DLC Ties to PNAC (Project for a New American Century ie the neocons)

[mod mom]

Al From is founder and chief executive officer of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a dynamic idea action center of the "Third Way" governing philosophy that is reshaping progressive politics in the United States and around the globe. He is also chairman of the Third Way Foundation and publisher of the DLC's flagship bi-monthly magazine, Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century.

As a founder of the DLC -- birthplace of the New Democrat movement and the Third Way in America -- and its companion think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), From leads a national movement that since the mid-1980s has provided both the action agenda and the ideas for New Democrats to successfully challenge the conventional political wisdom in America and, in the process, redefine the center of the Democratic Party.

-snip

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=191&contentid=1131



Will Marshall, the head of PPI signed PNAC letters.
(Called "Bill Clinton's idea mill," the Progressive Policy Institute was responsible for many of the Clinton administration's initiatives...)
Starting right after 9/11.
***************************
Along with such neocon stalwarts as Robert Kagan, Bruce Jackson, Joshua Muravchik, James Woolsey, and Eliot Cohen, a half-dozen Democrats were among the 23 individuals who signed PNAC's first letter on post-war Iraq. Among the Democrats were Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution and a member of Clinton's National Security Council staff; Martin Indyk, Clinton's ambassador to Israel; Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute and Democratic Leadership Council; Dennis Ross, Clinton's top adviser on the Israel-Palestinian negotiations; and James Steinberg, Clinton's deputy national security adviser and head of foreign policy studies at Brookings.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0522-10.htm

More about Will Marshall
Note the PNAC link to the left.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1295


Will Marshall is one of the founders of the New Democrat movement, which aims to steer the US Democratic Party toward a more right-wing orientation. Since its founding in 1989, he has been president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council. He recently served on the board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a committee chaired by Joe Lieberman and John McCain designed to build bipartisan support for the invasion of Iraq. Marshall also signed, at the outset of the war, a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) expressing support for the invasion. Marshall signed a similar letter sent to President Bush put out by the Social Democrats USA on Feb. 25, 2003, just before the invasion. The SDUSA letter urged Bush to commit to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning." He writes frequently on political and public policy matters, especially the "Politics of Ideas" column in Blueprint, the DLC's magazine. Notably, he is one of the co-authors of Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy.

-snip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Marshall

[Windy]

1. this is what Scott Ritter and Jeff Cohen were pointing out in their lecture tour

Your vote is very important people.

The dlc and the repubs, including McCain are not that far apart in matters of foreign policy.

[mod mom]

3. Nothing much has changed with our election system so I expect both candidates for president

will be in line with current policies and will protect the current administration from any future prosecution. This is why we need to grow opposition to a DLC candidate for president or else, I believe we will get more of the same.

[ellacott]

2. Good information

This will go right over many heads.

[mod mom]

4. Here's a little info on PNAC from DUer Will Pitt:

Blood Money
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 27 February 2003

-snip

The Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, is a group founded in 1997 that has been agitating since its inception for a war with Iraq. PNAC was the driving force behind the drafting and passage of the Iraqi Liberation Act, a bill that painted a veneer of legality over the ultimate designs behind such a conflict. The names of every prominent PNAC member were on a letter delivered to President Clinton in 1998 which castigated him for not implementing the Act by driving troops into Baghdad.

PNAC has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to a Hussein opposition group called the Iraqi National Congress, and to Iraq's heir-apparent, Ahmed Chalabi, despite the fact that Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 counts of bank fraud. Chalabi and the INC have, over the years, gathered support for their cause by promising oil contracts to anyone that would help to put them in power in Iraq.

Most recently, PNAC created a new group called The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Staffed entirely by PNAC members, The Committee has set out to "educate" Americans via cable news connections about the need for war in Iraq. This group met recently with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice regarding the ways and means of this education.

Who is PNAC? Its members include:

* Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the PNAC founders, who served as Secretary of Defense for Bush Sr.;

* I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top national security assistant;

* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a founding member, along with four of his chief aides including;

* Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, arguably the ideological father of the group;

* Eliot Abrams, prominent member of Bush's National Security Council, who was pardoned by Bush Sr. in the Iran/Contra scandal;

* John Bolton, who serves as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush administration;

* Richard Perle, former Reagan administration official and present chairman of the powerful Defense Policy Board;

* Randy Scheunemann, President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, who was Trent Lott's national security aide and who served as an advisor to Rumsfeld on Iraq in 2001;

* Bruce Jackson, Chairman of PNAC, a position he took after serving for years as vice president of weapons manufacturer Lockheed-Martin, and who also headed the Republican Party Platform subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy during the 2000 campaign. His section of the 2000 GOP Platform explicitly called for the removal of Saddam Hussein;

* William Kristol, noted conservative writer for the Weekly Standard, a magazine owned along with the Fox News Network by conservative media mogul Ruppert Murdoch.

