Honesty and politics: The Dems and MoveOn

Byron York wrote a piece for NRO on the latest Democrat politician seduced by the siren song of the angry MoveOn.org-Democrat-base: Barack Obama. York makes a case that MoveOn is gaining power in Washington amongs the Democrats. A year and a half ago, they were raising money for "outsider" Howard Dean, today they're organizing events with the likes of Senate fixtures like Robert Byrd and the great Dem hope for the future, Obama.

York also notes that many insiders are less than enthused by the prospect. The money quote:

In February, the Washington Post cited Democratic-party strategists who "worry that the influence of grass-roots activists could push the party even further to the left, particularly on national security, reinforcing a weakness that Bush exploited in his reelection campaign."

The paper went on to describe the views of Democrats — all of whom "declined to be quoted by name because they wanted to be more candid about the problems they see" — who say that "the belief by some of those activists [like those in MoveOn] that Democrats can solve their problems by playing more directly to their core constituents ignores several realities, particularly the question of whether voters see Democrats as strong enough to win the war on terrorism."

No Republican strategist, even at his most creative, could ever find such a clear cut means by which to render the Democrat party impotent on the national scene.