Sister Souljah in Slo Mo?

There's trouble brewing in the netroots. As the Democratic Party continues to operate as if they exist in the real world instead of the make-believe reality based community, left-wing hostility toward their hitherto progressive allies is mounting.

John Hawkins from Right Wing News has reaction from Democratic Underground and Daily Kos to how Democrats in the House and Senate are dealing with their Moonbat wing.

Participants at DU are invited to vote in a poll in which 77% of respondents so far have rated Nancy Pelosi a disappointment or a nightmare. The Kossacks are upset with Pelosi and also Harry Reid in the Senate. Pelosi is in trouble for not standing by Pete Stark's comments in the House the other day and Reid for not rallying around Christopher Dodd, who, since he knows he has no chance of getting the Democratic presidential nomination, has decided to parrot of the left-wing online community talking points concerning that FISA bill he's attempting to hold up.

Against that backdrop, it's rather interesting that the New York Times has a page one story titled Clinton Finds Way to Play Along With Drudge. Here are the first few paragraphs:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — As Senator Barack Obama prepared to give a major speech on Iraq one morning a few weeks ago, a flashing red-siren alert went up on the Drudge Report Web site. It read, “Queen of the Quarter: Hillary Crushes Obama in Surprise Fund-Raising Surge,” and, “$27 Million, Sources Tell Drudge Report.”

Within minutes, the Drudge site had injected Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fund-raising success into the day’s political news on the Internet and cable television. It did not halt coverage of Mr. Obama’s speech or his criticism of her vote to authorize the war in 2002, but along the front lines of the campaign — the hourly, intensely fought effort to capture the news cycle or deny ownership of it to the other side — it was a telling assault.

Mrs. Clinton’s aides declined to discuss how the Drudge Report got access to her latest fund-raising figures nearly 20 minutes before the official announcement went to supporters. But it was a prime example of a development that has surprised much of the political world: Mrs. Clinton is learning to play nice with the Drudge Report and the powerful, elusive and conservative-leaning man behind it.

That man, Matt Drudge, came to national prominence a decade ago as a nemesis of the Clintons who used the Web to peddle, gleefully, the latest news and rumor generated by the Monica Lewisnsky scandal.

How interesting. Is Hillary really feeding info to Drudge to help undercut Obama? If that's what's happening then what's the purpose of this investigative piece? Is it to help her create an image as being Drudge friendly in order to appeal to moderates or is it to help Obama, or anybody else who wants to challenge her from the left, by portraying her as a traitor to their cause? At least one lefty blogger accuses her of "sucking up to wingnuts".

Don Surber also analyzes the story but focuses on the portrayal of Drudge in the piece, which is pretty bad, but to be expected from the NYT. But if it is a hit on Drudge then it's also a slam of Hillary by association.

Taken together all this information leads me to believe that what's happening is the inevitable break between serious Democratic politicians and their fund-raising arm, which happens to be far left. The difference between this and the original Sister Souljah moment is that this one is gradually playing out over time instead of being signified by a defining act or statement.