Posted on 02/10/2011 3:22:55 AM PST by Scanian
Pundits have lamented the disappear ance of Republican moderates for years. It's time now to lament the disappearance of moderate Democrats.
Last month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman announced he wouldn't seek re-election. He lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut in 2006 because of his support of the Iraq war, but won in November as an independent.
The irony was that the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president was re-elected largely by Republicans who spurned their party's little-known nominee. But Republicans seem likely to field a stronger candidate in 2012.
Then last week, Rep. Jane Harman announced she'd resign soon to become head of Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center. Harman, who voted for the Iraq-war resolution and supported robust foreign and defense policies, was conspicuously passed over by Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats won control of the House in 2006.
Harman's Los Angeles beach-town seat is heavily Democratic. But she won her 2010 Democratic primary over a left-wing opponent by 59 percent to 41 percent -- a narrow majority for longtime incumbents who usually win by two to one.
Harman and Lieberman were both Democrats in the JFK and FDR mold -- liberal on most domestic issues and supporters of the use of American military power to expand freedom and democracy worldwide. But there doesn't seem to be much room for them today in the Democratic Party.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Democrats are losing their moderates. The few moderate Republicans like Snowe and Brown represent states with a more or less ideal Democratic voter-makeup. But they are in the minority and on the other hand Democrats are losing states where working class are abandoning them for the Republican Party. By spurning their Blue Dogs, the Democrats ensured their minority status in the House. They may yet follow suit as well in the Senate.
There are no Moderate Republicans or Democrats, they are both Libs.
The dems didn’t just spurn their Blue Dogs, they used, abused and figuratively raped them to pass the far-left agenda items in 2009-2010. Rahm Emanuel recruited the so-called Blue Dogs in the 2006 and 2008 races to gain their majority. You didn’t see the dem leaders rushing to their defense in the 2010 elections.
Count Senator Mellon Head in this group as well.
Liberal RATS hold the working class in contempt and enact policies which damage and diminish it—Then they turn around and wonder why their base is shrinking.
Jane Harman is their ideal of a moderate Democrat?? I guess Joseph Stalin would be considered a moderate by this writer also...
At least she doesn’t seem to be an America-hater, which is about the most you can hope for from a Dem these days.
Pelosi can’t stand Harman-—that tells me she can’t be all bad.
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