Remember When He Claimed to Care about CFR?

[Guest MikeSC]

George Soros told a carefully vetted gathering of 70 likeminded millionaires and billionaires last weekend that they must be patient if they want to realize long-term political and ideological yields from an expected massive investment in “startup” progressive think tanks.

 

The Scottsdale, Ariz., meeting, called to start the process of building an ideas production line for liberal politicians, began what organizers hope will be a long dialogue with the “partners,” many from the high-tech industry. Participants have begun to refer to themselves as the Phoenix Group.

 

Rob Stein, a veteran of President Bill Clinton’s Commerce Department and of New York investment banking, convened the meeting of venture capitalists, left-leaning moneymen and a select few D.C. strategists on how to seed pro-Democratic think tanks, media outlets and leadership schools to compete with such entrenched conservative institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Leadership Institute.

 

Senior Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials were quietly briefed about the meeting in recent weeks. DNC Chairman Howard Dean was aware of it, in part though his friendship with Stein, but one senior DNC source said the organizers “kept that list [of attendees] kind of tight.”

 

Sarah Ingersoll, de facto spokeswoman for Stein’s Democracy Alliance, said it was “a very preliminary meeting of committed donors interested in building a community to support progressive infrastructure.”

 

The Democracy Alliance will act as a clearinghouse and is expected to channel much of its money to new organizations and existing ones such as John Podesta’s Center for American Progress and David Brock’s Media Matters for America.

 

The money details are several weeks away. “There aren’t dollar figures at this point,” Ingersoll said.

 

Soros, a Hungarian-born financier who donated more than $23 million to pro-Democratic 527 groups last cycle, gave the main presentation, said Ingersoll, who declined to name the other presenters.

 

“Primarily, we’re looking at making recommendations and thinking through with these donors on how they can form an alliance,” she added. “This is about creating a network of individuals to share information to be effective in whatever they do going forward.”

 

Participants were tight-lipped, saying they wanted to keep media expectations low, even suggesting that the Scottsdale gathering was too insignificant to report. Other participants included former White House press secretary Mike McCurry and New Democrat Network president Simon Rosenberg. Andy Rappaport, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and reliable investor in liberal causes, did not attend the meeting, his spokeswomen said.

 

Ingersoll said funding transparency is a priority, which she said would contrast with some right-wing groups.

 

But transparency was not on display among the Scottsdale participants contacted by The Hill. Details of the meeting remained sparse.

 

Most of the participants had already seen Stein’s slick presentation titled “The Conservative Message Machine’s Money Matrix,” which lays out how right-leaning donors have funded and invested in organization that churn out conservative ideas. Stein unveiled his presentation at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last year, at an event hosted by Rosenberg and NDN.

 

Ingersoll denied that progressives are merely trying to replicate Heritage and Fox News.

 

Another source at the meeting said that it was important for existing progressive groups to coordinate their activities and to avoid the turf wars that have riven progressive causes in the past.

 

One source at the DNC with direct knowledge of the agenda said that the Phoenix Group had three specific goals at the outset. It wants to create liberal think tanks, training camps for young progressives and media centers.

 

Despite the general recognition that progressives are several years behind conservatives, liberal activists are confident that technology will help them close the gap. “Technology may allow us to do in a few years what it took the other side 40 years,” the DNC source said.

 

But the Phoenix Group is not beholden to the political calendar, and several sources insisted that four-year electoral exigencies were not motivating the project. Indeed, part of the reasoning in keeping D.C. consultants away from Scottsdale was to shield the high-tech donor base from political operatives, who are always eager for quick dollars to buy media points and fund direct mail.

 

“This is bigger than that,” the DNC source said

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheH...2005/soros.html

Now, keep in mind, George Soros used to be a MAJOR player in the "campaign finance reform" movement before deciding to give more money for clearly partisan purposes than any man in history has (Scaife hasn't APPROACHED Soros' level).

 

Even worse, the think tanks he's funding aren't even close to what the left needs. Groups like the Heritage Foundation WILL criticize Republicans (Bush Sr was criticized regularly), but the left groups won't criticize ANY Democrats that anybody has noticed. If they won't actually serve as a think tank and, instead, serve as a cheerleading squad for the DNC --- this is just a waste of money.

-=Mike

...Kill CFR! Kill CFR! Kill CFR!...

[The Czech Republic 0]

Democrats really seem to have "solidarity forever" down better than Republicans. Wonder why.

[SuperJerk 0]

Jesus Christ...can't we limit stories about capaign finance issues to ONE thread.

 

Newsflash: There's dirty money in politics.

 

Shocker.

[Guest MikeSC]

Jesus Christ...can't we limit stories about capaign finance issues to ONE thread.

 

Newsflash: There's dirty money in politics.

 

Shocker.

When the dirty money comes from big names in the CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM movement --- yes, it's a huge story.

-=Mike

[SuperJerk 0]

Jesus Christ...can't we limit stories about capaign finance issues to ONE thread.

