The nationÂ’s top Democrats are suddenly rushing to appear on the Fox News Channel, which they once had shunned as enemy territory as the nemesis of liberal bloggers.
The detente with Fox has provoked a backlash from progressive bloggers, who contend the party’s leaders are turning their backs on the base — and lending credibility and legitimacy to the network liberals love to hate — in a quest for a few swing votes.
In a span of eight days, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY.) and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean are all taking their seats with the network that calls itself “fair and balanced” but is widely viewed as skewing conservative. . . .
Markos Moulitsas, founder of the leading liberal site Daily Kos, Ari Melber, the Net movement correspondent for The Nation, told Politico by phone that progressive activists and the Netroots are “not happy about it.”
“I don’t think that it is tenable to completely neglect or ignore what your base wants,” Melber said.
The Democratic leadersÂ’ new openness to Fox reflects the liberal leftÂ’s diminishing power, at least at this point in the political cycle. Once feared by the Democratic candidates, these activists are now viewed at least in part as
Recognizing that Obama’s appearance risked incurring blog wrath, a “senior Obama adviser” vowed to Greg Sargent of Talking Points Memo before the interview that the senator would “take Fox on” during the broadcast. But the interview turned out to be a civil give and take, with no pushback against Fox. Afterward, Sargent wrote that the pledge had turned out to be merely “a bunch of tough talk.”
“This will likely further dismay liberal bloggers who had worked very hard to get Dems to
