The epicenter of Democratic politics can be found in downtown Chicago this weekend as 1,500 activists, the entire Congressional leadership, and all but one of the party's presidential candidates converge at the Yearly Kos convention. The event is an outgrowth of the influential political blog the Daily Kos, a site started only five years ago by Army veteran Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. The presence of the Democratic establishment at the event is yet another sign of the centrality of the internet and its grassroots activists, the "netroots," to the Democratic Party. Some, however, are saying it is an indication that the Democratic Party is tilting further and further to the left.
The gathering is being held at the McCormick Place Convention Center near downtown Chicago and will feature appearances by the most prominent names in the Democratic Party. Already, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean and Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin have addressed the attendees. Saturday, convention goers will hear from Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Sen. Charles Schumer, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Also on Saturday is what promises to be the centerpiece of the convention, a question and answer panel with every presidential candidate with the exception of Sen. Joe Biden who is in the midst of a book tour.
The participation of the Democratic Party's most influential members has spurred attacks from the right who claim the event demonstrates the Democrats bowing to a "hate site" inhabited by the craziest elements of the far-left. The Republican National Committee, for example, has released a set of talking points entitled "Democrat Candidates Plan Panderfest To 'Liberal Partisans' At YearlyKos Convention."
Others have been attempting to draw a contrast with the Democratic establishment's attendance at a meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council held earlier this week in Nashville. The most prominent speaker to address the group of centrist Democrats was former President Bill Clinton, who once ran the organization. The lack of prominent Democrats is a change from last year's DLC meeting which was attended by four potential presidential candidates (although Sen. Hillary Clinton is the only one still in the race).
Investor's Business Daily thinks this is a sign of a dangerous and threatening shift in the Democratic Party:
"They won't debate on Fox News. They won't appear at the meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council. But they will grovel at the convention of a hate-filled Web site. This should tell voters all they need to know ... with the courageous exception of Biden, [all the Democratic presidential candidates] will be at this week's Yearly Kos convention in Chicago, mum about their tacit endorsement of a blog site that raises hate speech to an art form."
Speaking in the Chicago Tribune, however, Markos Moulitsas says the discrepancy is not a snub but simply has to do with the strength of audience the candidates would find at each convention:
"If the DLC had an e-mail list of 3 million people, you better believe those presidential candidates would have been there ... We provide bodies. We provide troops on the ground. It is a more activist audience."
Dan Balz in the Washington Post thinks that the absence of Democrats says more about the DLC than the Democratic Party:
"The DLC's period of greatest influence came when it provided not only fresh ideas for a party badly in need of them, but also a willingness to create the friction necessary to spark real debate about the party's future. That's far less necessary now, given the confluence within the party on many issues -- and the collective desire to put aside what differences remain and focus on winning the White House in 2008."
Al From, who founded the DLC in 1985, sees it, instead, as a reflection of the realities of primary politics where candidates must appeal to the high-turnout, party base in order to win the nomination:
"The candidates know that the primaries are played almost exclusively on one end of playing field -- the end near our own goal line where the most partisan activists, including those most vocal in their opposition to the DLC, make the most noise. But they also know that presidential elections are played on both ends of the field -- and we're not likely to cross the opponent's goal line if we stay in our end. And they are well aware that the only Democrat elected and re-elected to the White House since Franklin Roosevelt ran on and governed successfully by the DLC formula. That probably explains why candidates did not come to the National Conversation this year. No presidential candidate came during the primary season in either 1999 or 2003, but our nominee keynoted the 2000 and 2004 meetings as the general election got underway. Only time will tell, of course, but I suspect that next year -- when the premium will be on winning a general election -- our nominee will once again be back at the DLC."
