BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Friday, August 17, 2007 12:01 a.m.
Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar is today fond of quoting a famous Lyndon
Johnson line: "You know the difference between cannibals and liberals?
Cannibals only eat their enemies."
Mr. Cuellar would know, having found himself the main course on liberals'
election menu just last year. A centrist Democrat who is pro-business,
free-trade and strong on law enforcement, the congressman was designated an
apostate by the left-wing Netroots crowd. They decamped to his district and
bankrolled a liberal primary challenger. Mr. Cuellar triumphed, though Daily
Kos founder Markos Moulitsas would later swagger on his blog: "So we didn't
kill off Cuellar. But we gave him a whooping where none was expected and
made him sweat."
Which is the point. If the liberal blogging phenomenon deserves to be known
for anything, it is the strategy to intimidate or silence anyone who
disagrees with its own out-of-the-mainstream views. That muzzling has been
on full display in recent weeks as Mr. Moulitsas and fellow online speech
police have launched a campaign against the centrist Democratic Leadership
Council. DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Jr. was even thwacked last week for
daring to speak to this editorial page (my sincere apologies, Mr. Ford)--the
clear goal to discourage him from making such a free-speech mistake again.
Yet a lively midweek chat with Mr. Cuellar suggests that this campaign of
threats isn't necessarily having the intended effect. If anything, it might
be backfiring. "They win when they intimidate people," says Mr. Cuellar.
"I've taken everything they've thrown, plus their kitchen sink, and I still
stand proud as a moderate-conservative Democrat." He says his triumph over
blogger fire has only strengthened his conviction that his party will only
win elections if it continues to be a "big tent" open to all views. "To make
that tent smaller, to force people--not to persuade, but to force, because
these are threats--to quiet down, that's destructive in the long term and
the short term."
Mr. Cuellar's 2006 victory may be the truest proof of those words. While
many of the Democrats' toughest races were fought in conservative-leaning
districts, Mr. Cuellar hails from the 28th, a Democratic area near San
Antonio, home to many border towns and a significant Hispanic population.
Liberal bloggers may have thought they'd have an easy time turning the Texan
into an example of what happens to "traitors" to their cause. They mounted a
spendy campaign behind the more liberal Ciro Rodriguez, who'd only lost by
203 votes to Mr. Cuellar in 2004.
Instead, Democrats, Independents and even Republicans rallied around the
incumbent, who had impressed them with his support for the Central America
Free Trade Agreement, his push to reform the public-school system and his
pro-business stance. This time, Mr. Cuellar beat Mr. Rodriguez in the
primary 53% to 41%, and then went on to get 68% of the general-election
vote. "They poured out negative ads and hundreds of thousands of dollars,
but in the end I knew my district a lot better than they did."
Despite all the blogger bravado that they now run the show, Mr. Cuellar's
experience has been more the norm than the exception. The press may adore
them, but the Netroots simply haven't notched many concrete victories.
"Every time I see [Sen.] Joe Lieberman in the hall, we like to say 'we're
still here, aren't we?'" says Mr. Cuellar, a spunky tone in his voice.
California's Jane Harman, reviled as a "warmonger," last year whipped
antiwar activist Marcy Winograd in a primary, 62%-38%. Ellen Tauscher, who
heads the New Democrat Coalition in Congress, was savaged by left-wing blogs
for her votes authorizing Iraq and free trade, and in particular for her
warning to her party not to "go off the left cliff." She walked away from
her re-election with 66% of the vote.
Mr. Cuellar goes so far as to argue that instead of cowing Democratic
moderates, the left-wing attacks have united them. More
middle-of-the-roaders now believe that if the bloggers were to win a
high-profile primary, it would only energize them to go after others. "This
has brought us together to say, 'this is us, and we've got to stick
together,'" he says.
But perhaps the Netroots biggest failure, suggests Mr. Cuellar, is that it
hasn't bludgeoned his party's leadership into abandoning the middle. It was
moderate Democrats who won their party the majority last year (the New
Democrats now boast 60 members; 13 new additions), and Mr. Cuellar claims
few people understand that better than Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "I've seen her
behind the scenes, and I've always thought she was liberal, but she's done a
good job of trying to bring us more to the middle."
For proof, Mr. Cuellar suggests a look at "all the passes" the leadership
has given red-state Dems on tough votes like Iraq, missile defense and
immigration. This is an obvious recognition by the top ranks of the party
that getting moderates re-elected is the only way to stay in power. They
know that "if we go the way these Internet groups want us to go, we'll be
the shortest-lived majority in congressional history," he says.
Don't take this to mean that the liberal juggernaut hasn't shifted the
debate. Some moderate Democrats, while reticent to admit it, are tacking
left in hopes of dodging further assaults. Ms. Tauscher, long known for her
national security credentials, has toned down her hawkish impulses, voting
against the recent surge and taking a harder line on missile defense. Even
Mr. Ford's DLC these days seems a little more comfortable talking about
"trade enforcement" than it does "free trade." Mr. Cuellar admits that while
some centrists are willing to say "who the . . . blank-blank do [these
Internet groups] think they are," others don't want "to be the center of the
attraction."
In a match-up on "Meet the Press" this past weekend, the Daily Kos's Mr.
Moulitsas extolled those who use his site to trash thoughtful folks such as
Mr. Cuellar as a shining example of "democracy." In the same breath he then
commanded the DLC's Mr. Ford to "control" his moderate members, and force
them to stop disagreeing with liberal Democrats. If you get that logic, you
might just be a Daily Kos reader.
Mr. Cuellar, for his part, doesn't show much of an inclination to be
controlled by anything other than his own principles. And he's trumped the
hungry liberals--so far.
[ Ms. Strassel is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board,
based in Washington. Her
[ column appears Fridays.
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