Matt, continue doing what you've been doing: playing the aggressive watch dog role on behalf of progressive interests.  Much appreciated, seriously.

And of course the Ailes joke about the Clinton marriage was really a joke about the Bush marriage?  And when the Fox commentator likened Democrats to Stalin he was really talking about the character from The Tick not the guy from the Soviet Union?

This is a rich post because it highlights the many agendas of the Democrats and why nothing can be taken at face value. Why are Democrats and their consultants praising rightwing propaganda outlets and condemning liberal activists? They don't give a damn about the Democratic agenda. They just want "theirs" and they will undermine the rest of us to get it. (I put Dennis K. in this camp). We must act together and put our petty interests aside.

I've said it before. I'll say it again:
Get used to it. Hillary = Fox.

Wow, amazing.

Hey, if this idiot is advising Hillary, more power to him.  The more Hillary follows his "be more like Republicans" strategy, the worse she'll do in the primary, and that's fine by me.

and writhing in the driver's seat at how addled this guy Schoen's brain was. Adam Green kept firing out the facts. There were long painful waits (a Northeastern professor was also on the show, dispensing rubbish in that halting style that some people mistake for heavy intellect). After a while Adam would fumigate the airwaves with, oh, some Reality about Pox News. "I just don't think MoveOn should advocate censorship," mewled Doug Schoen. He sounded like a 2-year-old.

You can run from a fight. You can lose a fight. You can refuse to fight. You can fight a while, quit, and hightail it...... Just don't be in a fight and walk around saying, there is no fight.

There is no fight. We're all nice people. Sean Hannity is a good egg. Ann Coulter is plenty nice. Rupe Murdoch is swell once you get to know him. Etc. Come to find out he's on the payroll.... you know what, I'm almost relieved. It's a bit of greed mixed in with stupidity.

Schoen wrotes:

What is causing this loss of confidence? It mostly stems from the fact that Americans are finding life as we know it is to be too expensive. Healthcare is unaffordable; a college education is now harder and harder to afford; basic needs like housing, utilities and childcare are more and more expensive; and people are forced to rely more on individual pensions than ever before.

In order for Democrats to fully benefit politically from Republican failures and begin to position themselves for success in 2008, their Common Good agenda must address these matters and move away from the pie-in-the-sky political rhetoric that promises healthcare and college for all. The consensus in the minds of the public is to move away from policies that seek to redistribute wealth and pursue market based solutions instead.

Am I reading this right in seeing him as making two mutually exclusive assertions in that second paragraph: 1) we must address "these matters" (healthcare and college education) and 2) we can't provide heatlhcare and college to "all." (who qualify? who want it? everybody?)
I guess it hinges on the meaning of the word "address."
And why not?
As for market-based solutions:
"A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout." </Jonathan Swift>

I agree with you, Doug Schoen is awful, not only because he is he a long time DLC supporter, but especially  because he represents corporate clients on public issues without revealing that his polling was paid for by those clients like Pharma

Link to Mystery Pollster on a poll and an article that Schoen wrote misrepresenting the results of that poll and in addition without divulging that Pharma paid for it.   (If you go to the comments you see that I raised questions about the poll questions themselves as to their being fully truthful. The poll deceptively tells the respondents that Medicare would have a drug formulary which would limit their drug choices.  Of course every private health insurance company  that the poll uses a comparison in the Medicare Part D program ALSO has a formulary which restrict drugs choices!!)

http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/a_nondenial_denial.php

Below is the article article Schoen wrote with those misleading inferences drawn from a deliberately deceptive poll about whether the Mediacre Part D Drug Program should be allowed to use competitive marketing to get lower drug prices

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/medicare_part_d_a_public_opini.html

January 12, 2007
Public Opinion on Negotiating the Price of Rx Drugs
By Douglas Schoen

When the issue of having the federal government negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies for the Medicare Part D program comes up later this week in Congress, it will be another example of an idea that seems to poll well and appears to enjoy a great deal of public support.
However an in depth look at public opinion shows that once the American people understand the possible implications of negotiating the cost of prescription drug prices, public opinion changes significantly and voters become very skeptical of the idea and the implications for public health.
Penn, Schoen, and Berland, a firm where I am a former and founding partner has recently completed a fairly comprehensive public opinion poll on the subject with the Tarrance Group, among 1,098 voters nationally who participated in the 2006 midterm November elections

Note that in this article Schoen says he is a "former" partner of Penn Schoen and Berlind.

So at this point Mark Penn, does not poll with Schoen.  They have not polled together in quite some time...because of issues like this unethical shilling for corporate interests.   Penn is on his own, polling at this point only for Hillary Clinton.  

Do I like the advice Penn gives her or the way he talks about some of us...NO absolutely not.There are many legitimate points of dispute on Penn's centrist sensibilities.  But Schoen and Penn are not working together and have not worked together for some time.

Penn is not a progressive at all but he's no long Schoen's partner. For reasons like this poll.

Matt, I'm glad you wrote this up.

I heard this Schoen interview on "To the Point" this afternoon and couldn't believe that I was listening to a "Democrat." Adam was great - got all the progressive points across - but he was outnumbered by the other three people in the discussion: Schoen, some noncommital media research person and a right-wing poli-sci prof that said ABC and CNN are left-wing because most of their news staff are liberals.

Olney said they tried to get someone from Fox to come on the program but got no response. I wonder if Schoen's Fox connections were unnoticed or ignored.

"To the Point" is usually pretty good about getting a "balanced" panel of guests and it's a great place to hear the right's talking points without having to patronize their normal media outlets. But this was a particularly difficult show to listen to.

Schoen article

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/medicare_part_d_a_public_opini.html

Mystery Pollster eviseration of Schoen article and poll.

http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/who_paid_for_the_poll.php

While I'm glad you wrote this, I am concerned that it might start an ugly battle in the dipshit wing of the Party if Dan Gerstein loses his title as the dumbest man in politics.

Unethically minded and with exquisitely awful political judgment. I think Schoen's days in the party are numbered.

I'm sure this is a typo. You meant

I think Schoen's future employment is guaranteed.

right? I mean, that is how it works.