Is Arlen Specter a Moderate Hero?

[Brittain33]

Does DailyKos typically get excited over moderates?

Kos isn't excited about Specter except insofar as he becomes another vote for us, possibly.

[Brittain33]

Does DailyKos typically get excited over moderates?

Actually, to answer the question: yes. A lot. Moderates who win in difficult states, are partisan when they need to be, and don't go on Fox News to bash Democrats are celebrated on Daily Kos. Jim Webb, Jon Tester, Travis Childers (who is more of a conservative), Claire McCaskill, many others... it's when people behave like a "Moderate Hero" that they get in trouble.

[Brittain33]

Wow. Interesting.

Markos is hyper-partisan. This means that some policy positions are sacrosanct because they are considered essential to holding the Democratic Party together--examples are opposing Social Security privatization and behaving morally on torture. It also means opposing Moderate Hero-dom and grandstanding attacks on the party for one's own career like Lieberman does.

Beyond that, his mantra is "more and better Democrats," with "more Democrats" being those who are willing to stand by their party label and not undercut the leadership any more than they have to in order to represent their districts. You will never see Kos criticize Walt Minnick or Gene Taylor, for example, unless they vote some way which is truly bizarre from both a partisan and a self-preservation angle. And Kos raised a ton of money for Don Cazayoux and Travis Childers despite the fact we knew they'd be conservative Dems.

[Brittain33]

Someone with the last name of "Cooper" in Nashville is not going to be afraid of or cow-tow to some bloggers sitting in their pajamas in their parent's basement.

Surely you know the difference in reach and power between Daily Kos and, say, Red State in terms of ability to shift large amounts of money to races where the incumbent would rather coast to victory.