‘I Caution Some in Our Party’

Liberal activists tend to dominate the Democratic Party's nominating process, but it's the centrists who help the party win national elections. Harold Ford Jr., the former congressman from Tennessee, is a leading voice of the latter camp. He narrowly lost a race for a Senate seat in 2006. If he had won, Ford would have been the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction. After his loss, he signed on as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council—the policy group that is closely associated with Bill Clinton's presidency and that has counted Sen. Hillary Clinton among its leaders. (She no longer has a formal role, the chairman says.) Ford argues that Democrats need to win swing voters and worries that combative "netroots" types could alienate independents and moderate Democrats in 2008. But the activists argue that the DLC has become irrelevant and that the days of compromise are over. NEWSWEEK's Jeffrey Bartholet spoke to Ford about the struggle for the soul of his party. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: You've warned your fellow Democrats that the '08 election will not be a cakewalk. Are you worried?
Harold Ford Jr.: Unless your opponent's name is "unopposed," you should always be concerned. And I think in this next election there are three things the Democrats have to do in order to win. First is to demonstrate that we can be trusted to defend and protect the country, that we can be trusted to care and tend to the needs of our military, and that we can be trusted to engage in a powerful and robust diplomacy, unlike we've seen in the last six or seven years. Second, we've got to demonstrate that we can be trusted with people's tax dollars, that we won't overtax people, and that we will look for every way to cut taxes and be fiscally responsible at the same time. Finally, we've got to demonstrate that we're squarely in the mainstream in the country when it comes to people's values. I caution some in our party, particularly some of the organizations and constituency groups who make up the party—particularly to the left—that this campaign will not be about George Bush; it will not be about how poorly he managed the war. It will be about how we will do it differently.

When the DLC held its annual convention in August, none of the candidates showed up. Yet most of the Democratic candidates attended the Daily Kos convention of netroots activists a few days later. Why?
You'd have to ask the candidates. I can only surmise that if you look at how Democratic and Republican primaries happen, they are really efforts to appeal to the far-right and the far-left wings of the party. But I take vindication as much as comfort in the fact that if you look at recent polling, the majority are rejecting the extremes of both parties. I'll make you one promise: next year the Democratic nominee will be at our convention.

The war is an important issue, and the DLC was pro-war.
I wouldn't call it pro-war.

It was [pro-war] in 2003.
Well, pro-war doesn't mean that we support the way this president has gone about fighting. We were supportive of removing Saddam Hussein, instilling stability in the country, reducing the threat that America faced from Al Qaeda and, equally important, the threat we thought was posed by Saddam Hussein. If we knew then what we know now … I was in the Congress; I would not have voted for the resolution. But at the same time, we're in a different place now. I caution anybody who continues to talk about the past on this issue.

The name perhaps most associated with the DLC is Bill Clinton. I'm wondering, does that help or hurt [your organization] as you approach an election in which Hillary Clinton is a candidate?
I don't see how it hurts us. A lot of the things that people long for today [were priorities during the Clinton presidency]. One of the things government can do is lower our current-accounts deficit and be more fiscally responsible. We need to address the long-term challenges of the country, including how to fund Medicare and Social Security. Bill Clinton did that. When you're a small-businessperson, you have to appreciate the way he helped lower health costs on businesspeople in this country. If you're a worker, you have to appreciate the number of jobs he helped create. We don't run from that at all. Now, if your question is, [with] Mrs. Clinton in the race, does that complicate things? Well, by no means. Most of the people running either chaired the DLC or chaired specific efforts that we launched at the DLC.