No news is bad news…

…for the news biz, but it seems to me there should be something to write about without just making stuff up. The WaPo's Thomas Edsall offers another entry in the "What's Wrong With The Democrats?" essay contest that our current high standing in the polls seems to require, conjuring up a brewing conflict between a some Democratic consultants and the Party itself…

A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.

The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.

Of course, lists - of donors, voters, activist and membership rosters of every variety - have always been part of the stock in trade for political consultants. Back in the day I always had a couple file folders full of names, numbers and addresses to flaunt when I was pitching a job. It was an add-on for me, but some folks make their whole living as list vendors.

Lists go out of date with alarming speed, and serious vendors have serious work to do, and any help offered should be appreciated. Naturally, the DNC is convinced, as they doubtless should be, that they're the best place for the concentration of data and dollars, but there's no real news in the truth that the business of politics is competitive. Someone will always try to produce better data, more useful sorts, faster service or some other advantage, for a fee. It's just free enterprise politics.

This is business as usual, folks, not an ominous rift in the Democratic Party. Ignore the man behind the curtain.