The Bestiary
Native fauna of the Democratic Party
Shown above: the amphisbaena
Shown above: the amphisbaena
Rahm Emanuel (Rahmbo, Rahmses)
Congressman from Chicago; chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), a slush fund used by the Democratic Party leadership to fund chosen candidates for Congress (referred to around here as the "sockpuppets").
Emanuel is a veteran of the Clinton administration; his achievements there include shepherding NAFTA and the infamous Clinton crime bill through Congress. He is also a kind of quasi-Israeli; his Israeli-born father was a member of the notorious Irgun, and Rahm himself reports the usual euphoria on a visit to Israel shortly after the '67 war. During the first Gulf war, Rahm went back to Israel and served in some ambiguous semi-military volunteer capacity.
Most recently Rahm has largely occupied himself with trying to making sure that no opponents of the
Iraq war receive Democratic congressional nominations.
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga ("Kos")
Founder and guru of the Democratic Party cult site Daily Kos.
Kos' followers are referred to around here as "Kosniks."
Donkey, donks, donkery, jackass
Refers to the traditional emblem of the Democratic Party.
Refers to a notorious two-headed dog in antiquity, pet of the three-torsoed ogre Geryon.
What does this have to do with the Democratic Party?
Al From is the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a hatchery of
particularly right-wing Democrats,
including the Clintons. The DLC has spawned a number of like-minded satellite organizations (the "Fromsphere"),
e.g. the wildly misnamed Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Third
Way (sometimes referred to around here, with our characteristic juvenile humor, as "Turd Way" or "Third Rail").
Al From is often credited with the idea and term "triangulation".
The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is perhaps
the core cadre of a larger social formation, sometimes referred to as
"the Israel lobby," or, among insiders and insider-wannabes, just
"The Lobby" (capital letters always quite audible).
Like the DLC, discussed above, AIPAC has its satellite
organizations. (Why do people do this? Is the idea to create an illusion
of polyphony, like the Bach cello sonatas?) Probably the most consequential
of AIPAC's avatars is the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), but any number
of other organizations also form part of the larger Lobby: the Anti-Defamation
League(ADL), the American Jewish Committee(AJC), the Jewish Institute on National
Security Affairs (JINSA) -- and on and on.
AIPAC/WINEP alums are quite influential in Republican and Democratic circles alike,
but they probably have a bit more clout among the Democrats. Bill Clinton actually made
AIPAC founder Martin Indyk his main man for Middle East policy, and
subsequently ambassador to Israel. Which is only fair, since the man had spent the previous
twenty years or so being an unofficial ambassador from Israel.
Indyk and his fellow AIPAC alum, Dennis Ross, played a crucial role
in preventing Middle East peace at the Camp David talks during the last dreary
days of the Clinton administration; see Clayton Swisher's highly informative book,
The Truth About Camp David.
Surely this ogress needs no introduction?
A two-headed serpent, of whom Pliny says, "Geminum caput amphisbaenae, hoc est et a cauda, tamquam parum esset uno ore fundi venenum"
(Twin-headed is the amphisbaena, one here and one at the tail, as if it were not enough to have poison poured from one mouth). Like
Orthrus above, the amphisbaena forms a pleasing emblem for the American two-party system.
A fairly recherche in-joke around here. It started with
this post. The Muscular Squirrel has become something of an icon for the Democratic Party faithful's self-concept: cuddly but
tough.
Al From (the Fromsphere, DLC, PPI, Third Way)
AIPAC ("The Lobby", WINEP, Martin Indyk)
Hillary Clinton ("St. Hill", Baba Yaga)
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