For many on the right, however, none of these interpretations are reasonable. Instead, the only conclusion to draw from the success of Yearly Kos is that the Democrats are in the clutches of the hysterical far-left. The right has been pushing this view by attempting to brand the Daily Kos a "hate site" on the basis of offensive comments and pictures posted in the comments section and past controversial comments by Moulitsas. Writing in Town Hall, John Hawkins sums up the view of many on the right:
"Why is the influence and power that the Daily Kos wields in the Democratic Party so significant? Because many of the writers at the Daily Kos are extremists who promote a virulent hatred of the military, conspiracy theories, and in some cases, even violence and Fascist tactics against the people who disagree with them. That means when someone like Harry Reid writes a diary on the Daily Kos or when Hillary Clinton goes to the Yearly Kos convention, it indicates that they're comfortable associating with people who hold those sort of radical views."
The greatest push to discredit the Daily Kos, the convention, and those who attend it, however, has come from Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly's crusade began when he expressed outrage at Jet Blue airlines' sponsorship of the convention. Since then, he has continuously reinforced the "hate site" meme over the past two weeks. In a sign of the commitment to the festival, prominent Democrats have confronted O'Reilly. Last night, Sen. Chris Dodd engaged in a heated argument on the O'Reilly Factor, while Sen. Clinton's Communications Director Howard Wolfson sent a letter to O'Reilly defending a site that has been hardly sympathetic to Sen. Clinton:
"You've hosted Michael Savage, who has called MLK Jr. Day a 'racket' designed to steal 'white males' birthright.' You've hosted David Horowitz, who has called Democrats 'apologists for terrorists.'You've hosted, Ann Coulter who said of the 9/11 widows: 'I have never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much.' It wouldn't be reasonable to attribute these views to you and it's not reasonable for you to attribute every comment on Daily Kos to everyone who attends the YearlyKos convention. Sen. Clinton is looking forward to attending YearlyKos."
In the end, the story at the convention might be less about what the event says about the ideological state of the party than what it says about the structural state of it. U.S. News and World Report sees Yearly Kos as representative of the Democratic dominance of the internet:
"Most of this online activism is being dominated by the left. Robert Bluey, a conservative blogger for the Heritage Foundation, notes that there isn't anything comparable on the right. While former Sen. Fred Thompson has assembled a talented Net team for his unofficial presidential run and Ron Paul and Mitt Romney have been fairly innovative online, nothing they are doing comes close."
Marc Ambinder thinks that this year's incarnation demonstrates the evolution of the netroots' movement into a true organizational force:
"YearlyKos has, in two years, outgrown its bonding session phase, it's "Let's Make Fun Of The Press Stage," and even its focus on national activism About a fifth of the conference will focus on the 2008 presidential race, and only half of it seems to be devoted to politics ... Community organizing is a main theme this year. The convention tagline is "Building A Netroots Nation."
The growing power of the netroots is a development that E.J. Dionne sees as analogous to the rise of Rush Limbaugh and talk radio:
"Democrats and liberals realized they needed a mobilizing force of their own but could not match Limbaugh's reach on the radio. Enter the Internet, and Markos Moulitsas ... Daily Kos is often described as liberal, but it is, more than anything, partisan. Its core assumption is that ideological conservatives made the Republican Party their vehicle and rallied in lock step against Democrats. The party of FDR and JFK needed to find the same discipline. The key litmus tests for Kos and his many allies in the blogosphere involve not long lists of issues developed by the American Civil Liberties Union or the AFL-CIO, but loyalty in standing up against Bush and doing what's necessary to build a Democratic majority ... Democratic candidates know they owe a debt to Moulitsas. They're paying homage to him because he has started to beat Limbaugh and O'Reilly at their own game."
The Wall Street Journal, however, is still skeptical of the power of the netroots:
"Having bloggers on your side hardly guarantees electoral victory. Four years ago, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was a blogger favorite, but his presidential campaign flamed out in Iowa. Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman remains widely despised among many netroots -- the grass roots of the Internet -- bloggers for his vote for the Iraq war, and they helped lead to his defeat in the state's Democratic primary to businessman Ned Lamont. But Mr. Lieberman easily won re-election in 2006 running as an independent."