Remind me never to give to the PA Dem state party.  Why do they need to raise money to fight us? Shouldn't they be more worried about the Republicans  in Harrisburg or Lynn Swann or Rick Santorum?

Holy misplaced priorities Batman!

Considering Michael Nutter came to the Penn Dems event tonight, I hope he isn't seriously going to consider 'doing battle' with bloggers.

By the way, Chris, much thanks for coming tonight. I really appreciated it; it was great to chat with you, Atrios, and Booman tonight. It was a pleasure and an honor.

-Asuka

Yeah... we noticed that quote at YPP, too.

They like us, they really like us!

$100,000 to run a buhhhlog? Whoever it is they're going after, I don't think they have ANYTHING to worry about.

Wouldn't it be far more productive for Rendell and Casey et al to sit down with Bowers & Atrios & Attywood et al and  figure out where to work together?

The Netroots and the internet in general is a great tool that Democrats should be using to help them do oppo research, organize, rally the troops, and raise money, instead of raising money to make their own astroturf blog.

The best bit, I think, is in the kicker (though, true, there's so much there to enjoy!):

The Finance Committee members understand this city's population is multi-ethnic. Those groups are politically maturing. The Democratic Party will now be able to reach out to them to invite them in, find out what they want from their government and what kind of candidates they seek.

Yet the piece supposes we might think it some kind of praiseworthy novelty!

The text certainly reads as if written by someone from the 1950s only recently arrived by time-machine: completely bewildered and out of touch.

Are the ward-heelers funning with us bright young online things? Or are they really this clueless?

They should beat you up.  I mean you are bloggers.  Did you see that Atrios guy on the West Wing?  Anyone could kick his ass!

That quote is something to behold on a number of levels, but what struck me is the utter cluelessness of those Democratic insiders about what is going on in the progressive blogosphere.  It's like they think we live on Neptune and speak in strange tongues or something.  They really don't have the faintest idea that there are now millions of smart, committed, connected people out here doing the work that the dimwits on the inside have been failing to do.

Sometimes I feel encouraged-- other times I sigh when I realize just how much things need to change...

This type of thinking is mirrored in local, County and State committees all over the nation.

Pretty much everywhere you go, progressives and independent-minded Democrats who decide to get involved with taking our country back [tm Dean '03] run up against longtime party functionaries.

Those who innocently volunteer their ideas and energy to the party, thinking it will be welcomed, quickly find that their enthusiasm and progressivism are deeply feared and resented by those who have warmed the party's bench, unimaginatively, for years.

The tacit (and sometimes explicity) expectation is that those who want to get involved need to keep their heads down, stick to low-level grunt work, accept no credit for their own work, unfailingly support those above them in the hierarchy, toe the party line, and not propose anything that would force the existing leadership to either work harder, change their ways, or share power.

The only answer in my experience is to give up the fantasy of working with these people, and seize the reins -- by being outspoken on the issues you care about, publicly calling the leadership on its faults, and using primaries to gain the votes you need to make change within the Party.

You will be called divisive, radical, hotheaded, and counterproductive for doing this. But such pat labels shouldn't deter Democrats from taking back their party, as a necessary step to taking back the country.

Brady is probably thinking about right-wing run, anonymous sites like PoliticsPA and PoliticsNJ.

Jordan S. Lieberman, a Republican political consultant, runs the Publius Group, which operates the anonymous websites PoliticsNJ.com, PoliticsPA.com, and PoliticsNH.com.  Lieberman's partner in the Publius operation is a registered New Jersey lobbyist with major health care and insurance industry clients.

Lieberman was recently named publisher of Campaigns & Elections magazine.  It was recently acquired by a company with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry -- Political World Communications -- a New Jersey corporation formed to manage C&E and other assets.

According to C&E's annual roster (2004) of the American Association of Political Consultants, Jordan Lieberman was employed by the Alexander Strategy Group, where he worked with characters like Ed Buckham, the former DeLay aide who founded the company, DeLay aide Tony Rudy, and Christine DeLay, the Congressman's wife.  ASG recently closed its doors because of its ties to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Brady should clarify who he's talking about.

This has little to do with bloggers and a lot to do with stripping John Dougherty of power and influence. Johnny Doc is currently the treasurer of
city Dems. He crossed Carol Campbell, no prize in my book, but she still has a plenty of influence, by running candidates for committeepeople. Even though Johnny Doc relented and got most, if not all, his people to withdraw, Campbell is evidently having the last laugh. By setting up this PAC for fundraising,
Johnny Doc's treasurer office essentially becomes irrelevent.

IMHO, whatever Campbell said about bloggers was nothing more than cover for an internal powerplay against Dougherty.

Heh, heh, heh.

I've had some experience battling DCCC bloggers in their attempts to discredit the candidate running against Rahm's chosen candidate in the Illinois 6th primary, and I can tell you that their tactics are pretty lame.  They're easily spottable and easily counterable.  I look forward to many more of these kinds of battles.

Remember Gandhi: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

We're already at Stage III.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Does anyone know of good online resources focused on Philly area politics?  Also, does anyone have insight into the Lois Murphy campaign(PA6)?  That is my district and I have recently started volunteering for her.

My suburban area was a big battleground in '04 and went for Kerry.  Since that time I can say with some certainty things have been tilting steadily blue - even committed Republicans will not speak up to support the current regime.  I have been inspired my recent entry into the blogosphere to get involved and hopefully I am not the only one.

Ummm... correct me if I am wrong but isn't the whole Philly Blog scene... like... uh... Democratic?

Or were they referring the the Philly Cream Cheese?

Or was it the Philly Cheese Steak?

is this where Vince Lombardi walks in and says to the team "Gentlemen... this... is a football."

Perhaps it is Chris Bowers walking in and saying "Gentlemen... this... is a keyboard."

Philly politics is dominated by reps that are hacks & corrupt. Though we would have to work hard in the ethnic neighborhoods, Philly is the perfect place for progressives to take over the party apparatus.

Regarding Nutter, I'm very disappointed that a major part of his platform, in his upcoming mayoral run, will be reduction in taxes. With libraries cutting back, more money needed for education, large numbers of homeless people, a great need for more social services, Nutter wants to cut back on city revenue. I can't support Nutter because of this & urge every progressive to support another mayoral candidate.

Anyone worried about Philly politics should start with the voting machines, which are unverifiable.  Work hard to get a voter-verified paper ballot in PA or the all the work these progressives are putting into toppling the party machine will go to waste.  Republicans aren't the only ones who cheat.

is that it's not the medium of the internets and blogging that is the problem.

their problem is they have a party full of people on the bottom who are tired of the wambly self-interest back-room dealings of the people on the top.

whether we are talking to each other on the blogs, on the phones, in union halls, on the streets or on tin cans connected with strings, the anger and the desire to change things isn't going away.

they've got to acknowledge it, listen to is, assimilate it and use it, or else get out of the way and let us do it.

If they paid more attention to the needs of the Average American than maintaining their power, they would not need to worry about MYDD, KOS, My Left Wing and the other liberal blogs.

Shorter Phila. Democratic Party:

"We hate actual Democrats."