The Project for the New American Century seeks to establish what they call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their goal is to transform America, the sole remaining superpower, into a planetary empire by force of arms. A report released by PNAC in September of 2000 entitled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' codifies this plan, which requires a massive increase in defense spending and the fighting of several major theater wars in order to establish American dominance. The first has been achieved in Bush's new budget plan, which calls for the exact dollar amount to be spent on defense that was requested by PNAC in 2000. Arrangements are underway for the fighting of the wars.

-snip

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/1/53

[TexasObserver]

5. Will Marshall was Al From's Boy Friday at the DLC

Back in the mid 1980s. Literally, his valet.

[mod mom]

8. Al From said Gore made a huge mistake by emphasizing he would "fight for the people and not the

powerful":



Al Gore, the self-styled environmental candidate in the 2000 Presidential election, lost his bid for the White House because he campaigned on an outdated "populist" platform that was too liberal for most Americans, according to a new report drafted by the Democratic Leadership Council.

The 40-page report, titled "Why Gore Lost, And How Democrats Can Come Back," concludes that the Democratic Party must move towards the political right -- towards the Republicans -- if it wants to regain control of Congress in 2002 and the White House in 2004.

Al From, the DLC's founder and CEO, opened a freewheeling discussion forum by arguing that Democrat Al Gore made a huge tactical mistake by continually emphasizing that he would "fight for the people and not the powerful" as the nation's first president of the 21st Century.

-snip

http://www.progress.org/goredlc2.htm





Led by Sen. Joe Lieberman, the DLC was the raucous cheerleader for Bush's war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy debacle in our nation's history. They lauded the corporate trade policies that have left us with the largest trade deficits in the annals of time, and contributed to stagnant wages, growing inequality and a declining middle class. They championed fiscal austerity—even when the budget was in surplus—leaving us with a looming deficit in vital investments from new energy to modern schools to basic infrastructure. "Inequality doesn't matter," they argued, even as we moved into an economy in which the wealthy few captured all of the benefits from growth. One of their first policy papers was an attack on the minimum wage, which went a decade without being raised.

-snip

"We're all populists now," says the DLC's Will Marshall, but the organization still scorns the populist economics that was central to Democratic election victories across the county last year.

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/wrong_right?tx=3

[TexasObserver]

10. Al From sucks more ass than a bus seat.

[HereSince1628]

6. In this thru the looking glass world always consider that it isn't unusual for

left to mean right
liberal to mean conservative
moderate to mean radical
new democrats to mean not democrats
"democratic" leadership to be elitist self-appointed leaders
progressive to mean authoritarian
and that those who profess to be your friend are not.


This isn't Kansas anymore and some would like our donkey to be a horse of a different color.

[mod mom]

7. "The DLC and the Neo-Cons the ties that Bind"

IN CASE SOME OF YOU WONDER WHY SOME OF US DUers ARE SO OPPOSED TO THE DLC, MAY I SUGGEST YOU SPEND SOME TIME AND DO A LITTLE RESEARCH YOURSELF:


The DLC and the Neo-Cons the ties that bind
by Genf

Thu Dec 09, 2004 at 03:40:25 AM PST

Did you vote for this man?

Will Marshall founded the closely affiliated Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a think tank that shares offices with the DLC.
Genf's diary :: ::
Marshall was one of 15 analysts who wrote the Progressive Policy Institute's foreign policy blueprint, "Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy". Using language that mirrors that of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC), in October 2003 PPI hailed the "tough-minded internationalism" of past Democratic presidents such as Harry Truman. Like PNAC, which warned of the present danger in its founding documents, the Progressive Policy Institute declared that "America is threatened once again" and needs
This is a well used tactic of the PPI/DLC they come up with the exact same proposals as the Neo-cons but written in Progressive-speak. Listed at the think (stink)-tank) you will find the EXACT proposal the Neo-Cons have for such policies as dismantling Head Start etc.
Like PNAC and the Bush administration, the Progressive Policy Institute has a vision of national security that extends to fostering democracy and freedom around the world in "the belief that America can best defend itself by building a world safe for individual liberty and democracy." It's likely that PNAC itself would heartily agree with PPI's criticism of those who complain that "the Bush administration has been too radical in recasting America's national security strategy." In fact, in assessing the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda, the institute stated, "we believe it has not been ambitious enough or imaginative enough
So what are the chances of the DLCers being against the Draft???
Although Marshall calls himself a "centrist," he has associated himself with neoconservative organizations and their radical foreign policy agendas. At the onset of the Iraq invasion,Marshall signed statements issued by the Project for the New American Centurycalling for the removal of Saddam Hussein, advocating that NATO help "secure and destroy all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," and arguing that the invasion "can contribute decisively to the democratization of the Middle East."

