Going After Elizabeth Warren’s Attackers (Dems)

From The NY Times:

In a sign of the left’s new aggressiveness, a coalition of liberals is trying to marginalize calling out a centrist Democratic policy group that was responsible for a Wall Street Journal op-ed article this week that said economic populism was “disastrous” for the party.

The coalition, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and three other liberal advocacy organizations have urged their members to contact a group of congressional Democrats who are honorary leaders of the centrist group, Third Way. It published the op-ed article on Monday contending that the liberalism of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio of New York City and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would lead Democrats “over the populist cliff.”

The article — written by Jon Cowan, president of Third Way, and Jim Kessler, its senior vice president for policy — criticizes progressives like Ms. Warren and Mr. de Blasio for opposing measures to cut costs to Social Security and Medicare.

*

on Thursday, the liberal blog Daily Kos announced that it would endorse and raise money only for candidates who promised not to join Third Way.

Yes!  Join the campaign…

From DailyKos:

So who else is enabling Third Way’s destructive agenda? Why, let’s name names!

House members
James Clyburn (Southern South Carolina)
John Dingell (Ann Arbor, Detroit’s western suburbs, Michigan)
Ron Kind (Southwestern Wisconsin, La Crosse, Eau Claire)
Joseph Crowley (NYC, Bronx, Queens)
Allyson Schwartz (Northeast Philly, eastern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania)
Jared Polis (Boulder, Colorado)
Senators
Thomas Carper (Delaware)
Claire McCaskill (Missouri)
Mark Udall (Colorado)
Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Kay Hagan (North Carolina)
Chris Coons (Delaware)
*
Warren herself is having none of it:

Third Way’s spokesman responded by saying that under Warren’s plan, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, would be entitled to a higher Social Security payout.

“Oh please. I’m out there working for Jamie Dimon the same way Dick Cheney is out there trying to save the environment,” Warren said.

— and she’s got friends.

“Lee Fang, writing in the Nation, examined Third Way’s ties to Peck Madigan, a Wall Street lobbying firm. Other liberal groups responded angrily to the column, denouncing Third Way as a front for the banking industry.  Warren herself got involved on Wednesday, although she did not respond directly to Cowan and Kessler’s column. Instead, she sent a letter to chief executive officers at six major financial institutions, calling on them to disclose their companies’ spending on think tanks, although they are not legally required to do so.”

“Shareholders have a right to know how corporate resources are spent, and, even more importantly, policymakers and the public should be aware of your contributions and evaluate the work of the think tanks accordingly,” the letter read.

from Washington Post

The New Center: Two Feet From the Edge of the Cliff

What on earth could the headline writers, and indeed Jonathan Martin, mean by characterizing the present position of the Democratic Party as ‘the center!’

Some Democrats Look to Push Party Away From Center 

Pointing out that the income and wealth curves are so far out of balance that the great economic machine of the United States is likely to grind to a halt is NOT progressive populism.  Argh!

Showing the history of the Glass-Steagall act in reining in financial risk-taking, with other people’s money, and pushing for a return to similar rules after the ruinous 2008 melt down is NOT moving away from the center.  It is trying to return to the center — of common sense and learning from experience.

It is one thing for the crows of Wall Street to caw about left-wingers going after their carrion.  It is another when observers caw the same notes.

Goodness, the money-power axis is so far to the right we will all be run off the cliff unless the center is regained soon.

Read the copy….