Somebody please explain this inconsistency to me re: Obama and Kos:

[Metric System]

I just visited Daily Kos for the last time (obviously Clinton supporters are no longer welcome there) and came across this in the comment section under the article "The Clinton Civil War"-

Someone posted this comment:

"Targeting DLCers to get rid of

The DLC and their type of thinking will be around even if Obama wins.

Just as we are targeting blue dogs to get rid of we need to target these folks for the same kind of effort.

Who can we make the Al Wynn of 2008?"

To which Kos responded with:

"There will be a plethora of targets."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/17/12417/1285/527/478498


So, um, why is Kos and others supporting Obama? Isn't Obama the one who talks about working with Republicans? Isn't he the one who said the following:

***"Her natural inclination is to draw a picture of Republicans as people who need to be crushed and defeated," Obama said during a telephone interview from Texas with the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board. "It's not entirely her fault. She's been the target of some unfair attacks in the past."

"I'm not a person who believes any one party has a monopoly on wisdom," Obama said.***

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/2/29/94057/4513

So doesn't this kind of toss-them-overboard attitude conflict with Obama's unity speak and talk of moving away from the divisions of the past? Or is Obama only interested in working with Rethugs, but not the DLC members of his own party? It's also very possible that Obama just doesn't share the same view as Markos. And if that's the case, won't some of you be very disappointed when Obama fails to stand up to Republicans?

[Kittycat]

1. Correction... HRC supporters are welcome.

They just threw a hissy fit because their candidate is not the most popular, and gets called on it. :shrug:

[Maribelle]

29. Your pomp is not consistent with the deplorable vitriol I witnessed there.

My last visit there, I saw no signs of intelligence life - merely a bunch of sicko puppies in dire need of rabies treatment.

Too bad they were so negligent in getting their shots - rabies is so contagious amongst that group.

[tabatha]

2. Does it not have to do with corporate support?

[Hutzpa]

3. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!

:crazy: :eyes: :freak:

[TwilightGardener]

4. Obama intends to work with Repubs, rather than ignore them. Doesn't mean he'll try to adopt

their agenda, like a DLC triangulator would.

[moobu2]

9. Barack has more in common with republicans

than Hillary does any day of the week.

[TwilightGardener]

12. ...

:rofl:

[stillcool]

18. you mean like this?

When Clinton first came to Washington in 1993, one of her first steps was to join a Bible study group. For the next eight years, she regularly met with a Christian "cell" whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat.

Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

The Fellowship's long-term goal is "a leadership led by God—leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit." According to the Fellowship's archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship's God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators. Clinton, says Schenck, has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance.

------------------------------

These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. Though weighted Republican, the breakfast—regularly attended by about 40 members—is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians to burnish their reputations, giving Clinton the chance to profess her faith with men such as Brownback as well as the twin terrors of Oklahoma, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and, until recently, former Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Democrats in the group include Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who told us that the separation of church and state has gone too far; Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is also a regular.

Unlikely partnerships have become a Clinton trademark. Some are symbolic, such as her support for a ban on flag burning with Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and funding for research on the dangers of video games with Brownback and Santorum. But Clinton has also joined the gop on legislation that redefines social justice issues in terms of conservative morality, such as an anti-human-trafficking law that withheld funding from groups working on the sex trade if they didn't condemn prostitution in the proper terms. With Santorum, Clinton co-sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act; she didn't back off even after Republican senators such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter pulled their names from the bill citing concerns that the measure would protect those refusing to perform key aspects of their jobs—say, pharmacists who won't fill birth control prescriptions, or police officers who won't guard abortion clinics.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-3.html

[moobu2]

5. I used to go to Daily Kos, americablog etc...daily

but gave it for the same reason. Never will any of them get ever another hit from my click.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Problem #1:

You're looking for consistency from Kos. Bad, bad mistake. These are the same people who said that Lieberman ought to be strung up from a lamppost by his entrails and were then shocked - shocked! - when Lieberman decided to give a big "Fuck You" to the base of the Democratic party.

[shraby]

7. Nope, Obama represents bottom

up grassroots movement and collective wisdom, DLC represents top down selective strategy. "Their way or the highway", and this is also Clinton's thinking. That's why she has many states that "don't count", and every one counts to him. He also realizes that if people of all stripes aren't brought into the process, there is a good chance the Democrats will fail to win again in the fall. Selectively cherry picking states to concentrate in like the Clintons/DLC does is historically a failing strategy.

[housewolf]

8. I think the problems with the DLC have to do with their Republican-like economic stance

Corporatist
pro-big business
anti-worker

[jlake]

10. The problem is that Kos is now the Fox of the FAR left.

[Zueda]

11. There is more than one way to "work with republicans".

There's the old 'closed door' way which Lieberman and Co. always talk about.

