Democratic Group Hails Party Gains, Warns of Obstacles Ahead

An organization of centrist Democrats meeting here Monday cheered signs of President Clinton’s political revival, but warned that the resurgence may prove fleeting if the party defines itself solely by opposing Republican initiatives.

“If anybody believes Republican mistakes are going to be the basis of a new Democratic majority, we are kidding ourselves,” said Al From, president of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Likewise, Stanley B. Greenberg, who served as Clinton’s principal pollster in 1992, told the crowd of more than 1,000 activists that despite the Democrats’ gains on the GOP in recent polls, the public remains deeply skeptical of both parties. “What characterizes our period,” Greenberg said, “is that each party keeps losing ground.”

Since its formation in early 1985, the DLC has been the most influential voice of moderates and conservatives within the party. It has consistently argued that Democrats need to develop a “third way” alternative to traditional conservative and liberal programs, which would be built around such ideas as reciprocal responsibility--the notion that government should increase its efforts to expand opportunity but then demand personal responsibility from those it seeks to help.

For the most part, Monday’s gathering had a much more upbeat tone than last year’s DLC meeting, which came after the Republican landslide in the 1994 election.

At last year’s meeting, many of those attending angrily accused Clinton--who chaired the group before launching his presidential campaign in 1991--of precipitating the Republican gains by abandoning his “New Democrat” campaign agenda and tilting to the left in office.

The group rallied around the President on Monday. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), the group’s chairman, introduced Clinton by describing him as “our friend” and declaring that “as President [he] has kept faith with the DLC and the third way.”

Clinton’s speech, which focused on his opposition to Republican budget plans, drew loud applause; when he finished his remarks, the crowd briefly erupted into a chant of, “Four more years.”

But behind the cheers were signs of concern that both Clinton and congressional Democrats are overestimating the degree to which the party can recover in 1996 simply by bashing the GOP.

Several polls in the last few weeks have shown Democrats gaining on the GOP in sample congressional and presidential matchups as support for the Republican budget agenda has decreased. But in speeches that preceded Clinton’s, both From and Lieberman argued that such gains may prove temporary if the party is seen as interested merely in protecting existing government programs.

“While it is true that many Americans worry today that congressional Republicans are going too far,” Lieberman said, “it is also true that they believe Republicans are at least headed in the right direction and have at least embraced the concept of ‘change,’ and that too many Democrats simply have not.”

Such language illuminates the DLC’s incongruous position in the polarized budget debate now under way. DLC members gave Clinton a standing ovation Monday when he declared his steadfast opposition to the Republican budget-balancing blueprint. But the organization’s leaders also worry that the Democrats’ success at rallying its traditional constituencies against the GOP plan will incorrectly lead the party to conclude it can revive without advancing its own agenda to fundamentally reform the federal government.

“People may think the Republicans are moving too hard and too fast,” From said, “but they don’t want to go back to the old Democratic status quo.”

The DLC agenda includes welfare reform built around moving recipients quickly into work; replacement of federal job training programs with vouchers that workers could use to purchase their own training and a “cut-and-invest” budget plan that would slash billions of dollars in existing subsidies to business and shift the funds to education, training and research programs.