Kos on Clinton, DLC, GOP attacks
Posted: Saturday, August 04, 2007 11:01 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
CHICAGO -- Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas sat down for an interview
this morning with NBC and spoke to First Read. He said the original
purpose of the YearlyKos convention when he started it was "to put
faces to screen names." Now, the convention includes more than 1,400
bloggers -- not just from Daily Kos but a wide range -- and major
Democratic presidential candidates.
The candidates chose this year to speak at the left-leaning blogger
convention instead of the once powerful centrist Democratic Leadership
Council. But Moulitsas, who was not involved in the organizing of this
year's YearlyKos convention, repeated that the candidates are not
speaking here because they have shifted left. Instead, he says, it's
all about how many people the netroots reach.
"If the DLC had a list of three million people," Moulitsas said, "they would go to that. It's not that they're centrist."
He also hit back at those on the right who criticize the Democrats for merely "pandering" to the left.
"It's that they hate when regular people are involved in the process," Moulitsas said, adding, "They hate Democracy if they hate this conference. It's as simple as that."
On Hillary Clinton's once-tenuous relationship with his blog and others, Moulitsas said, "She's doing a good job of negating the hostility. I don't think it surprises me."
He said he has not met with the candidates because he he's "not interested in being a gatekeeper. They don't need to go through me."
The candidates, though, including Clinton have blogged on Kos' site.
Watch Nightly News tonight to see the story on the YearlyKos convention, including the interview with Moulitsas. Look for the full transcript of the interview with Moulitsas later today.
