As much as I hate to admit that I was wrong, I've got to say that I made a mistake the other day here on DailyKos. Specifically, I should never have called left wingers "loonies," as I did in Kos' now (in)famous January 3 post,
"The Fraudsters and electoral reform". What I said exactly was that Kos should be congratulated for "taking an unpopular stand that is sure to piss off an
extremely vocal left-wing minority of loonies infesting [his] blog." The bolded part of that sentence was wrong, and I shouldn't have said it. Sorry.
No, I have NOT disavowed my political philosophy, which is overwhelmingly progressive on social/cultural issues, moderate on economic issues, and "Scoop Jackson Democrat"/muscular multilateralist on foreign policy. No, I have NOT taken back my view (a la Peter Beinart) that, in order to win elections in America post-9/11, Democrats can't be seen as weak on national security. And no, I have NOT repudiated my belief that some people went over the line vis-a-vis Ohio, in their fervent desire that Bush not win the election, by claiming that it was "stolen" or that massive fraud was committed. Finally, I have NOT changed my mind that this type of talk can damage the Democratic Party by making us look like sore losers and even "tin foil hat" types to many Americans.
Having said all that, and after some reflection, I have come to the conclusion that the Democratic Party is -- HAS TO BE -- a large tent, and that, given this fact, I can't expect to see eye-to-eye with everyone in the tent 100% of the time. But, even if we disagree, we need to respect each other, or at least work together. If not, we'll have a very small tent soon enough (or a big tent filled with people at each other's throats!).
Let me take this opportunity to say that, despite my disagreements, I DO admire the passion and tenaciousness of the "Ohio fraud" folks, and hope that they keep it going for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Look, I may not have agreed with them on this one, and I'm absolutely sure they don't agree with me on many others, but I hope we can ALL agree that we need each other to fight the greater evil -- George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, and the Republican Party.
That's it.