In the course of the first Ford/DLC thread, I was asked:

=== At what point do you let this transgression of being wrong for 5 years go? ===

Since the reply will probably get lost due to the size of the thread, I am posting it here.

Unfortunately, this isn't a friendly dispute over whether the top marginal tax rate should be 23.7% or 26.9% - it is over failing to understand, and in many cases actually supporting, the Bush/Cheney anti-Constitutional agenda (e.g. Lieberman). So in my personal opinion the timeout should last at least two Presidential cycles, or 8-10 years.

You may very well disagree. But the clock doesn't even _start_ until the core DLC movers-and-shakers acknowledge that they made a series of unbelievably serious mistakes in misunderestimating (and in many cases actually supporting) the Radical Right. I have seen zero sign of any such acknowledgement and in fact just the opposite: "Time to move on. Here's your next lecture from your superiors".

It must be fun to be the teenager of a DLC member: "Well yeah Dad, there was the whole thing with the car and the alcohol and the police action. But that was last week and the important thing is to focus on how we can work together to move forward as a family; that sort of backward-looking vituperation and talk of 'responsibility for one's actions' is divisive to the family.".

sPh