-snip

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/9/64026/6705

[mod mom]

9. DLC thought Iraq War would be difficult but supported it anyway

EVER WONDER WHY HILLARY HASN'T DENOUNCED HER IWR VOTE?

DLC | Blueprint Magazine | April 15, 2003
Iraq's Coming Democracy
After tyranny, democracy is Iraq's only political choice. Achieving it will be difficult. But, anything else would be a disaster.
By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack


It would be foolish to claim that building democracy in a post-Saddam Iraq will be easy or certain -- let alone that doing so might solve all of the problems of the Middle East overnight. Iraq has serious problems that will make the creation of a functional democracy difficult and lengthy. The country that Saddam Hussein has ruled for more than 30 years has little experience with democracy, deep ethnic and religious fissures, and a population traumatized by totalitarian misrule. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that it would be impossible to create a democracy in Iraq. The barriers are high, but not insurmountable.

Establishing a democracy in Iraq after Saddam Hussein falls offers the best prospect to solve the problems that have beset Iraq over the years. Moreover, failure to establish democracy in Iraq would be a disaster. Civil war, massive refugee flows, and even renewed interstate fighting would resurface and plague this long-cursed region. A failure of democracy to take root would add credence to charges that the United States cares little for Muslims and Arabs -- a charge that now involves security, as well as moral, considerations.

No other choice. Perhaps the best reason to invest in building democracy in a post-Saddam Iraq is that the alternatives are far worse. The conditions in Iraq today do not lend themselves to any other form of government --except the rise of another ruthless, mass-murdering dictator.

Some have suggested the creation of an oligarchy of tribal, religious, merchant, and other leaders similar to the interim Karzai regime in Afghanistan. But such a government would be difficult to establish in Iraq because the country lacks potential oligarchs. Saddam ruthlessly eliminated any potential rivals. Moreover, even if an oligarchy could be established, it would not represent the three-quarters of the Iraqi people who are educated, secular, sophisticated city-dwellers. They do not want to be ruled by a cabal of musty sheiks, out-of-touch mullahs, and army generals who have brought them so much misery over the past 80 years. Such an oligarchy would have no legitimacy among the vast majority of the people, creating tremendous instability.

-snip

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=124&subid=158&contentid=251480

[Roland99]

11. To the Greatest!

[Stephanie]

12. DU's PNAC library --->>>

PNAC Links Archive

[mod mom]

13. WOW I sometimes forget to use the archives. Thanks for the reminder, Stephanie!

[MelissaB]

19. Thanks, Stephanie!

:hi:

[slipslidingaway]

25. Bookmarked and thank you! n/t

[Armstead]

14. K&R This is really what this election should be about

[mod mom]

16. Unfortunately many here are happy to reaganize the 90's "accomplishments" of Bill

without looking at the connections. I wish folks would not listen to me but do their own research-like the looking into the connections between the Clintons (both Bill and Hillary (while at the Rose Law Firm) and JACKSON STEPHENS:

There has always been something incongruous about Stephens Inc. Despite the Little Rock firm's attempts to portray itself as a small- city operation that closes for the duck season and got fabulously lucky on a couple of down-home deals like Wal-Mart, it was, at the incinerator's inception, the ninth-largest investment bank in the country. Since it is not headquartered in New York, its dealings are local news, little noticed by the national press, even when they have national implications. And, as a source close to the company once remarked, "The farther you get from Arkansas, the better it looks."

Stephens Inc. was founded by Witt Stephens, a state legislator's son who parlayed a Depression-era belt-buckle, Bible, and municipal-bond business into an immense personal fortune. After his retirement in 1973, the company was run by his shy younger brother, Jackson (a classmate of Jimmy Carter's at the Naval Academy). Witt Stephens and Stephens Inc. did much to create the economic paradox that is modern Arkansas: a desperately poor state with a scant 2.3 million inhabitants that is nonetheless home to a number of wealthy companies. Without the financial assistance of the Stephens brothers, Sam Walton might have ended his days as the most innovative merchant in Bentonville. Stephens money was also important to the fortunes of enterprises as various as Tyson Foods and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, the television producer and reigning First Friend. Stephens Inc. is an important client of the Rose law firm, whose chairman, C. Joseph Giroir, made Hillary Rodham Clinton a partner. And back in 1977, Stephens assisted BCCI's infiltration of the American banking system by brokering the latter's purchase of National Bank of Georgia stock held by Bert Lance, former President Jimmy Carter's friend and disgraced budget director.

