FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT DENOUNCES DLC,

ENDORSES MAYNARD JACKSON FOR CHAIR OF DNC

CONTACT: Michael Rectenwald (mike@legitgov.org)

Citizens for Legitimate Government^tm denounces and repudiates the Democratic Leadership Council's findings in "Why Gore Lost and How Democrats Can Come Back" (online at http://www.ndol.org) and cites such philosophy and strategy as a major reason why CLG endorses DNC Executive Committee member Maynard Jackson?s candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

"DLC's analysis is wrong-headed, incomplete, inaccurate and astonishingly self-serving," said Mike Rectenwald, founder of CLG. "You can't get the right answers by asking the wrong questions," continued Rectenwald. "Asking why Gore lost is demonstrably the wrong question since Gore won the popular vote, Gore won the Florida vote and Gore therefore rightfully won the Electoral College."

The DLC acknowledges Gore?s victory, though barely, but goes on to engage in self-congratulatory, blame-the-victim insistence that Gore wasn?t ?New Democrat enough? to win BIG ENOUGH to overcome the rightwing coup which the DLC did not bother to oppose at the time, denounce now, or even mention in their analysis. Because of this, CLG considers the DLC complicit in the coup, and supportive of Republican efforts to draw attention away from their own anti-democracy excesses by pretending that nothing out of the ordinary happened in Florida or elsewhere.

That?s not the DLC's only sin. Having polled a mere 1200 Gore and Bush voters, pollster Mark Penn and his DLC New Democrat friends feel they have all the answers, and not surprisingly their answers are so-called "New Democrat" answers. Unfortunately, the DLC is severely hampered by having asked not enough of the right questions, and not enough of the right people.

They failed to poll a single Nader voter, so are missing those voices representing 2.5 million voters who REALLY would have put Gore over the top in this election. These voters – plus the unknown numbers of Greens-at-heart too pragmatic to vote for Nader -- represent a potent liberal force whose politics should not be ignored. If the DLC continues to reach into the universe of Republican voters and pull the Democratic Party further to the right, they'll ensure a viable Third Party that will address liberal, all-American issues and values.

CLG further questions why there have been no attempts to poll or reach that half of the American citizenry who feel so alienated and/or uninspired by modern politics that they don't bother to vote at all. It stands to reason that there are millions of Democratic voters among them. Further, CLG understands as most politicians and pollsters do not, that the so-called Undecided-s and Independents who are the much sought-after Swing Voters are mostly people who do not have a good working knowledge of either the parties or the issues. Again and again, both major parties fail to reach these people at all, let alone persuasively.

And yet the New Democrats of the DLC see no value in such efforts. Nor do they see any reason to find ways to better articulate policy initiatives developed after asking the people what THEY want and instead counsel the development of carefully crafted and poll-approved New Democrat rhetoric.

Nor does the DLC see any benefit to insisting on fair, balanced and deeply policy-oriented coverage from the media. And finally, the New Democrats don't seem to see any value in finding aggressive ways to counter Republican lies and distortions about Democrats. Instead, the DLC eagerly joins them by characterizing the "Old Democrats," as they are referred to, as proponents of "big government" and Gore's populist message as "class warfare."

Most offensive of all, though, is the dismissive treatment of minorities and labor, articulating the very attitude these groups have complained of in the past: They'll vote for us anyway, we don't have to listen to them.

In short, the DLC's post-election analysis is a rehash of their old message: Let's become more like Republicans. CLG's response is: We have enough Republicans. Let's listen to what Real Democrats and other left-liberal-progressives want, craft policies that serve them and the campaign-winning slogans and rhetoric that speak to them.

With it's top down organizing and strategizing, the DLC has too much influence and control over the Democratic Party. That's why CLG strongly supports and endorses former Atlanta Mayor, lawyer, successful businessman and long-term Democratic Executive Committee member Maynard Jackson's candidacy for Chair of the DNC. Jackson promises a return to grassroots politics "which is how the right has been so successful in the recent two decades " and a Democratic Party that serves the people. Jackson has both the skills, experience and leadership abilities to ensure that that happens. See http://www.maynard4dnc.org/ as well as more information at CLG's website http://www.legitgov.org.

Citizens for Legitimate Government is a strategic cyber- and grassroots activist coalition of left-liberal interests recently created by concerned, tax-paying citizens after the activist U.S. Supreme Court abandoned its Constitutional obligations and upheld the Republican Party's efforts to undermine and eliminate the democratic process from the 2000 presidential contest. The members of the group refuse to recognize the Bush administration as legitimate. More information on the group's activities can be found on their website at www.legitgov.org.