It’s all about the Rolodexes.

With our famously free press, it really is that simple. All the capital the Beltway 500 has is in their Rolodexes: those relationships. And since the names in those Rolodexes are all either Republicans, Republican enablers, or DINOs, it’s only natural that the 500 would continue to book them, quote them, and teabag them. It’s kinda like refusing to sell your house when the housing market’s collapsing.

And it’s the same deal with the (loser) Beltway Dem consultants. They have an interest in keeping Democratic numbers as close as possible to Republican numbers, because they try make their money at the margins, by taking big bucks for eking out small victories. Their capital is in their Rolodexes too, except instead of “sources,” they have pollsters, media buyers, bad media producers, etc. And they’ve got the classic unethical consultant’s gig: Sucking dollars out of a client by treating symptoms, but never causes. (Because if they ever solved the problem, the money flow would stop. Right?)

Both these happy, comfortable denizens of the Beltway cesspool (Carville, Hillary; Wittman, Lieberman) are under threat from two fronts: the netroots, and the 50 state strategy. Remember, a functional Democratic party apparatus at the state level, driven by citizen involvement, means the Beltway consultants are fucked; there’s no money for consultants in a system that works. It also means the press is fucked, because they might actually have to interview people who don’t serve them free food.

And the code word for keeping the the Democratic loser consultants and the Republican enabling press in business and at the cocktail weinie table is:

Centrism.

And “centrism” is also code for denying the Democrats their natural governing majority; a majority which would turn the value of their Rolodexes to zero. Or possibly less than zero. Since being associated with the Clusterfuck that is the criminal Bush regime, let alone enabling or supporting it, really should be a negative. A big fat negative.

Wait a minute. What was that I just wrote?  Read more