I noticed the BT front-page being displayed on the Beltways Boys program this weekend. But I had no idea why Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke chose to display it until I got my hands on the transcript for the show. Apparently they couldn’t even utter the name of this blog or put up a nice URL for their friendly audience. The louts.
Here’s what they said.
BARNES: Down: the so-called nut-roots: angry, liberal bloggers empowered by the last election are not only attacking Republicans, they’re after moderate Democrats, like Representative Ellen Tauscher. The anti-moderate backlash has even party stalwarts like Steny Hoyer and Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the defensive.
KONDRACKE: Yes. The – all of the – these left-wing blogs, a lot of them anyway, are attacking Ellen Tauscher, who’s the head of the – the – the New Democrats in – in the House of Representatives, who has been moving left, along with all of the other New Democrats. You know, they – their.
BARNES: Not fast enough.
KONDRACKE: Well, they are – they – yes, not fast enough, exactly.
But I think this is perfectly typical of the way the far left operates in this country, to attack people in their own party. Why? Who do they think is responsible for all the evils that take place in the world? Their own country, the United States of America. They attack their own first.
BARNES: You know, Mort, this once again, I – I think underscores the truth of Michael Barone’s take on – on political bloggers. He says that it’s a win-win for Republicans and conservatives. Because the liberal bloggers, all they do is attack Democrats, their own people, driving them to the left, as you say. And – and hurting their election possibilities.
The conservative bloggers, they spend all their time attacking the liberal mainstream media. So it’s win-win for Republicans and conservatives. And – and the liberal bloggers, they don’t seem to mind this at all, what they’re doing. They have a different view of America politically than I think is realistic.
KONDRACKE: Absolutely. And I think – I think to the extent that they succeed in driving the Democratic presidential candidates to the left, you know, they’re going to – they’re going to repeat the – the errors of Michael Dukakis and George McGovern and Walter Mondale and all those Democratic candidates who failed, even in this kind of environment, which ought to favor the election of a Democratic presidential candidate in – in 2008.
BARNES: Republicans are cheering them on.
Must be a reference to this piece. As for the central charge, I don’t think the country is anywhere near as right-wing as Fred Barnes seems to think. The country is apathetic and will be led anywhere it is told. Just look at Bush’s record. He was barely elected either time and he governed like he had a 90% mandate. He stole more money than Ghengis Khan managed to, in his long career.
We’ll keep moving the party left until it has the courage of its convictions. The more it listens to the Beltways Boys the more impotent it appears.
