Some days it's not so easy...

...to take the side of 'unity' in the Democratic blogosphere, because there are so many voices, important and not so, drawing lines to determine who is or isn't a 'real' Democrat, which issues are make or break, who must not be considered in '08, yadda, yadda, yadda. Part of the problem is that everyone seems to be able to assemble a fairly compelling case for their own postition.

The problem isn't that any of the points raised in various quarters contradict, either. The problem is that way too much ends up on the table, and by the time we've had our way in the blogosphere, we've whittled the scope of Democratic 'respectability' down so much that, well, we could be left without a single blogger-approved 'real' Democrat who also happens to be electable in all but the liberal ghettos of urban America.

Along with Matt Yglesisa, writing for TAPPED...

I'm getting a bit worried that the "netroots" don't necessarily have the best sense of which are the really important lines to draw.

Of course, that could be because that's really not our job. Drawing the important lines, in the current situation, should fall with the Democratic Congressional leaders, and they've actually stepped up to the plate, although they have yet to really swing the bat.

The House Democrats, of course, have their New Partnership for America's Future, and the Senate D's have the complementary American Promise agenda. The greatest service that the Democratic Congressional caucuses could do now would be to join those two agendas and come up with a set of priorities from them that could be published on a post card.

If the lefty blogosphere is ever going to become the kind of sound machine that can beat back the wingnut echo chamber, that kind of simple, consistent message is what we need, and our Congressional leadership, is where it should come from. I know that will sound unacceptably 'top-down' to some, but we expect the members of the Congressional bodies to observe some level of Party discipline on principle issues. Why should the grassroots be held to a lower standard?