SocraticGadfly: Tom Nutsack, the DLC’s pre-groomed presidential candidate?

July 16, 2005

Tom Nutsack, the DLC’s pre-groomed presidential candidate?

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has been named the new head of the Democratic Leadership Council, the AP reports .

And DLC founder and would be kingmaker Al From is beaming like a proud daddy:

DLC founder Al From said the DLC post will give new national credibility to Vilsack, whom he said was “almost without peer among governors as a reformer.”

Governor of the first-in-the-nation caucus to boot. How much are you willing to bet that Nutsack and the DLC oppose any plans Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have for reforming the party’s primary system?

Vilsack has played an important role in developing and strengthening Iowa’s nonpartisan Congressional redistricting system, true. That merits some reformist kudos regardless of orientation. But who, even from Iowa, can name any major state-level policy initiatives he has developed?

Meanwhile, Nutsack already appears to be criticizing Dean:

But he said the party must move beyond criticizing Bush and develop a message that appeals to a wide range of voters.
“It’s not enough to be angry,” he said.

True enough, Tom, but it’s also not enough to be the USDA Prime Cut choice of a pseudo-reform, pseudo-new ideas policy organization, either.

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