Leftists in Search of Permanent Democrat Majority
This is a long article...I only posted a snip....A Must Read...
by Matthew Vadum and James Dellinger
Posted Jan 17, 2007
Despondent after George W. Bush won re-election, a small group of billionaire Democrats met in San Francisco in December 2004 to reflect on John Kerry’s failure to capture the White House. George Soros, Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter B. Lewis, and S&L tycoons Herb and Marion Sandler were angry and depressed. They felt they had been taken—seduced by the siren song of pollsters and the mainstream media who had assured them that the capture of the executive mansion was theirs. But despite giving millions of dollars to liberal candidates and 527 political committees, the donors came away with nothing. At about the same time, another group of wealthy Democratic donors was meeting at a hotel in Washington, D.C., feeling the same way. “The U.S. didn’t enter World War II until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor,” political consultant Erica Payne told the meeting. “We just had our Pearl Harbor.”
Determined to bring the Democratic Party back from the political wilderness, Soros and the others decided they needed a long-term strategy to regain power. Former Clinton official Rob Stein urged them to copy conservatives who had spent four decades investing in ideas and institutions with staying power. Over the next year, Stein would become well known for a PowerPoint presentation called “The Conservative Message Machine’s Money Matrix.” He used graphs and charts to show how the conservative movement comprised an intricate network of organizations, funders and activists. Stein’s presentation was apparently convincing. In 2005, the Democracy Alliance (DA) was born. It was an odd name for a loose collection of superrich donors committed to building organizations that would propel America to the left.
In April 2005, Soros gathered together an even larger group. Seventy millionaires and billionaires met in Phoenix, Ariz., to firm up the details for their fledging political financing clearinghouse. The attendees heard presentations on why all the pro-Democratic Party 527 groups on which they lavished millions of dollars failed to deliver the election to Kerry. But now they had a new strategy to make a difference.
Hush-Hush Financing
To join the Democracy Alliance, there is one requirement: You must be rich. Members, who are called “partners,” pay an initial $25,000 fee and $30,000 in yearly dues. They also must pledge to give at least $200,000 annually to groups that Democracy Alliance endorses. Partners meet two times a year in committees to decide on grants, which focus on four areas: media, ideas, leadership and civic engagement. Recommendations are then made to the DA board, which passes them on to all DA partners. The alliance discourages partners from discussing DA affairs with the media, and it requires its grant recipients to sign nondisclosure agreements.
As a result, it is hard to learn much about the alliance’s grant making. There were no grants voted on at the DA’s April 2005 organizing meeting in Phoenix. However, when the group met in October of that year at the Chateau Elan Winery & Resort in Atlanta, Ga., it decided behind closed doors to dole out $28 million to nine grantees. Most of that money went to well-known groups, including the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America.
Representatives of smaller, less prominent groups were reportedly miffed at the process. “No one knew why the nine groups had been picked. Funding progressive infrastructure was all well and good, but no one bothered defining precisely what ‘progressive’ meant,” wrote Ari Berman, a writer for the leftist Nation magazine. “There was an almost complete lack of actual substance,” Berman quoted one attendee as saying.
After the negative feedback from the Atlanta meeting, DA leaders changed the process and allowed groups to apply for grants. The next meeting, held in Austin, Tex., in May 2006, was better received in left-wing circles. Progressive leaders such as Andy Stern, who is president of the Service Employees International Union, spoke during panel discussions, and grant-seekers were allowed to network with DA partners. “I’ve made it a mission to hate the Democracy Alliance,” Berman quoted one attendee who heads a grant-seeking group, “and I was pleasantly surprised.”
With an eye on the approaching November elections, the alliance decided to give another $22 million to 16 groups focused on electoral politics. These groups included the Center for Community Change, USAction, ACORN, EMILY’s List and the Sierra Club. Former President Bill Clinton dropped by the Austin meeting for a friendly greeting, but when one DA partner asked why Democrats don’t apologize for supporting the Iraq war, Clinton went on a 10-minute tirade, yelling that if he had been in Congress, he would have voted to authorize the war. “It was an extraordinary display of anger and imperiousness,” said partner Guy Saperstein, an Oakland, Calif., attorney. “Clinton’s response was a not-so-subtle warning to partners to avoid divisive issues, like the war, that might harm his wife in the next presidential election,” wrote Berman.
The DA’s third round of funding was expected to be decided at a Miami, Fla., meeting scheduled for November 2006. Details of the meeting were not available for this report.
DA’s managing director, Judy Wade, said she hopes the alliance will work with other funding groups and eventually give out $500 million in grants each year.
Selected Grant Recipients
The rest:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18899
A couple of shady groups in there that they gave money too...
C.R.E.W.-and the Mark Foley ordeal....Crew was accused of some shady stuff regarding that...
Acorn-who has been charged with voter fraud....
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Originally Posted by avatar4321
