Quick thought today, as it's taking me an awful lot of effort not to vomit on my keyboard:

If you, like me, believe centrist groups like the DLC and Heartland PAC (of Silver Spring, Maryland) are the problem, and I do, then you'll also enjoy this piece at Schweitzer for President, and I did.

Nevermind my favorite Jim Hightower quote, which says "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos." My problem with Vilsack and his centrist friends isn't their views, really. People portray Schweitzer as a centrist and if he runs for president, I'll support him.

My problem with the DLC and Heartland PAC is its direct ties to big money from people who have zero interest in the good of the people Vilsack would claim to represent. This is where Kevin nails it:

Just why would (and this is just a sampling) British Petroleum, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, Dell, Eli Lilly, Federal Express, Glaxo Wellcome, Intel, Motorola, U.S. Tobacco, Union Carbide, and Xerox, AOL, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Citigroup, Dow, GE, IBM, Oracle, UBS PacifiCare, PaineWebber, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn, and TRW, Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications be financial donors to the DLC if it is not for the purpose of influence? Can you spell s-p-e-c-i-a-l p-r-i-v-i-l-e-g-e? No, then try h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y.

For another helping of hypocrisy, why does the DLC slam members of its own party for so-called 'catering to special interests,' when the DLC does exactly what it accuses others of doing?

Let's take a look at that list a little closer:
BP, Texaco Chevron: So let me get this straight: Vilsack is supposedly doing all he can to investigate potential gas price gouging, but at the same time his groups are taking donations from three different oil companies? That's laughable.
Fed Ex: UPS and the USPS are both unionized. Fed Ex is not. That's an interesting bedfellow for a group of "Democrats."
Bristol Meyers Squibb, Glaxo Welcome, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn, et al: I guess this makes their intentions on health care pretty clear. They intend to do nothing.

A South Carolina history professor named Clyde Wilson once said: "Politicians today are not leaders, nor are they representatives of the people. They are brokers who distribute the taxpayers money among special interests. That is all they are. And either party would much rather see their opponents win, with whom they can cut a deal, than a maverick in their own party with whom they could not cut a deal."

Vilsack, the DLC and Heartland PAC are the embodiment of this.

KL