Michael Barone‘s latest Washington Examiner column cites the congressional retirements of Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Rep. Jane Harman as evidence of the disappearing Democratic moderate:
Harman and Lieberman were both Democrats in the JFK and FDR mold — liberal on most domestic issues (Lieberman almost single-handedly pushed through repeal of the ban on open gays in the military in December) and supporters of the use of American military power to expand freedom and democracy in the world. But there doesn’t seem to be much room for them in the Democratic Party today.
Last week also saw the announcement that the Democratic Leadership Council would close its doors, after the retirement of its longtime president Al From in 2009. From, an aide to Louisiana Rep. Gillis Long, founded the DLC in 1985 in the wake of Ronald Reagan’s two victories in which he won the electoral vote by 1,014 to 62.
The DLC championed policies, notably welfare reform, intended not to expand government but to make it work better. It gave early national prominence to a young governor of Arkansas of whom From used to say, “Clinton really gets it.”
After the 1988 election, Democratic leaders, fundraisers and voters were convinced that old-time liberals could not win and were ready to take a chance on Clinton. And aside from the debacle of Hillarycare, he delivered. Democrats lost five of six presidential elections between 1968 and 1988. They have carried the popular vote in four of the five held since.
But over the past decade satisfaction with the political successes of Clinton-type governance was replaced by rage against the works and deeds of George W. Bush.
