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I'm at interweb blogging happy party Netroots Nation, watching the lunch keynote, which is a cordial discussion between Markos Moulitsas, Chairman of the Internets, and Harold Ford, Chairman of the DLC. Apparently, the two ended a Meet the Press appearance a year ago by promising each other that they'd attend the other's annual convention. So last month, Markos was at the DLC's National Conversation, and this month, Ford is talking to the netroots. As of yet, no casualties have been reported at either event. Indeed, so far, it's been a pretty bland talk, with Ford going for a lot of easy applause lines and asking that the Left subsume its differences until November. But the optics are still pretty stunning. Remember this DailyKos post from a few years ago?
this is the modern DLC -- an aider and abettor of Right-wing smear attacks against Democrats. They make the same arguments, use the same language, and revel in their attacks on those elements of the Democratic Party that seem to cause them no small embarrassment.Two more weeks, folks, before we take them on, head on.No calls for a truce will be brooked. The DLC has used those pauses in the past to bide their time between offensives. Appeals to party unity will fall on deaf ears (it's summer of a non-election year, the perfect time to sort out internal disagreements).We need to make the DLC radioactive. And we will. With everyone's help, we really can. Stay tuned.Then came Katrina, and internecine warfare was tabled. But that post was true to the mood: The netroots hated the DLC, saw them as a, if not the, crucial impediment to a better Democratic Party. Two years later, Harold Ford is sitting on their stage, at their invitation. One interpretation would be that the netroots sold out, that they grew to love power and recognition. But that's not quite right. Rather, the DLC ceased being a threat and became simply a foil. In 2005, when DailyKos was preparing to destroy the DLC, they were punching up, or thought they were. Now it would be baffling if they took the DLC on: What would be the point? The netroots are bigger, richer, and more relevant, or at least feel as if they are. Having Ford give this speech is almost kitsch: The dissonance of his presence reminds the netroots of how things were, while the fact of it underscores how they are.