First, some old memories, just to remind you of this website's former glory, and to prove that I really have been here all along.

I was here when Chris Bowers came up with this crazy idea of contesting more than just the dozen or so congressional districts that Rahm Emmanuel was interested in contesting. Leadership from Bowers and others helped us take back the House and Senate.

I was here when Jonathon Singer was just "Basie," and wasn't a regular front-page poster here. But he caught everyone's attention with his great writing and fascinating interviews.

I was here when Scott Shields came and became one of my favorite bloggers, and I was here when he left to pursue employment in the real political world, not just the blogosphere.

Like pretty much everyone else who was a regular reader here, I was offended by Matt Stoller and his combative tone at least once... but I learned to love him anyway.

I was here when Todd Beeton came and immediately became one of my favorites. If we all could write with the intelligence of Todd, Chris Bowers, and Scott Shields, this would be a much better internet.

I was here when Jerome Armstrong was off on his book tour, and made his grand return to the joy of all of us regular readers, who were looking forward to his insight. That book, by the way, was co-written with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, back before it was fashionable for MyDDers to hate Daily Kos and vice versa.

I was here when MyDD stood for "My Due Diligence," and I was here when the name changed to "My Direct Democracy." I was here when Nancy Pelosi cited MyDD and its name as a model for what internet activism could be.

I've got a user id of 5,092, which isn't as low as some here, but is lower than a lot of you who came here to support Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. I was here before the site redesign, back when user ids were easily visible, and were mentioned from time to time.

I was here when the biggest controversy wasn't between Clinton and Obama supporters, but instead was between fans and "haters" of the user Gary Boatright. If anyone else remembers all that, please say so, I don't want to be the only one that feels old.

I was here when the "Use It Or Lose It" and Google-bomb projects were making a difference in the 2006 election. I was here when leading progressive thinkers came here to share their ideas and elect Democrats.

In short, I was here when this place mattered.

I don't want to offend Jerome or any of the other front-pagers, but blogs matter in Democratic politics when they're interacting with others, sharing ideas, producing something of value. The folks here who seem to thrive on the divide between MyDD, Daily Kos, and other blogs might make themselves feel good, but they're not helping anyone. They're not producing anything of value, and they're not convincing anyone to support their candidates and causes. For the sake of the progressive movement as a whole, this has to stop.

Which brings me to why I'm writing tonight. I'm not going to link to my last comment on MyDD, which was on February 4th, 2008. Frankly, I'm embarrassed. I made a big deal about something petty, and the diarist that I criticized rightly called me out as an asshole.

I was wrong. I said something stupid, because I was starting to get a little passionate and a little angry. I was an asshole. And I stopped commenting because I was embarrassed to see what I had become.

This is politics and were Democrats, which means we get passionate from time to time. I said something dumb. So in the new spirit of civil discourse that Jerome is advocating, I came back and am admitting that I was wrong. If you'll all still have me, and if you're interested in discussing politics and coming up with real ideas, I'd like to come back.

And maybe, if you are willing to have me, you can apologize for the dumb stuff you've said, too. A lot of you have said some pretty ridiculous things about other users and various candidates, and if you're willing to forgive people like me for being stupid and abandoning the community, I think you'll find that people like me are pretty forgiving, too.

Please, let's rebuild MyDD into something we can be proud of again.

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Someone's probably going to call me out in the comments for coming back here with a holier-than-thou meta post and not actually contributing the great ideas I kept mentioning, and you would be right. I really have no right to come here and lecture you, and really should be hard at work earning my right to participate in this community.

At the same time, a bunch of you have been a lot worse than I ever was. If you're feeling any pangs of guilt, go support a solid Democratic candidate for some office somewhere... say Mark Schauer, the Democratic leader in the Michigan Senate and a candidate for Congress in my home district, against radically conservative Tim Walberg.

Seriously, go contribute. We could win this one.