Jackson Stephens (who turned over the reins to his son, Warren, in the late eighties) and his firm were both substantial contributors to the campaigns of Presidents Reagan and Bush (to the tune of at least $100,000 in 1980 and 1989), but they have been closer still to Bill Clinton (whom Witt Stephens had been known to call "that boy").

On two occasions, once when Clinton was running for reelection in Arkansas in 1990 and again in March 1992, when his battered presidential campaign was broke, the Stephens family saved Clinton's bacon with an infusion of money. Indeed, it may not be too much to say that their Worthen Bank's emergency $3.5 million line of credit saved the presidential campaign from extinction. --L.J.D.

-snip

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1993/11/davis.html





POLICIES OF THE 90'S:

It's not exactly an advertisement for the working-class hero, or a picture her campaign freely displays. Her lengthy support for the Iraq War is Clinton's biggest liability in Democratic primary circles. But her ties to corporate America say as much, if not more, about what she values and cast doubt on her ability and willingness to fight for the progressive policies she claims to champion. She is "running to help and restore the great middle class in our country," Wolfson says. So was Bill in 1992. He was for "putting people first." Then he entered the White House and pushed for NAFTA, signed welfare reform, consolidated the airwaves through the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (leading to Clear Channel's takeover) and cleared the mergers of mega-banks. Would the First Lady do any different? Ever since the defeat of healthcare reform, Hillary has been a committed incrementalist, describing herself as a creature of the "moderate, sensible center" whom business admires and rewards. During her six years in the Senate, she's rarely been out front on difficult economic issues. Given her proximity to money and power, it's not hard to figure out why she keeps controversial figures close to her--even if their work becomes a liability for her campaign.

-snip
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070604/berman

[MelissaB]

15. Thanks for pulling all of this together.

This is an important topic that I'm afraid will get drowned out by the name calling threads.

[Yael]

17. This is very important information. Thank you

K&R

[mod mom]

18. GO TO THIS EXCELLENT THREAD CURRENTLY @ TOP OF THE GREATEST FOR MORE

CONNECTIONS WITH CLINTON & BFEE:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2836046&mesg_id=2836046

[Individualist]

20. Thank you for posting this

Everyone needs to know about DLC.

[Califooyah Operative]

21. sssshhhh.... nt

[Zodiak]

22. K&R

I know that yapping about the DLC is boring to some, but it is the heart of our woes, in my opinion.

I will not affix my vote to a DLCer. Let them wither on the vine.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. you should submit this to www.OpEdNews.com

get the word out so people realize what is going on.

There are newbies to the political sphere that don't know about DLC or PNAC.
Seriously.

[slipslidingaway]

24. Third Way, FISA, Telecom Immunity, Senator Rockefeller

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2826324
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013108J.shtml
http://www.thirdway.org/

"A think tank with close ties to the telecommunication industry has been working with a key Democrat in the Senate on a domestic surveillance bill that would provide telecommunications companies with retroactive immunity for possibly violating federal law by spying on American citizens at the behest of the Bush administration...


During the crafting of the Intelligence Committee bill, Bennett met with a frequent contact of his, Clete Johnson, Rockefeller's legislative aide for military and national security issues, to discuss the FISA legislation. At the meeting, Bennett advised Johnson on talking points to help make the case for telecom immunity...

Twelve Democrats broke with their party and joined Republicans by voting against the Senate Judiciary version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation on Thursday, January 24. The bill would have stripped out the retroactive immunity for telecoms..."



This looks interesting so I'll post the link. I've yet to read through the entire post and comments though.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/5/25/144057/339

Third Way Responds
by Chris Bowers, Fri May 25, 2007 at 02:40:57 PM EST

"After my post Wednesday morning asking questions about Third Way, I actually received an email response from the group. I have placed the complete response in the extended entry. The most relevant part of the response dealt with what the term "third way" actually means, and what other two "ways" to which they are relatively "third." Prepare for a long post in the extended entry..."



For some reason your rightweb profile link did not open for me... the webpage cannot be found???

And FWIW a reference chart
A Complete List of PNAC Signatories and Contributing Writers
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/charts/pnac-chart.htm


Thanks for connecting more dots :)

[mod mom]

26. This deserves it's own post. Thanks for posting slipslidingaway!

[slipslidingaway]

28. I think it's important that we look at individuals and their

connections instead of just the letter after their name.

:)

YW and thank you for raising the topic.

[spotbird]

27. This explains the

switch on the right to a new candidate when Mitt dropped out. I listened to Rush on Friday, he was serious, it made my blood run cold.