HITLERIAN MIDDLE AMERICA:

Democrats draw lessons from debacle (James Rosen, Nov. 10, 2002, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

As Democrats ponder the direction of their party, the split between liberals and moderates has reemerged with a vengeance.

"Nobody's talking about being 'Republican lite ,' " said Rep. Martin Frost, a Texan who sought to replace Dick Gephardt as House Democratic leader before conceding Friday to California Rep. Nancy Pelosi. "We're talking about being tough, and we're talking about speaking to the vast center of this country -- the people who determine elections in this country."

For Mark Anderson and the 3 million workers he represents as head of the Food and Allied Trade Services union, that kind of plan is part of the problem, not the solution.

"At a certain level, the appeasement approach is clearly not successful as a tactic, and it's clearly not appropriate in a substantive way," Anderson said. "If anything, this election should demonstrate to those people who want to be centrists that it's a failed tactic."

"Appeasement"? Mr. Frost says Democrats have to appeal to centrists and Mr. Anderson calls that "appeasement"? One supposes it's possible that Mr. Anderson really means to suggest that Mr. Frost is Neville Chamberlain and the "vast center of this country" is Nazi, or at least some kind of enemy to be appeased; if so, that attitude might bode ill for Democrats. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 10, 2002 10:29 AM