Decision ‘08

Bulldogging Kos

Congrats to BulldogPundit on getting a coveted RealClearPolitics spot; it’s well deserved, too. Kos is the subject, and after congratulating him on his perceptiveness regarding the forced filibuster brought on by the ‘netroots’ (God, I hate that term already!), he lays down the hammer:

In a way, what Kos has done to the Democrat party is a good thing and is admirable. The tail shouldn’t wag the dog. And they are rightly telling the people that run for their nomination that if you want our money, you will toe the line. (Republican activists are trying to tell the leadership much the same thing on the issue of immigration.) But for the Democrats this is a double-edged sword, and one that’s going to chop their heads off.

Why? Because in being forced to pander to the true believers they have to take positions that the rest of the country rejects. Kos and MoveOn.org can say they’re in the “mainstream” till they’re blue in the face, but election results (the only thing that matter) say exactly the opposite.

Think about this: let’s say NARAL and PFAW had done all that Kos and the rest wanted them to do. How many more cloture votes would they have gotten? Maybe 5 at best? Kos made the correct observation that there was no way the red-state Dems were going to vote against allowing a vote on Alito because they’d have been thrown out by their conservative constituency come next election. Which is another part of the problem - outside of the coasts, Michigan and Illinois, a Democrat can’t afford to drink the Kos Kool Aid.

What they also fail to realize is that the reason they didn’t stop Judge Alito was not because of what the PFAW, NARAL, or the Senators did or didn’t do. It was because of their message. For all the energy and passion the far-left “netroots” community brought to this fight (and to ignore that they were indeed a big factor is to be blind to reality) they are incredibly tone-deaf to the fact the majority of Americans just don’t agree with them.

Quite right…you may have the best-looking pig in the world, and contrary to rumor, you CAN put lipstick on a pig…the problem is, everyone can tell at a glance that it’s just a pig with lipstick on…

Or something like that…

2 Responses to “Bulldogging Kos”

1 Jojo Says:
February 4th, 2006 at 1:58 am
and contrary to rumor, you CAN put lipstick on a pig
I’d ask how you know this, but I doubt I really want to know.
2 Shawn, Neo-Con War Commenter Says:
February 4th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Here’s a really crazy idea:

Maybe if the Democrats (or the DLC) found a guy rich enough (and sufficiently not crazy) to run for President out of his own pocket, he could face down the Kos Kidz, and not take too much of a shot in the wallet. He wouldn’t even have to win, he would just have to do well enough to shoot down Kos.

So, yes, I feel the Democrats need a liberal Steve Forbes.