As he does his convincing, Mr. Ford is going to be holding up a few key facts, ones that no belligerent blogger has yet been able to refute. The party's most impressive gains last year all came from politicians straight out of the DLC cast. Four governors spoke at the DLC convention this year; all four had beat Republicans. The vast majority of the pick-ups in the House came from DLCers in red states in the South and Midwest. The Senate wouldn't be in Democratic hands were it not for Montana's Jon Tester.
This is simply false. Most of the pickups for Dems were NOT from DLC style candidates. They came primarily in the Northeast with unabashed partisan Dem candidates who were strongly anti-Iraq War. The numbers? 2 seats picked up in New Hampshire. 2 in Connecticut. 4 seats picked up in Pennsylvania. 2 in New York. A third from the Northeast. Hardly DLC country. And what of the rest? In Iowa, two pickups from solid Dems Braley and Loebsack. In Ohio, Zack Space. In Arizona, Giffords and Mitchell, hardly DLC types. In California, McNerney. Minnesota, Walz. Kansas, Boyda. And so on.
There is one state where the DLC style won. Indiana, where Dems picked up three seats with Conservative Dem candidates. But even these 3 were partisan and passionate against Bush and the Republicans.
In the Senate, NO candidates adopted the DLC approach. Jon Tester defeated a DLC supported candidate in a primary. Webb was a Netroots candidate. Sheldon Whitehouse is hardly a DLC type. Sherrod Brown is an old style liberal. Claire McCaskill won on holding the progressive view on stem cell research and choice. Bob Casey could be described as a DLC type on social issues no question but he is unabashedly pro-Labor. Amy Klobluchar in Minnesota, typical mainstream Dem. The truth is the DLC had nothing to contribute in the 2006 election and certainly seems intent on further marginalizing itself for 2008.
Ford is simply wrong when he says:
"The reality is, without the DLC, and without candidates who subscribe to our platform, Democrats wouldn't be in the majority today. If we abandon that group, we will lose the majority and we will lose the White House," says Mr. Ford.
The truth is the DLC is irrelevant now. And Harold Ford is one of the reasons why.