There’s  talk of a 3^rd party drifting around the ether.  John Avlon  pushes  Thomas Friedman to the forefront yesterday over at the Daily Beast.  Old Tom expounded at the Aspen Festival about how it’s time for a 3^rd party.  He’d vote for an Alan Simpson/Erskine Bowles ticket or Bloomberg would be good, too, he opined.   But they recognize third parties are likely the third rail in politics, so what's to be done?

 What Avlon doesn’t mention is that he is one of the founding fathers of an organization  called No Labels, which  registered as a 501 (c) (4) organization in December of 2010.  It’s motto is:  Not Left.  Not Right. Forward.   Most of the founders have connections to the Clintons. 

The Clintonians:

Andrei Cherny – Founder and president of Democracy: a journal of ideas, adviser to the Kerry campaign and chairman of the AZ Democratic Party

Jon Cowan – founder of Third Way

Bill Galston – Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy under  Bill Clinton and a student of Leo Strauss

Dan Gerstein – a Lieberman communications director and aide.

Nancy Jacobson –  Co-founder of Third Way, aide to both Bill and Hillary Clinton

Kiki McClean - former Senior Advisor to Hillary Clinton for President, former National Press Secretary to Al Gore for President; former Communications Director of the Democratic National Committee

Mark McKinnon – needs no introduction

Holly Page – former Executive Vice President of the Democratic Leadership Council

John Veroneau - former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush; former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton

Jonathan Miller – worked for Al Gore when he was VP (seems from his wiki to be one of the more liberal members of the group, environmentally at any rate)

David M. Walker – appointed Comptroller General by Bill Clinton and is currently part of the Peter G. Peterson foundation.

 And then there’s

Lynn Forester de Rothschild  -  You remember her, I’m sure, as the Democrat who supported Hillary, but refused to support Obama,  giving her nod to McCain instead.  Her name is not on the No Labels founders’ list, but her wiki says that she has “announced her desire to form a “centrist”  group that combines what she views as "the sensible policies of both parties." Although this has not publicly been confirmed, there is speculation that this group is No Labels. On June 22, 2011, she hosted a fundraiser for Jon Huntsman, Jr.'s presidential campaign.”

 From the No Labels wiki [emphasis mine]:

“No Labels describes itself as an alliance of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. The group claims to have started a grass roots centrist movement made up citizens from across the political spectrum and plans to address attacks on liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats stemming from within their own parties^[5]. Additionally, No Labels promises to reward people for bipartisan behavior^[12][13].

The organization argues that in American politics today the far left and far right dominate the news cycle, debates, and town hall meetings. The general public only sees who's yelling the loudest, not who's accomplishing something. Their goal is to tackle this problem by mobilizing citizens to pressure the political parties to work together to address major issues^[14][15].” [The far left dominates the news cycle! Seriously?]

No Labels’ manifesto declares that they are neither centrist, Democratic, nor Republican, but when you look at their goals and you look at the membership, it’s pure 3^rd way/DLC/center right.  The “blogs” on the No Labels’ web site chastise Obama for leaving town  this weekend rather that meeting with Congress; they praise the Lieberman/Coburn Medicare proposal; describe Mark Dayton’s shut down of the MN government as a “ploy of political brinkmanship”; they compare Huntsman’s announcement of his candidacy to Reagan’s 30 years ago; and they quote Politico a lot.  Oh, yeah – they’re starting a radio program, too, hosted by  Nancy Jacobson and Mark McKinnon: How to turn Democrats and Republicans into Americans Again is one of the programs.

 No surprises here.  The organization is just what you would expect given its members.  It’s hard for me to imagine a  grassroots uprising of centrist Americans.  But I imagine Obama and the other Democratic Party leaders are paying attention to it.  In fact one of the blog headlines blares “Obama agrees with No Labels”  specifically about keeping the Senate in session over the 4^th.  Another bragged that 10 Senate republicans agree with No Labels on something.  Although they claim they don’t have a political agenda, clearly they do.  Even though I tend to doubt their organization will catch fire like the Tea Party did, I do believe the village idiots will listen because the people are part of the club and  No Labels claims to represent the neglected majority of Americans.  Certainly Democrats will listen because they are so rootless these days, foundering without an ideology that binds.  No Labels bears watching because they're scary, to me at least.