Meet the DLC Leadership Team

[Cheese Sandwich]

2006

From left to right: Harold Ford, Jr. is chairman of the DLC. U.S. Sen. Tom Carper is vice chair of the DLC; U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is chair of the DLC's American Dream Initiative; Al From is founder and CEO of the DLC.

Hillary Clinton is now trying to sell the idea that she has a progressive record. But of course that only works on people who don't follow politics closely or haven't for very long.

She was closely tied to the DLC, an organization of neoliberal, business conservative, Democrats that literally set out to capture control of the Democratic Party and achieved that goal.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090113230137/http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ka.cfm?kaid=137

[onehandle]

1. No longer exists.

The end is nigh.

[HooptieWagon]

2. Rebranded to Third Way.

DLC became a toxic brand. Even Obama shied away from it despite his friendliness to Wall St.

[TM99]

7. Of course it exists.

All of the same people are in the Iron Triangle of DC.

Will Marshall and his PPI still exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Marshall

[MaeScott]

24. Morphed into "New Democrats". SSDD. nt

[rhett o rick]

12. What they just all vanashed? They exist and still control the Democratic Party.

They provide the tough leadership that you soooo need. But they don't give a crap about those suffering among us. Apparently you side with them.

[sheshe2]

16. 2006

They are reaching onehandle. Reaching.

[tokenlib]

19. Yeah right..Third Way is alive and well..

Harold Ford, and Gov Rendell are noxious as ever. Every "nolabels" Dem came out of the DLC/Third Way cess pool. They are the Dems for the Leisure Class as always.

[w4rma]

21. remnants of … [DLC] … are being absorbed into the Clinton Foundation, founder Al From said

DLC records to Clinton Foundation

The remnants of the once-powerful Democratic Leadership Council, which closed its doors earlier this year after a period of ideological and organizational decline, are being absorbed into the Clinton Foundation, founder Al From said in an email.

From wrote this morning:

The DLC has accomplished much of what we first set out to achieve. As a result, the DLC itself ceased operations earlier this year, but the records and materials prepared and formulated by the DLC over the years have significant historical value.

Because many of these materials show and explain the growth and development of President Clinton's policies, passions and legacy, the William J. Clinton Foundation has purchased all of the records and materials of the DLC. The Clinton Presidential Center is an important location for telling the story not just of the Clinton administration but also of the world at the latter part of the 20th century. We believe these records are an important part of that history, and believe the Clinton Foundation is an appropriate and fitting repository.

The DLC sought for a time to identify itself with Obama's message and his campaign, but found itself relatively unwelcome there and the final move cements its place as a central force in Clintonism and the Clinton historical record.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2011/07/dlc-records-to-clinton-foundation-037215

[NurseJackie]

3. Monsters in the closet and under the bed ...

... boo! Be afraid, be afraid!

[99th_Monkey]

20. It's not about "monsters" or being afraid.

It's about greedy calculating opportunists who infiltrated 'the party of the people"
in order to betray its most vulnerable demographics i.e. the elderly, the very poor,
the struggling middle & lower-income classes, labor unions, et. al., and you know
damned well this is true..

And you obviously identify with & willingly run-interference for this ugly betrayal;
precisely because "your candidate" and her husband are part & parcel to this
travesty.

[KPN]

27. We are ... with good reason.

You should be too ... but that takes the ability to reason and think for one's self.

[NurseJackie]

30. So, what you're saying is that y'all are being beat by a bunch of dummies?

[KPN]

33. Exactly.

[NurseJackie]

37. Ha!! :-D

[Martin Eden]

42. When people are fooled into voting against their own interests, who are the "dummies"?

Hillary Clinton has managed to convince Democratic voters such as yourself that she is a progressive who represents the values the Democratic Party once stood for, but anyone who is capable of cutting through the rhetoric can clearly see she is a DLC Third Way Neoliberal who is the epitome of the Washington power structure that spends our national treasure on perpetual war and has rigged the game against average working Americans.

The joke is on you NurseJackie, but it is no laughing matter.

[NCTraveler]

39. lol. I hadn't even read yours before I posted. I left a "boo" in mine as well. nt.

[NurseJackie]

46. They're unhappy. Very very ...

... VERY unhappy.

[NCTraveler]

47. That I understand. Many good people here are unhappy.

Promoting Fox News, Breitbart, republicans, and Judicial Watch on a regular basis is something completely different.

[NurseJackie]

48. There's an old joke about an airline motto of "We're not happy, until you're not happy!"

... which also applies to many of the disappointed, disheartened, disgruntled and disillusioned Bernie fans (and assorted HillaryHaters).

[libdem4life]

45. Another intelligent post. Lack of vocabulary, apparently. n/t

[TM99]

4. Read this and you will know

exactly what Clinton wants for this country by 2020.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080513063112/http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=137&subid=900111&contentid=253588

She wrote it all out in 2006. The highest priority is national security and stopping terrorism. The second is an ACA style insurance plan that involves global free trade. From there it is private enterprise, balancing the budget, and a return to the 1990's style of New Dem neoliberalism.

Read this and then take out all of the pander to the progressive left in this campaign to try and woo Sanders supporters, and we are left with the Hillary Clinton we all know and loathe. She is a moderate Republican who has with her DLC chums shifted from the GOP to the Democratic Party in order to carry on neoliberal economic policies and strong neocon foreign policies.

