This morning over Twitter, in response to Charlie Crist's announcement that he is running as an Indy, the AP's Ron Fournier whined that there was no room for moderates in either party:
In other words, is there room for moderate candidates and moderate voters in either party? #crist
Wow. Just, wow.
Amazing that the Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press can somehow forget that there are two large centrist caucuses of Democrats in both branches of Congress. First,, the self-described m"moderate" New Democrats boast over one in four Democrats in the House:
A July 2009 Press release described the organization as "the largest moderate coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives", announced the election of Representative Joseph Crowley (New York) as the Coalition's Chair and counted 68 Members in the House of Representatives
Then there are the Blue Dogs, who claim another 54 members in the House. Even though 16 of their members are also New Democrats, that still makes for 106 out of 254 House Democrats, or 42%, who self-identify with a Democratic caucus that is openly moderate. And this doesn't even count members like Chet Edwards, who is not a member of either group.
In the Senate, there are 16 members of Evan Bayh's moderate working group (the 15 listed in the link, plus Arlen Specter), and 14 New Democrats. Combined, there are 22 Democratic Senators who are members of at least one of those two self-identified "moderate" groups, or 37% of the entire Democratic Senate caucus.
All told, 41%, or 128 of 313, Democratic members of Congress belong to one of these self-identified "moderate" groups. But maybe Ron Fournier considers Blue Dogs to be flaming liberals.
In terms of voters, in 2009 fully 60% of self-identified Democrats identify as either "moderate" or "conservative," according to Gallup:
Further, also according to Gallup, 39% of self-identified moderates self-identify as Democrats, compared to only 24% as Republicans:
But, I guess those voters don't exist.
To claim that there are no moderates in the Democratic Party requires maintaining a remarkable amount of distance from the reality of the internal workings of the party. It also requires a health dose of bratty, whining petulance. Can Ron Fournier really believe, even as a deficit commission appointed by President Obama is underway, and even as virtually every piece of legislation Democrats try to move through Congress was basically photocopied from proposals by Third Way, that "moderation" is somehow not being served by the Democratic Party Washington, D.C.?
This goes hand in hand with Mary Landrieu's preposterous claim that progressive Senators, rather than groups of conservative Democrats, are really in charge of what sort of legislation moves through the Senate. The adolescent, divorced-from-reality, blame everyone else, cry baby, uber privileged mentality that is at the heart of contemporary American "moderation" is truly mind-blowing.
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