Soros says be patient
By Hans Nichols
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/042005/soros.html

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


----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Gotta love the left. Life isn't a right but death is."
-- Captain Compassion

"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike

"Why would I listen to losers?" -- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion

"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net

Soros says be patient
By Hans Nichols
http://www.thehill.com/thehill=AD/export/TheHill/News/Fr-
ontpage=AD/042005/s...

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 =93startup=94 progressive think
tanks.