Is that the upshot of liberal blogger outrage over Democrats’ new openness to Fox News?

That seems to be the bottom line here.

The nation’s top Democrats are suddenly rushing to appear on the Fox News Channel, which they once had shunned as enemy territory as the nemesis of liberal bloggers.

And liberal bloggers have had Democratic politicians in a choke hold. 

The détente with Fox has provoked a backlash from progressive bloggers, who contend the party’s leaders are turning their backs on the base — and lending credibility and legitimacy to the network liberals love to hate — in a quest for a few swing votes.

What’s this? No talking to anyone outside the ranks?

That was then. This is now…at least for the candidates.

With the party’s presidential contest reduced to hand-to-hand combat, Democrats are turning to the ratings leader among cable news channels in a clear rebuff to the liberal activists known as the Netroots.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the leading liberal site Daily Kos, told Politico’s Michael Calderone: “Democrats are being idiotic by going on that network.”

Ari Melber, the Net movement correspondent for The Nation, told Politico by phone that progressive activists and the Netroots are “not happy about it.”

“I don’t think that it is tenable to completely neglect or ignore what your base wants,” Melber said.

So the base of the Democratic party wants all identity politics all the time? Is that the “Change” they’ve thrown in for…to take Washington from bad to worse?

Viewers have learned more about Hillary Clinton from her one sit-down interview with Bill O’Reilly than any one other speech, interview or debate until now. Obama had a civil sit-down with Chris Wallace last Sunday, and Howard Dean is on deck this weekend.

This may be bad news for liberal bloggers, but it can only be good and clarifying for voters who want to see how they handle the press they don’t control.