 

Newsflash: There's dirty money in politics. 

 

Shocker.

When the dirty money comes from big names in the CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM movement --- yes, it's a huge story.

-=Mike

Funny how that wasn't mentioned in the article.

[Guest MikeSC]

Jesus Christ...can't we limit stories about capaign finance issues to ONE thread.

 

Newsflash: There's dirty money in politics. 

 

Shocker.

When the dirty money comes from big names in the CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM movement --- yes, it's a huge story.

-=Mike

Funny how that wasn't mentioned in the article.

Yes, funny.

 

Which is irrelevant, since Soros WAS a major contributor for the CFR movement, until he decided to become a total hypocrite.

-=Mike

[The Czech Republic 0]

It's okay to be a hypocrite if it's done in the name of DESTROYING GEORGE W. BUSH!!!!, duh

[NoCalMike 0]

What is the point about posting threads about dirty money being funneled into campaigns? It happens on both sides, a lot, and either you want soft money out of campaigns or not, it is hard to have a middle ground here, but as long as you side, and vote to keep soft money legal, dirty money will funnel in.

[SuperJerk 0]

Mike was under his quota for threads started this month.

[Guest MikeSC]

Mike was under his quota for threads started this month.

I'm considering writing a book "Flaming for Fucking Idiots".

 

I'll dedicate it to you.

 

You need the help.

-=Mike

[SuperJerk 0]

If you wrote a book about flaming, I doubt it'd have anything to do with the internet.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Soros, a Hungarian-born financier who donated more than $23 million to pro-Democratic 527 groups last cycle

 

Well, I don't know about you, but now I feel better about R.M.Scaife and associates' $300+ million in donations.

[Guest Cerebus]

Now soft money is illegal, yet more money was spent in 2004 for the campaign than any other campaign in American history if that tells you anything.

[Ted the Poster 0]

If you wrote a book about flaming, I doubt it'd have anything to do with the internet.

Are you calling Mike an arsonist?

[The Czech Republic 0]

Nope, just another progressive tolerant open-minded liberal implying homosexuality as an insult again.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

you cocksucker

lol

[The Czech Republic 0]

Find my holier-than-thou line about how I'm progressive, tolerant, and open-minded, and you're in business.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

So instead of being holier-than-thou about being progressive, tolerant and open minded, you're just holier-than-homosexuals since you equate said sexual orientation to an insult?

 

Okay.

[The Czech Republic 0]

By not tripping over myself saying how PROGRESSIVE~! I am, I'm playing it safe. I'm not equating it to an insult. RobotJerk used it as an insult. Go after him.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

If Robotjerk was calling Mike gay, that was pretty shitty of his liberal self. He might have been calling him an arson though! That's pretty insulting, it implies that you're obssessed with lighting things on fire.

 

But still, just because one isn't progressive doesn't mean that they have to stoop to calling them a cocksucker to insult a person. Implying that if one was gay makes them less of a man is pretty lame regardless of where you stand on political lines.

 

Czech, we've clashed quite a bit in CE over the past hour. I don't like having internet enemies, should I ever travel through the midwest or wherever it is that you live, I'm assuming near Chicago, I fear for my life.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Yeah there have been several instances here of Mr. Liberal using the gay epithet on Mike

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Czech is all riled up today.

[cbacon 0]

Liberals cant use homosexuality in the context of a joke or insult?

[Ted the Poster 0]

 

You're all cocksuckers.

[Special K 0]

Meatwad has shamed me with his levels of stachery.

[Guest MikeSC]

Soros, a Hungarian-born financier who donated more than $23 million to pro-Democratic 527 groups last cycle

 

Well, I don't know about you, but now I feel better about R.M.Scaife and associates' $300+ million in donations.

Except Scaife has only contributed about $3M in his life to blatantly partisan activities (the Arkansas Project). The rest has been to legitimate think tanks (not Republican cheerleading squads) and magazines.

So instead of being holier-than-thou about being progressive, tolerant and open minded, you're just holier-than-homosexuals since you equate said sexual orientation to an insult?

Progressives CLEARLY view "Gay" as an insult, since they USE it as one incessantly.

-=Mike

[Special K 0]

Every Carolinan I met has been vociferous in his hatred of homosexuals. Actually, pretty much every southerner with one notable exception.

[Ted the Poster 0]

Meatwad has shamed me with his levels of stachery.

Level of what?

 

Also, you should meet some Carolinians from the non-mountainous areas. We're much less primitive. That's NC though. I'm scared to travel anywhere in SC except for Myrtle Beach and Charleston.

[Special K 0]

stachery. aka moustachery

 

I can't let my title be taken from me!

 

[Guest MikeSC]

Every Carolinan I met has been vociferous in his hatred of homosexuals. Actually, pretty much every southerner with one notable exception.

Oddly enough, the Carolinians I know tend to not give the mildest shit who somebody fucks.

-=Mike