"That's crazy," says Ed Kilgore, the DLC's policy director. "If you can't tell the difference between the DLC and the Republicans, you're not paying attention."
Sure, the DLC took some Koch money, Kilgore says. But it has never advocated abandoning the working class or taking economic issues off the table, and it is proud of Clinton's economic record. "If you have to be self-consciously and vocally anti-business in order to be considered a legitimate Democrat or progressive," he says -- well, sheesh: That would rule out the party's current presidential nominee.
Informed of this return fire, Frank seems uncharacteristically exasperated. But his fundamental stance remains: Bring 'em on.
Has the DLC taken economic issues off the table? "Of course they haven't taken them off the table -- they've just become Republicans."
Does a Democrat have to be anti-business? "I don't think I'd call myself anti-business. . . . I'm critical of the species of capitalism that we're living under today."
Is that Koch money innocent? "Okay, it is Koch that funds right-wing organizations. And it's the Democratic Leadership Council that's been working hard for years to push the Democratic Party to the right. Not to the left. To the right."
But isn't that where the American mainstream has been heading for decades? And hasn't he positioned himself way outside it?
Frank concedes this last point, but nothing more.
"I may be outside the debate," he says. "But ultimately my description is accurate and theirs is not."
A Sequel, Perhaps?
Tom Frank is a big fan of what he calls "American middleness," and as such, he doesn't think he wants to settle in Washington for good. He'd like to get back to Chicago eventually. Still, since he finished "What's the Matter With Kansas?" he's been getting out a little more, immersing himself in the political culture of his temporary home.
He's been going to public events at foundations like the Cato Institute. He heard President Bush speak to the American Conservative Union. He plans to hit some Democratic functions later on. Is he working on a sequel, perhaps? One called "What's the Matter With Washington?," maybe?
Frank laughs at the thought. A minute later, though, he tells a story that could work as an opening chapter. It's from this year's Republican convention -- but true to Frankian form, it reflects equally badly on both parties.
One day he attended a fete thrown by Grover Norquist's tax-cutting powerhouse, Americans for Tax Reform. "It was at the New York Yacht Club, for God's sake," Frank reports, astonished by the sense of invulnerability the choice projects, by the Republicans' obvious belief that the Democrats would never actually call them on this.
"Rich people toasting tax cuts in the New York Yacht Club! If we had a left in this country, they would put that on a TV commercial from now until Election Day."
