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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Posh Offices, “DLC Suits,” and Best Wishes

Since Matt Yglesias discharged the task of defending the DLC’s honor against the multiple calumnies hurled at us by David Sirota in recent weeks, I was able to send off on Friday a response to the substance, such as it is, of the “Democrats’ Da Vinci Code” article in The American Prospect that launched this silly food fight.
But there are two personal details that neither I nor Matt got around to mentioning, which require a response for the record.
The first is Mr. Sirota’s lead sentence in his piece in The Nation, which refers to Al From “looking out over Washington” from his “posh office.”
Actually, Al’s office looks out over a parking lot. And The Moose, who has worked for a wide variety of Washington organizations, including a couple of labor unions, assures me that Al From’s office is the least posh he has seen for any chief executive.
As a prominent member of the DLC’s corporate-funded Power Elite, I should mention that my own office is a rabbit warren constantly threatened with condemnation for Toxic Chaos, and for the loud, eccentric, and entirely non-corporate music I play after-hours.
And I take particular umbrage at the assertion Sirota made in his response to the NewDonkey post about his Prospect article, to the effect that I am a “DLC suit who’s never been outside the beltway.”
Excuse me. I have spent most of my life outside the beltway; spend every weekend outside the beltway; travel constantly outside the beltway; work for an organization whose main focus is outside the beltway; would never be described by my associates as “well-heeled,” or, on most days, as a “suit.”
People don’t always, or even often, match the stereotypes of people who don’t actually know them.
I learned that myself when I got down here to the country, and after feeding the livestock, got the internet access puffing and wheezing into life. I found a new email from David Sirota that informed us that he was off to get married, and thanked us for a “good debate.”
In my religion, the Sign of Peace trumps every dispute, because it’s the only way we can approach God together as people divided, but united in our common need.
I wish David Sirota and his spouse a blessed event and a wonderful honeymoon, and will include them in my prayers. And let’s all get a fresh start in the New Year, and argue, if we must, over things of real substance.

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