Surrender Crats Find New MuscleAs usual,
the Democrats find that maintaining their coalition of special interest groups inevitably leads to conflict:
On Thursday, leaders of the liberal group MoveOn.org, including Tom Matzzie, the group’s Washington director who also serves as the campaign manager for the coalition, sent a harshly worded warning to the Democratic leadership.
“In the past few days, we have seen what appear to be trial balloons signaling a significant weakening of the Democratic position,” the letter read. “On this, we want to be perfectly clear: if Democrats appear to capitulate to Bush — passing a bill without measures to end the war — the unity Democrats have enjoyed and Democratic leadership has so expertly built, will immediately disappear.”
Of course, the Democrats did not run on an explicit campaign of surrender in Iraq; it was only implicit, for the simple reason they would not have won behind the white banner. This is, of course, the real problem with running a "stealth" campaign; you cannot claim to have a mandate for what you really want if you didn't run on that platform.
One of the coalition’s strengths is its diversity, bringing to together groups like MoveOn.org and organized labor on one end and former Iraq veterans in the group Votevets.org on the other, members said. But that diversity can also create some tense moments, as each of the groups have different constituencies and some of the groups are more invested in the Democratic Party than others.
Labels: Antiwar Groups, Leftist Coalition, Surrender 'Crats
