Watching the desperate efforts of Hillary Clinton to push her failed Presidential bid long past the time to gracefully bow out, is increasingly troubling.  She is campaigning in three states, today.

She has events scheduled today in the upcoming primary states of Oregon, South Dakota and West Virginia. Barack Obama will be in Washington today.

With her money drained and her options dwindling, a resolute Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to press on with her presidential bid even as she and top advisers were hard-pressed to describe a realistic path for her to wrest the nomination from Barack Obama.

In the midst of all the cheerleading for the democrats, Rolling Stone magazine is a lone voice, exposing manipulations that have helped to silence the anti-war movement in the Democratic party.

It was obvious when Hillary ran for Senate in 2000, she was really running for President.

It was obvious that her manifestly conscious tilt to the right as a Senator, supporting a flag-burning amendment, sundry votes supporting Bush policies, including the fateful support for the Iraq War resolution, were all the actions of a triangulating Presidential candidate.

It was obvious from her hard "iron-lady" neocon-lite rhetoric that she was trying to push back against the widely propagated (and false) right-wing meme that she is a raging liberal.  Presidents must build consensus among the American people, after all.

The excerpt below is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible.

From The Hill’s Pundits Blog:

Why Democratic Political Consultants Love the Iraq War

Brent Budowsky

Now we read in the Boston Globe how John Kerry, preparing to campaign to be commander in chief, voted in 2002 for the Iraq war after his political consultants informed the would-be leader of the free world that he would not be "politically viable" unless he voted yes.

This followed the disclosure that Bob Shrum advised John Edwards to send young men and women to die as a way of  improving his weak national-security resume in 2002.

Why Democratic officials listen to this is beyond me...

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Last Monday, former GOP strategist Greg Stevens died of brain cancer. Stevens, who was 58, was credited with creating the 1988 advertisement featuring Michael Dukakis in a tank.

According to Adam Bernsteim of the Washington Post, Stevens' firm produced ads by the Swift Vote Veterans for Truth in 2004. Last fall, his firm digitally manipulated images of the Twin Towers taken prior to 9/11 and added bilowing smoke.

This is a brief diary, but still carries a powerful message: The old consultant mindset is still going strong.

Last night, I went to the San Francisco fundraiser for Governor Brian Schweitzer. Having just arrived from work, I was plenty hungry and congregated at one the obligatory tables when I met a political consultant who just moved from the Midwest. Having come from the same general third of the country, we started talking about politics in and around the prairie states, when the topic turned to Kansas and Newly-elected Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. "I think she'll hang on", I said, "Because I heard she's done a great job so far working the district". "Yeah" answered the consultant, "she's raised a lot of money there".

The RightWing blogosphere has finally realized what Markos has known for many years: to truly capitalize on the Internet, you must enable a community to interact.  Initially, Extremists like Hugh Hewitt and others vilified Markos for allowing his readers to post opinions, claiming that they were driving the Democratic Party away from the Center.  Many of those same critics have now incorporated unto their sites the same features which they once disparaged, and which have made DailyKos the most popular political community in the country.

http://www.alexa.com/...

We can't stop there.  We must now transform DailyKos into a community that can provide not only provide rapid feedback to Democratic media strategists as they produce TV spots, but can also provide sketchbooks of potential 30-second TV spots.

The Super Bowl has convinced me that this is not only possible, but potentially very rewarding.

Dear Presidential Candidates,

In the extended text you will find the complete open letter to the presidential candidates. I wrote the letter in hopes of deterring candidates from making the kinds of mistakes that South has made throughout his career and to avoid the Democratic infighting that South is so happy to instigate.  I warn candidates that by hiring Garry South, you will be wearing the Scarlet Letter "T" as in Triangulator or DLC or whatever.  I think we all get the point.

I appreciate your attention to the letter.  Of course, feedback is appreciated.  Recommendations here and at MyDD are appreciated as well.  You will find more about South and other issues of importance to California at Calitics.com

Brian Leubitz
Calitics.com

From BuzzFlash.com:

I Challenge Celinda Lake To A Debate About The Soul, Honor, and Strategy Of Democrats On Iraq

by Brent Budowsky

One of the Democratic Party's leading pollsters, consultants and strategists is quoted in the Washington Post as advising Democrats to avoid taking a strong stand against the troop surge and escalation of the war in Iraq.

Ms. Celinda Lake is quoted as follows: "people are not looking to their individual members of Congress to solve the Iraq war." And: advising Democrats to focus on domestic issues rather than opposing the escalating war, Ms. Lake is quoted saying this is "the perfect juxtaposition."

It is high time and long overdue that Democrats across America, from the grassroots to the high levels of leadership in Washington, initiate a serious debate about both the honor and soul of the Democratic Party on Iraq, and about the political strategy of a Party that should aspire to lead the nation and be credible on national security issues...

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Hey Gang:

I am putting together another direct mail archive of mail from this fall election, but unfortunately I am only getting state ballot proposition mail and a handful of pieces from Democrats statewide in California.

