The occasion was the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group that propelled Bill Clinton to the presidency and has been long favored by the party's officeholders from states that lean Republican.

The backdrop for the summer session was the growing pressure from the left to make the party more outspokenly liberal and confrontational as it heads into this year's key congressional elections and the looming 2008 presidential contest.

That pressure is most evident in Connecticut, where Sen. Joseph Lieberman – one of the founders of the council – is in the fiercest battle of his political life against a candidate gaining unexpected strength from grass-roots anger at Lieberman's support for President Bush's Iraq policies. The pressure is at its loudest among liberal and populist bloggers who have been savaging Democratic Leadership Council policies leading up to the Denver gathering.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the front-runner for the presidential nomination, has tried to broker peace in the party. She was criticized widely by liberals for her call last year for an ideological “cease-fire.” Her effort this year to come up with policy initiatives that could be embraced by liberals and moderates was dismissed by those critics even before it was unveiled.

“Dead on arrival,” pronounced Markos Moulitsas, whose blog, Daily Kos, is wildly popular among progressives. Moulitsas told Democratic Leadership Council members at the meeting that the organization was a “relic” of the 1990s.

The two-day conference – where Democrats from 42 states discussed the party's future – also presented an opportunity for several Democrats exploring presidential bids to test their messages.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack offered an olive branch to the critics, saying the council could be a “bridge-builder” to link the competing wings of the party.

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh urged Democrats to move beyond their antipathy to Bush.

“Now it is up to us to start thinking about tomorrow and what comes next,” Bayh said.

It was left to Clinton – the only speaker to really rouse the audience – to outline some proposals under the rubric of the 20-page American Dream Initiative. Offering Democrats as “change agents,” the former first lady said, “Once again America needs to work for everyone, not just the privileged and the powerful,” as she accused Republicans of economic mismanagement and favoring the rich.

To help the middle class, she proposed programs to control college tuition costs, increase personal savings, cut corporate subsidies, reduce spending on government contracts and increase accountability on pension funds. Borrowing an idea from Britain, she proposed “baby bonds” – giving a $500 savings bond to each of the 4 million children born every year in the United States, with another $500 bond at age 10, in an effort to increase savings.

Twisting the “It's the economy, stupid” phrase from her husband's 1992 campaign, she said the rallying cry in 2008 will be “It's the American Dream, stupid.”

At least a half-dozen other Democrats considering White House bids were not present, which underscored the split among moderate and liberal wings of the party.

Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From said he believed the initiative represented “a set of ideas around which Democrats of all stripes can rally as we head into the fall election.”