Robert Gibbs used the term the “Professional Left” in attacking left-wing critics of Obama.
I like the term. It carries with it a sense that opposition to Obama from the left does not primarily come from bloggers in underwear sitting in their parents’ basements.
Some 1st Tier names certainly come to mind: Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, and Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake have created blog communities which have savaged Obama from the left. Glenn Greenwald also has been on a mission particularly on civil liberties issues, and John Aravosis of AmericaBlog on gay rights issues.
But who else?
Please don’t mention Media Matters and Think Progress; they are pro-Obama Democratic Party tools which will sink to almost any level to defend the brand.
So who else constitutes the Professional Left? (And if you want, you can categorize them by 1st, 2nd or 3rd Tier status)
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Comments
All involved at MSNBC come to mind. Gibbs' remarks seemed to correspond to Obama's greatest cheerleaders taking a few shots.
Doug Shoen and Pat Cadell, who are current or former Democratic pollsters/strategists, have co-written a couple of columns critical of Obama that have appeared in the WSJ. They also appear frequently on Fox, where they are also critical. I'd classify them as Tier 1.
Ed Schultz of MSNBC has been especially critical recently. I'd put him Tier 1.
Krugman was critical about stimulus and healthcare. But I'd put him Tier 3, simply because even when he is critical of Obama's policies in a column, he manages to explain the critisism away by saying the Republican polcies would be even worse. He's such a Democtatic hack he can never quaify for Tier 1 status, no matter how critical he is.
And I recall one Count Frankula column where he was slightly critical. He felt so badly afterwards that he ordered new pom-poms.
Gibbs was making a distinction between left-leaning voters and the dedicicated activists of the Left who encompass a host of organizations whose views are reflected by Lefty bloggers and a few MSCNBC talking heads. Surely, Tier 1 inludes:
— The ACLU
— The Center of Constitutional Rights
— The National Lawyers Guild
— The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (aka Human Rights First)
— The Southern Poverty Law Center
— Everyone at The Nation magazine
— Moveon.org
— The ANSWER Coalition and all of its member groups
— CODE PINK
— WILPF
— The American committee of Amnesty International
— Michael Moore
— Sy Hersch
— Joe Conason
— The Working Families Party (NY)
— Democratic Socialists of America
— Whatever's left of the Green Party
— Ralph Nader
— Pacifica Radio
— ACORN (or whatever it calls itself)
— Etc., etc. It's an endless list.
— Plus, the more militant elements of gay, feminist, pro-abortion, pro-immigration, civil rights and enivoronmental movements.
Tiet 2 should encompass such outfits as PIRG, NPR, NAACP, the national gay groups, and the foundations that spawn and fund the Tier 1 groups as well as offer job perches to various Lefties. The folks who work at these places are mostly on the saem page as Tier 1 but either have a single issue focus that prevents them from jumping whole hog into the fray or are obliged to affect some outward appearance of being non-political.
Tier 3 merges too much with the mainstream of the Democratic Party and liberal causes to ber of much use to detail
Certainly the Bill Ayers's, Mike Klonsky's and Carl Davidson's of Chicago and elsewhere must be 1st tier. Pretty much every former national leader of SDS…. Clark Kissinger is/was a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Tom Hayden is the moderate of the bunch.
Ugh, I actually ended up clicking through to firedoglake. Aneurysm avoided, but I wasted time answering Blue Texan's nonsense questions on my blog.
I would add J Carville. He's been a "tier 2" criticizer ever since the administration began "handling" the Gulf spill.
IMO, "Professional Left" are the left-wing people and organizations which derive their livelihood / existence from their leftist politics.
MoveOn.org; International ANSWER; SEIU; and the NAACP all fit the bill. There are more.
The Professional Left is like a spouse abuser… it/they both support and denigrate Obama at the same time. He is their guy… they work to "nudge him" into doing all of what they want.
Thus, in my view, the Professional Left encompasses all the usual suspects.
Welcome Back To Pottersville. The webmaster may be a bit too much of a potty mouth to be taken seriously though.
BlueGirl – a bit more sophisticated than the above but still absolutely nuts. Closer to the "professional left" than Welcome Back.