going to defeat my guy this upcoming November?
Jonas–I think you’re inferring things I did not say. I find Lieberman & the DLC & TNR destructive. Does this mean that I don’t think they represent anyone, or that the tribe has spoken and you more conservative dems have to shut up? Not at all–my influence in the Democratic party is approximately zero, and anyway I’m all for a big tent. But my votes, donations, volunteer time and subscriptions will be determined accordingly. (So might my advertising decisions if I were an influential liberal solo blogger instead of the liberal third of a group blog that doesn’t have ads anyway–but I’m not, so really, who cares.)
I’m glad to see Katherine has joined the wild-eyed Clinton haters in thinking that the Clinton’s politics were destructive.
Heh.
I don’t know about Moe, but I’d rather have Bush run against a centrist Democrat (even if it means a tough campaign for W) then have the Democratic Party lurch ever-farther left. My rationale is twofold: (1) as John Lemon (who sadly no longer blogs) has argued, if Bush seems like he’s going to win in a landslide, Republicans may sit on their hands come election day and cost the GOP several vital Senate and House seats; (2) if Bush wins again, the Democrats are probabilistically likely to win in 2008, and if they do, I’d rather their candidate be closer to my policy preferences (Clinton) then far away (Dean).
Sniping at Chait’s blog is funny considering that everyone to the left of me loved the fact that he publicly hated Bush earlier last year. Is the new blog over the top? Perhaps, but so was Chait’s Bush-bashing routine, which personalized many of the differences between the Clintonites and Bush.