It is chilling foreshadowing of the triangulation that will occur if she is elected president.

[Cheese Sandwich]

11. It's weird because their speeches sound pretty reasonable,

they sound positive, but I see it more as a sales pitch and their real goal is to protect the wealthy interests and business interests that pay them. They work for who pays them. And it's very clear when you look at their actions, what they fight for, and their results.

[TM99]

17. It is hope and change.

It sounds good but look beneath the rhetoric and you see neocon strong foreign policy against terrorits, neoliberal economic policies, and the tired free trade canard.

[riderinthestorm]

14. Thanks for this nt

[KPN]

28. +1!!

[vintx]

31. And it USED TO BE almost universally despised here.

Aside from a notable few, the DLC was the reason behind the party's sinking popularity. We used to decry Republican lite policies and believe that only by giving voters a clear alternative could we revive the party.

This place has changed so much.

[TM99]

35. The number of times

Truman's quote on Republicans vs Republican lite was posted here was staggering over the years.

And now because the usual suspects support Clinton, all is forgiven and forgotten. As long as we win, which is how the DLC fucking took over in the first place.

They are like cross-roads demons. They will give us the win but at what fucking price and cost 20 years later. Look at where we ended up 20 years after the first Clinton. Do we really want to risk where we will end up 20 years from now after another one?!

[vintx]

40. Precisely. And this is exactly why this party is hemorrhaging members

when based on demographics we should be growing.

[JimDandy]

5. She back on THAT ridiculous weathervane cycle?

Barf.

[Raine1967]

9. She's not, the OP is.

[griffi94]

6. The picture is captioned as being from 2006

That was 10 years ago.

I wonder how many people still care.
It doesn't seem to be hurting Hillary
in votes or delegates.

[Raine1967]

8. What is Harold Ford doing these days?

(hint: He's not in office)

This canard is getting old.

We have two great candidates. one is leading,

the DLC didn't make that happen, the DLC disbanded a long time ago.

[Electric Monk]

10. Ford is working at Wall St. firm Morgan Stanley. What a nice revolving door, indeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ford,_Jr.#Post-election_activities

[Raine1967]

13. And what does that have to do with anything?

please, proceed.

I think the cheese is the one I was talking to.

[Electric Monk]

15. You are familiar with the concept of a revolving door, I hope? Think Cheney & Halliburton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolving_door_%28politics%29

[KPN]

29. What? If you have to ask that ...

[vintx]

41. Right? The revolving door is another thing which USED to be a problem for DUers.

Now suddenly it's fine and dandy.

[Dragonfli]

18. Working for Morgan Stanley of course (revolving door and all that)

http://www.morganstanley.com/press-releases/former-us-congressman-harold-ford-jr-joins-morgan-stanley_6b2c1335-7508-495c-aba7-6ce3d14cc42b

[That Guy 888]

22. The DLC rebranded a long time ago.

The same players are still around, still involved either in politics, or in industries that want to influence politics.

How many times do they have to rebrand? How many times did Blackwater rebrand?

We have one great candidate, and one neo-con war hawk that wanted a no fly-zone over Syria. A neo-con that promoted fracking abroad. A neo-con that supported a coup in Honduras that assassinates environmentalists. A neo-con who bragged that she promoted H1-B visas to the detriment of American workers so well that she could "run for the Senate in Pujab&quot India).

I always wondered how rank and file republicans could continually vote for a kick in the ass every election. I don't think I can belong to a party that does that.

[Scuba]

23. Now called the "Third Way" and led by ...

[Yurovsky]

26. It's the corporate wing of the Demcratic Party, and they want progressives to STFU...

and get in line. They will ensure that working-class and poor Americans continue to get screwed for as long as they are in power.

Economic justice is the biggest issue in Amerca today, and these folks & HRC want to maintain the plutocracy. And plenty of folks here on DU are right there with them. 8 years of DLC economic warfare on vulnerable Americans coming up...

[vintx]

32. They will destroy this party.

But they'll still get paid so why should they care?

[KPN]

44. What do you mean will?

[Wilms]

25. ^

[Land of Enchantment]

34. Yeah, it's all sooooo '90's....Nothing like moving backward in time.

She has always had her eye on Iran and suspect it will be next. Very disappointing her supporters fail to recognize the connections between the old DLC'ers and War.

[Ferd Berfel]

36. You left out the Koch Brothers

and some other Right Wing Republicans....

http://www.democrats.com/node/7789

Do deep-pocketed "philanthropists" necessarily control the organizations they fund? That has certainly been the contention of those who truck in conspiracy theories about the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations funding liberal and neo-liberal organizations. As for the rightwing, journalists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons uncovered that the "vast right wing conspiracy" -- or the New Right network of think tanks, media outlets and pressure groups -- was marshalled under rightwing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife for his Get-Clinton campaign. Prior to the work of Conason and Lyons, Russ Bellant extensively documented in "The Coors Connection" how the Coors Family, Scaife and other wealthy rightwingers have funded the New Right movement since the early '70's. Among these rightwing benefactors are the Koch brothers. But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute in 1977, while David helped launch Citizens for a Sound Economy [now FreedomWorks] in 1986.

more....................

[vintx]

43. Damn. Even when you spell it out it's just ignored ...

Those blinders must feel really good...

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

[NCTraveler]

38. Heard it here first. CS referred to Clinton as a leader. lol.

Boo!!!!!