Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 | 7:40 a.m.
These are tough times for Al From to argue his relevancy.
The man who founded the centrist Democratic Leadership Council after Ronald Reagan's reelection devastated the party never has many listeners during primary season, when the candidates tune him out and listen to the voices on the left. And although the DLC may have been the force that helped catapult Bill Clinton to the presidency seven years after its inception, the political world has changed . As From tries to help Hillary Clinton, the voices of the Democratic left are amplified by a blogosphere teeming with loud, occasionally quite persuasive and intimidating voices. These are voices, From knows, that regard the DLC - and perhaps Clinton - nearly as evil as the party of Ronald Reagan.
"They (bloggers) don't really speak for the Democratic Party," From said Thursday during a 45-minute chat in Las Vegas. He cited poll results that show Clinton with 51 percent of the vote against Rudy Giuliani (Pew Research) although she received only 9 percent on the liberal Web site Yearly Kos. But From said the cyberspace warriors "can be a force for good because they bring enthusiasm and they bring people."
From , on a two-day tour of the state to meet with elected officials and others , attended a lunch arranged by old Clinton family pal Bob Miller, the former governor and DLC prototype.
After talking about how the election will come down to a battle for the political center, he declared, without a hint of irony, "Hillary Clinton is the most moderate candidate in the race (for the Democratic nomination)."
Republicans seeing that statement surely are guffawing right about now, but what From knows is that bloggers are nodding their heads. And they equate moderation with capitulation. (Indeed, one local blogger, the ever-clever Hugh Jackson, refers to Clinton as the Borg, a reference to the "Star Trek" alien force against whom "resistance is futile.")
I asked From whether some of these bloggers might be right that the party risks losing its soul by running to the middle, or as he said in a speech at the DLC national convention : "Our mantra has been problem solving, not polarization. That's the essence of Clintonism: always searching for new ways to further progressive ideals and, most importantly, getting good things done for the American people."
From insisted Thursday that his group's way is "the only way to keep your soul ... if you demagogue and play to their fears, I don't consider that saving their soul."
He went on to argue : "People say we are selling out because we are doing things to help businesses grow. That's just crazy."
From says the "noise in politics can be very deceiving," a clear reference to the decibel level that can be generated in the blogosphere, with chords surfacing in the dreaded MSM (mainstream media). But what's not deceiving is that twice during our chat From invoked David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, to make a point. And that he takes great pains to point out Clinton's education reform record in Arkansas - it's true, folks, look it up - and that he promotes her toughness as an answer to Republicans who think she may be their only hope to overcome the toxic atmosphere for the GOP.
But From also must realize that Hillary is not Bill. The former president was not, when he ran, so reviled and caricatured by a significant segment of the American electorate. And if the DLC is all about the general election, making the case that Hillary is a moderate will be much more difficult than it was with Bill.
"Hillary is more conservative than Bill Clinton on values," From posited, again without a scintilla of irony. "If they fire all that stuff at Hillary, they better be ready to take the incoming."
The problem, though, is that Clinton already is taking the incoming, and not from the Republicans. She may well secure the nomination fairly early next year, but she will have to endure withering attacks, especially from John Edwards and maybe from Barack Obama, to get there.
Perhaps that will make her a better candidate against the GOP nominee , if you subscribe to the "what does not kill us makes us stronger" theory of primaries. The bloggers surely don't buy that and they aim to take back the party from From and Clintonism.
Worth noting, though, is that From, thanks to Bill Clinton, has under his belt something the leftist bloggers have yet to experience on the presidential front: victory.
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