[Mb-civic] MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We Own It'

[Michael Butler]

    Go to Original 

    MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We Own It'
    By Sam Hananel 
    The Associated Press

     Thrusday 09 December 2004

     Washington - Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the
"professional election losers" who run the Democratic Party: "We bought it,
we own it, we're going to take it back."

     A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn's political action committee
to the group's supporters on Thursday targets outgoing Democratic National
Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who
alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats.

     "For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are
closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base," said
the e-mail from MoveOn PAC's Eli Pariser. "But we can't afford four more
years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers."

     Under McAuliffe's leadership, the message said, the party coddled the
same corporate donors that fund Republicans to bring in money at the expense
of vision and integrity.

     "In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300
million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't
need corporate cash to be competitive," the message continued. "Now it's our
party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."

     Pariser urged MoveOn supporters to help support a DNC chair with a bold
vision to represent Democrats outside Washington. Democrats will vote at
their February meeting in Washington on a successor to McAuliffe.

     DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera declined to engage in a tit-for-tat with
MoveOn, but praised McAuliffe's efforts.

     "Call me crazy, but I think the fact that for the first time in party
history we outraised the Republicans, and did so primarily through
grass-roots fund raising is something to be proud of," Cabrera said.

     Among those vying for the party chairmanship is former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean, an early darling of MoveOn's cybernetwork of activists when he
ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.

  

  -------

   Jump to TO Features for Sunday December 12, 2004   


 © Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org