"Dear Hillary Clinton"

"Hey, we’ve never met but trust me I’ve been holding up my end at the base of a lot of Democratic pyramids going back to my days at the Ron Brown DNC. So allow me a little slack -- as this is going to sting a little. But it seems like the only way to get through these days in our world is to make a stink or pitch a fight, publicly, so I’m gonna take my turn. I do mean well.

I want you to understand that you are in a big political pickle. You are the presumptive 2008 Democratic nominee and like it or not, you are a permanent LIBERAL ICON, (just ask the Republican talking point machine) and you are also in a permanent shooting war with party liberals because of your tendencies to “moderate” in a certain style. The current conflict with the liberal blogosphere didn’t just start in Ohio when you spoke to the DLC last week, it just re-fueled it. So you’re getting it from left and right, and this squeeze is only going to get tighter and tighter.

Now for the tough love part of this rant. I want you to know that I think that both you and your husband are the most selfish politicians I have ever seen, and I do think that it should be OK for folks to question your strategic voice in our Party after the events and outcomes of the last 12 years -- without fearing shunning or stoning from the Democratic-Clinton Taliban.

Some personal disclosure is in order. I am fine to be categorized as a semi-bitter progressive curmudgeon who like many others, still smarts at the thought of your husband’s abandonment of the $18 billion Putting People First economic agenda in the 1993 budget, the complete abandonment of the opportunity to do real campaign finance reform when we had Democratic control of both the House and Senate, and the tragic signing of the 1996 Telecommunications Act which loads of folks – from both sides of the aisle – fought against because of just the sort of Fox-Sinclair-media consolidation madness that has happened since its enactment. Oh, and did I mention NAFTA?

Curmudgeons are easily dismissed and ignored, so feel free.

But as a lovable curmudgeon who also cares about winning, I’m here to temper my criticism with some well-meaning counsel so that we can advance core values like ensuring starting gate equality via public education, championing a new investment economics through programs like The Apollo Alliance, and fighting a smarter war on terror that sure as hell extends beyond the death dance in Iraq."-from Dan Carol's piece on The Huffington Post.