The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.The "middle-of-the-road" Democrats are the guys who got run over the by the big red bus last November. Most of them are gone and there's not a lot of appetite for playing the middle ground anymore. Both parties have moved away from the center, but while the GOP has done it at a casual walk the Democrats have run full tilt toward the wacky side of the political spectrum. Why else would they choose to sacrifice a healthy House majority and a number of seats in the Senate (not to mention nearly 700 state legislative seats) to promote nationalized health care that America clearly said it didn't want. They just couldn't help themselves.
The DLC, a network of Democratic elected officials and policy intellectuals had long been fading from its mid-’90s political relevance, tarred by the left as a symbol of “triangulation” at a moment when there’s little appetite for intra-party warfare on the center-right. The group tried — but has failed — to remake itself in the summer of 2009, when its founder, Al From, stepped down as president. Its new leader, former Clinton aide Bruce Reed, sought to remake the group as a think tank, and the DLC split from its associated think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute…
The DLC is already showing signs of disrepair. Its website currently leads a Harold Ford op-ed from last November, titled, “Yes we can collaborate.” It lists as its staff just four people, and has only one fellow. Recent tax returns weren’t immediately publicly available, but returns from 2004-2008 show a decline in its budget from $2.6 million to $1.5 million, and a source said funding further dried up during the financial crisis that began nine months before Reed took over.
I doubt you'll see a successful moderate Democrat organization again for many, many years.
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