Kos Calls Off DLC War
I tried in vain to find a direct link (as did our friend AcademicElephant), but we’ll have to take Byron York’s word for it:
…[A]t the beginning of August, Moulitsas [Kos] wrote that the DLC was…dying, but that he — along with fellow “progressives” — had a plan to “hasten the process”:
So what’s left? Let the DLC fizzle out on its own? We could do that. It has a limited shelf life. Or we can help the process along, working collectively to hasten the process. And I’ve got a plan to do just that. Consider this a teaser. ETA is four weeks.
But four weeks came and went with no war on the DLC. So yesterday Moulitsas published a note saying it is more important for “progressives” now to mount a post-Katrina political offensive:
I’ve laid off the DLC for the time being. The Katrina disaster has not only made this sort of intra-party fight a bit counterproductive at the moment, but it has refocused the allies and media I was going to engage in the campaign to the more important task of getting to the bottom of the disaster on the gulf coast. The window has closed for now.
My own suspicion, and I’ll cling to it until proven otherwise, is that Markos is more than happy to have a chance to backtrack from his ludicrous boast that he would make the DLC ‘radioactive’. The only thing bigger than his mouth is his ego, so this is a great way to save face and look compassionate at the same time. Bullocks Bollocks…
UPDATE 6:29 p.m. central: Thanks to our good friend Dennis, we now have the link…
Love your site. But isn’t “bollocks” the word you wanted?
Yeah, that too!…(thanks, I’ll make the correction…)…
I found the original note in the link below. It’s the first comment following Kos’ post. So we’ve gone from grand pronouncements about ticking clocks and making his enemies radioactive to a “BTW” comment letting everyone know that the sharks-with-laser-beams project is on hold (I guess all he could get was ill-tempered sea bass).
Mark, I absolutely agree with you that this was his face-saving climbdown. Kos is nothing if not arrogant and incredibly unwilling to acknowledge error (funny, aren’t those two of the reasons he hates Bush?).
The big question to me is why he felt the need to save face. By saying the hurricane “refocused the allies and media I was going to engage,” it could be a simple case of Kos’ would-be allies abandoning him. The other possibility is that Howard Dean, while certainly willing to say nasty things about Republicans, is enough of a smart politician to realize that waging a war of purification against half the party he leads is not such a good idea. I’m wondering if he strongly suggested Kos call off the hounds. Kos may be a radical, but he also fancies himself a political operative and knows where he gets his paychecks from.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/15/04156/6429
The above post should say the link is above, not below. Click on my name and you’ll get there.
And now my name has a Kos avatar next to it. I need a shower.
Dennis, I edited your comment and put the link at the bottom, hoping to clear you of the dreaded Kos avatar, but no such luck! Thanks for the link, I was searching high and low…
Dennis, one more thought…the very fact that it was so hard to find Markos’s “I’m calling off the dogs” statement speaks to how much he wishes the whole thing would just go away…he shot his mouth off, and got bailed out by a much bigger event…
I agree. He must be very thankful that Karl Rove’s hurricane generator came at such a fortuitous time, allowing him to distract the Kossacks.
At least the Kos avatar seems to have disappeared from my subsequent posts. The steel-wool brush hurts, but sometimes you’ve got to use it.
I hope Kos does try to kill of the DLC. moderate Democrats are that party’s only prayer. Nice going Markos, you moron.