Obama Is Perfect Here:

In response to attacks on Democratic senators supporting John Roberts's Supreme Court nomination, Senator Barack Obama--who opposed it--nevertheless engaged the readers of the popular weblog Daily Kos with an eloquent admonition that the "tone of much of our rhetoric is an impediment to creating a workable progressive majority in this country." If liberals are to approach this goal and take advantage of Americans' rejection of the far right's reactionary agenda, they must first find a way to establish a basis for common understanding through respectful discourse. On that score Obama bravely explained to the sometimes overheated liberal blogosphere, "When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive 'checklist,' then we are essentially preventing them from thinking in new ways about problems. We are tying them up in a straitjacket and forcing them into a conversation only with the converted. Beyond that, by applying such tests, we are hamstringing our ability to build a majority."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/alterman