And there's the new 'open door' way which Obama is talking about.

[bunnies]

13. You really should do a bit of research on the DLC.

Then you could easily answer your own question.

[Metric System]

14. I'm not arguing for Kos & Co. to support the DLC or Hillary. That's not my point. My point is that I

just don't think Obama is the answer that Kos & Co. is looking for.

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. Yes, they have drawn this big bogus distinction between Obama & Clinton

as if they were worlds apart on policy matters. It's based on the parts of the Clinton presidency that they didn't like, and the IWR vote.
Otherwise, they are as confused & conflicted about this "unity" stuff as everybody else.

[bunnies]

20. You might be correct.

But vs. Hillary, Obama is the best they're going to do this time around.

[Rageneau]

16. KOS was once a Republican, and once a Republican....

Frankly, I will always be suspicious of the Ariannas and Andrew Sullivans and Markoses who are late-comers to the Democratic Party. To liberalism, in fact. Because how can it be that they didn't see how very WRONG the GOP was waaaaaay back when?

How can I see through charlatans so much faster and easier than them, considering that they have the clout to get their opinions heard and I don't? Since I'm smarter than them about politics (I must be, because I haven't had to say 'I was wrong' yet) then how come they have all the influence? Where is their financial support coming from? The GOP?

Also, if they are for Obama -- and their track record is one of being for the wrong people (rethuglicans) -- why shouldn't I be doubly suspicious of them? Of their judgment? Of their sincerity?

I'll suggest an answer that makes sense of all of this. It may not be the true answer, but it makes sense.

What if KOS and Arianna and Sullivan and a half-dozen more 'liberal' websites all secretly work for the anti-Clinton forces, whoever those may be.

[Cheap_Trick]

19. unless of course KOS & co. were supporting HRC

Then you'd be talking about how they'd seen the light. I doubt you'd be "doubly suspicious of them" then. Would you?

[Metric System]

21. I knew Arianna crossed over from the dark side, but I didn't know Kos did too. Very interesting.

[Nedsdag]

22. Funny,

Wasn't Hillary Clinton a Republican at one point in her life?

[Upton]

24. Hillary was president of the Young Republicans at Wellesley

suspicious of her as well? If not, perhaps you should be.

[Texas Hill Country]

27. has her track record since made up for it? i should think so.

[thevoiceofreason]

17. There are still plenty of pro-Hillary threads there

I guess it's by those who didn't get the memo.

Just like I don't leave DU when it gets flooded by Hillary fans and the the RICH (Republicans In Camp Hillary)

[NewHampster]

23. Obama is consistantly inconsistant so

I don't see any problem. He says and does whatever he thinks will get him votes that week.

[cali]

28. um, no. he's actually pretty damn consistent

and unlike Hilly dear he doesn't say crap like America gave Iraq the gift of freedom. Anyway, she's done. Hanging around and hoping for Obama to implode won't pay off for her.

[Texas Hill Country]

25. From what i have seen, both Huff and Kos have been shamefully one sided...

[mod mom]

26. Read this by Kos-Obama repudiated the DLC 3 times!

The Clinton civil war
by kos
Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 10:25:22 AM PDT

Al Giordano, on the laughable Clinton-supporters "strike" of this blog:
There was always something incongruous about the self-proclaimed “Hillary Bloggers” trying to use Daily Kos for their purposes. DKos has been defined as a meeting ground not for every Democrat, but for the kind that wants to change the party to be more grassroots oriented, adhere to a 50-state strategy, stop the war in Iraq, and blunt the influence of lobbyists, PACs and the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). That’s the glue that has always held the DKos community together and made it so large and strong.

Given that candidate Clinton is a member of the DLC, voted to authorize the war, accepts federal lobbyist and PAC money, clearly thinks that a lot (if not most) states “don’t matter,” and epitomizes a 1990s style top-down form of doing politics, it’s no surprise that for all of 2007 Clinton never exceeded 11 percent support in the monthly Daily Kos users straw poll.

I would add one more item to the list above -- this site has also been hostile to the corrosive consultant class that gave us our timid and weak party until Howard Dean shook it up in 2004.
Now I'm willing to stipulate that on the consultant front, there's likely not much difference between the Obama and Clinton campaigns (I don't know if it's true, but I assume it is). But on everything else, Clinton fails the test of the guiding principles of this site, and of my first book, Crashing the Gate.

Clinton isn't just a member of the DLC, she's in their leadership. Obama, by the way, repudiated the organization three times (it's a great story, which I tell in my forthcoming book).
http://www.dailykos.com/