Townhall is a great idea and I'm happy to be here and be part of it........................   The post title is "Come Into the Big Tent". Why that post title and what does it mean? Well we have seen the DNC pull back the coverage of their party tent over the past six years to the extent that it could be now described as an "extremist leftist pup tent" that has no room for those who are moderate.  The republican party has always had a robust and diverse conversation about issues.  We don't always agree on every issue, actually hardly ever agree on every issue and that is a good healthy discussion!  In the Big Tent there is room for healthy discussion and instead of shrinking our tent as Howard Dean and the DNC engineering team are doing, the RNC is expanding the coverage of our tent as we should be doing.   Tom Matzzie of MoveOn said that they bought the DNC back in 2000 and now they own it and they  href="http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/18/Worldandnation/Unshaven__unbowed_and.shtmldo indeed:

"Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."..............................

The next sentence in the article by the MSM journalist after the Matzzie quote was thus: A lot of Democrats are terrified at the prospect...................... Moderate dems had a reason to be terrified when the statement was made back in 2000 and much more so now.  The tent has shrunk to the point that if your not on the same page as Howard Dean, Sorros, Sheehan and the other extremist, there is no room in the tent for you.  To validate this point take a look at Joe Lieberman.  Five years ago Joe Lieberaman was the VP candidate on the Gore ticket.  Today he is being attacked for supporting the GWOT and wanting to keep Americans safe.  See the lefty <a href="http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/joe-lieberman-refuses-to-rule-out.html">Connecticut Blog:</a>
 
At this point, you have to ask the question: why should any Democrat in Connecticut support a candidate that threatens to leave the party if there is a primary challenge and/or he loses the Democratic primary? It apparent that Joe's strong feelings about himself are more important than the viewpoint of the Democrats in Connecticut who will vote in the primary. The main theme of Lamont's campaign is that Lieberman is out of touch with the viewpoint of the voters in Connecticut and it seems like they might be correct.

Why is Lieberman out of touch with the Connecticut democrats?  He supports the GWOT, and that really is the only valid reason he has been labeled such.  Read the links and prior posts to get a real feel for the tent that MoveOn bought.  The anti-any-war nuts have taken over the democratic party and are driving the party off the ledge.  I think there will be lots of moderate democrats and dem-libertarians who are not interested in that ride.  I think moderate democrats have much more in common with the people in the Big Tent than the people in the "shrinking anti-war one issue tent", given the re-sizing of the tent models offered by the DNC currently............. Welcome, come on into the Big Tent and lets kick things around regardless........................................