I'm looking for anything particularly interesting in California, but am also interested in a piece of mail out of state that needs debunking (i.e. a GOP hit piece) or one that stands out as something you saw and picked up because it looked interesting.

This is important because while TV ads can be YouTubed for promo or for debunking GOP negative ads, mail is stealthy and can send out a nasty message and not get noticed by the press or a campaign until it's too late. Thus, my reason for doing this during elections.

I've done this in the past and had a network of people who send me stuff, but this time around none of us are getting as much junk mail as before. So go to the link below, and if there's something you'd like to submit, just email me. I'll happily credit you for your PDF or JPG file on the site as well!

Find it at

http://www.gregdewar.com/...

Enjoy!

Crossposted on Arredonald
From a link I found today on Huffington Post:

The two biggest beneficiaries of the 2004 elections were media consultants for the presidential campaigns of President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Maverick Media, led by Mark McKinnon, ran the media campaign for Bush and the Republican National Committee for a total cost of $177 million. Riverfront Media, led by consultant Bob Shrum, was paid $150 million to run the media campaign for Kerry and the Democratic National Committee. (emphisis mine)

Jesus H Christ.    All of those 25 dollar checks that I sent Kerry,  Bob  the "loser loser loser" (actually as you see below there should be 8 "losers") Shrum and Co. pocket 150 million for brilliant ideas like not to responding right away to the Swift Boat attacks?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Shrum:

Posted at BuzzFlash.com:

Let's Make This Our Season For Freedom And Hope In America. Let's Roll.

by Brent Budowsky

First the problem, then the solution.

Karl Roves' secret weapon has alway been the Washington insider class of Democratic commentariats, consultariats and courtiers.

They are the most brilliant political thinkers on earth, when they are promoting the Democratic class of insider commentariats, consultariats and courtiers.

Never before in history has a privileged elite in the church of insiderism, made as much money losing elections, as these inside the beltway bandits who are largely divorced from the heart and soul of what used to be the Party of the people.

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In honor of Labor Day I wanted to take a moment to put my two cents in about the Beltway Boyz, the Consultant Circus, and the selling of the Democratic Party as businesses to unsuspecting candidates to turn a profit.

All of this while also addressing the wonderful world of fundraising - who is good at it - who sucks at it - and who can't hold onto his/her money to save a campaign.  

And how proper staffing matters.  How does money make a difference, what does money get you?  Does it guarantee a win?

HERE WE GO!

Cross-posted from Calitics: the progressive community blog for California.
With the recent launch of the California Majority Report, I returned to the idea of what the meaning of what it really means to have a blog, to write a blog, and to be part of a group blog.  What is a progressive blog? But more generally, what is a political blog?  

I ask the question that is in the title of this post because the "contributors" of the California Majority Report seem to be working at cross purposes.   To flesh this out let's compare this site to several others on the Internet.  Follow me to the flip...

Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines surrender as:

to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand <surrendered the fort> b : to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another

 [ http://www.m-w.com/... ]

The majority of Iraqis are demanding, and quite reasonably so, that we immediately leave Iraq.  But, if we agree to "yield to the power, control and possession" of Iraqis "upon [their] compulsion or demand", then that, by definition, will be "surrendering."  Although surrender is sometimes the only reasonable course of action given the circumstances, particularly when a fight was not worth having to begin with, yet Americans generally hate to surrender and they loathe American people who surrender.  

Before I begin this diary I want to place what I'm about to say in context.  First, this entry is meant in an entirely constructive way to the liberal political blog world.  It is not in even a remote way meant as an attack on anyone & I hope my suggestions will be taken that way.  Second, I don't know whether Kos himself has here addressed any or all of the issues I'm about to raise.  If so, then I say more power to him & I'll retire gracefully fr. the field.

Though the entire TNR/David Brooks Townhouse story reeks of being a non-story kicked until it feebly attempted to raise its head off the ground, I do believe that the NY Times' political blog, The Opinionator, has captured an important ethical issue.     MORE...

I was pleasantly surprise to find Kos contributing to Slate this morning. In a back-and-forth debate between Kos and Stuart Stevens, a political consultant, the two argued the inherent evilness of political consultants.
Stevens politely conjectured that you can't put lipstick on a pig - you can't pretend that Kerry has a backbone when he doesn't.
Stevens ends his argument with a flourish, quoting a passage from the off-ridiculed Democrat Joe Klein in his new book "Politics Lost:"
"Kennedy's words stand as a sublime example of politics in its grandest form, for its highest purpose--to heal, to educate, to lead--but also sadly they represent the end of an era: the last moments before American political life was overwhelmed by marketing professionals, consultants, and pollsters who, with the flaccid acquiescence of the politicians, have robbed public life of much of its romance and vigor."
For Stevens clearly believes this his attempt at an early deathblow: a fine example of a Democrat pundit criticizing all candidates - Republicans and Democrats - for not having spine, personality, etc...