http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0619-01.htm
Published on Thursday, June 19, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
The DNC Stoops To Push-Polling and Vote-Selling
So Why Is McAuliffe Still On the Job?
by Bruce F. Cole
First, some background: One year ago, I resigned my post as chairman of my local Democratic Municipal Committee to protest, among many other outrages, the support that my party's "leadership" was giving to Bush's war-mongering against Iraq. My letter of resignation was published on this site. It denounced the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and the current makeup of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for their tireless efforts to incrementally Republicanize the Democrats. I received an overwhelming response from disgruntled Democrats, ex-Dems, Greens and Independents across the nation.
Among the hundreds of e-messages I received was one from Andy Tobias, the Treasurer of the DNC. He forwarded me a copy of a response he made to a concerned Texan, Anne Peticolas, who had emailed him citing my resignation letter as expressive of her own feelings. Her opening salvo, which caught Mr. Tobias' attention, was: "I am unspeakably disappointed in the Party that is no longer mine."
His response was somewhat disarming (he made it clear that he was writing personally and unofficially, while praising Anne and myself for our convictions) but, still, he defended the upcoming attack on Iraq, using hackneyed arguments -- an emergent nuclear threat, and comparisons to the international menace of Hitler -- that have been fully discredited in the intervening months. And that wasn't the only bit of political analysis he got wrong.
Also in her note, Ms. Peticolas expressed interest in the presidential candidacy of Howard Dean and distress at the party's "stacking the deck" against him and other progressive candidates. Tobias responded: "He is a great candidate for President...and one of the several I would work very hard to elect if he got the nomination. (But...I don't think he'd find as much fault with DLC positions as you or Bruce Cole might.)" Again, intervening events have proven Mr. Tobias wrong; to see how, fast-forward to last month...
That's when a DLC memo was outed which issued a scathing rebuke of those who, like Governor Dean, dare to counter their GOP-lite agenda (read the memo and the DLC home page if you doubt that characterization). Using Rove-like semantics, the memo brands concerned folks like Anne and me (and many Common Dreams readers) as "activist elites". The Dean organization responded with an anti-DLC slam of its own, appealing to the very folks that the DLC were denouncing. In short, to say that Howard Dean finds fault with DLC positions is putting it very mildly. His "Take Back Our Party" theme indicates that he, Anne and I are all on the same page of that playbook.
Moreover -- and in that stacking-the-deck vein -- the second aspect of Tobias' comment about Dean which rings hollow today was his promise to "work very hard to elect" the Governor "if he got the nomination." He may well have been sincere, but in that last phrase lies the rub: a bona-fide push-poll sent out by DNC chair Terry McAuliffe last week shows that Tobias' boss is subtly working against the nomination of Dean and the other progressives in the Democratic primary lineup. This document ("DNC 2004 Democratic Presidential Poll"), which purports to assess the status of the Democratic field, arrived in my mailbox last Monday and it's a real head-scratcher -- or eye-opener, depending on one's perspective.
According to a disclaimer on the back of the ballot, it "is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee." This is easy to believe...if you support a non-DLC candidate. Of the nine candidates featured in an attached flyer, the five DLC members (Edwards, Gephardt, Graham, Kerry and Lieberman) all receive enhanced pitches as compared to their liberal counterparts (Moseley-Braun, Dean, Kucinich and Sharpton).
For example, Lieberman's and Graham's promotional statements variously proclaim, "As President, (he) will fight, build, protect, strengthen, renew, grow, improve, expand, (and so on)," whereas the blurbs for Braun and Dean only list past accomplishments and vague sentiments: "Braun is urging Americans to join together to achieve peace" (is she running for President or Miss America?), and "Dean...strengthened the Dr. Dynasaur program" for Vermont kids (talk about gravitas!). Nothing about Dean's courageous opposition to an illegal, immoral war and his vision for national health-insurance, or about Braun's denunciation of Congressional abdication to Bush...and certainly, no presumption (i.e. no "As President" modifier) that either of them might get elected and actually do something.
Similarly, while Kerry "does what's right" and "has the vision to make America stronger", Kucinich merely "points out (fiscal inequities)" and "would focus on...alternatives" -- according to McAuliffe's treatment. Again, the DLC guy is cast as the doer and forward thinker, while an incisive, visionary progressive like Kucinich becomes a dreamy whiner.
A linguist could have a heyday with this lopsided promo. The language is subtle but effective; the DLC members get the bulk of the present- and future-tense verbs (30 for DLCers, to 6 for the liberals) while the others get stuck mostly with past-tense verbs (9, to only 5 for the DLC candidates). Gephardt, Graham and Lieberman merit 24 active verbs and just 1 past-tense between them. So, while this isn't a typical telephone push-poll, it bears all the hallmarks and may even qualify as a new species of political dirty trick.
All of this begs the obvious question: "Why is the DNC taking this 'poll' in the first place?" It has no scientific validity (as any pollster will testify) and it can't be used for any legitimate research. The obvious answer may be found on the uneven playing field just described. Can it be coincidence that Howard Dean is running at the front of the pack in many primary states and that this openly threatens the DLC's "New Democrats" who are McAuliffe's power-base? Dean's relatively modest bankroll (especially compared to high-priced dust-eaters' like Edwards' and Lieberman's) must also threaten the big-money-evangelist, McAuliffe. How better to slow Dean down than to produce an in-house "poll/analysis" that diminishes him and his progressive counterparts while highlighting Lieberman et al? Connect, as they say, the dots.
And, oh yes; there's one more thing. In the postscript of a letter McAuliffe enclosed with this ballot was an offer: "All individuals who support the Democratic National Committee with a contribution of at least $20 this year will be allowed to directly elect a small number of delegates to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. We want our supporters to have an extra voice..." Aside from the serious procedural questions for the convention that this raises, the larger question is, "Does the Chairman of the DNC realize that poll taxes went out with Jim Crow?" Americans do not pay (or charge) for this privilege; a vote that must be purchased is not a vote...it is an extortion. Politicians of any party that don't understand this do not understand our Constitution.
McAuliffe should resign. Maybe then we can take back the nation. We lost it on his watch, after all.
Bruce Cole is a carpenter, songwriter and activist living in Maine. He can be reached at
bccpcole@earthlink.net
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