This is the organization that will defeat Bush
They plan to raise 200 million in soft money and run attacks ads against Bush in 17 swing states. George Soros has kicked in 10 million in start-up money; Ellen Malcolm of Emily’s List, 20 million. There is little doubt they can raise 200 million.
The Right is getting alarmed by this, they know what’s coming and it scares them, as well it should. Soros is a multi-billionaire with a social conscience who says Bush is a menace to the planet. Through currency speculation Soros has tanked currencies of entire countries, so it can be assumed he knows how to play hardball. And now he is focusing on defeating George Bush.
Enter Steve Rosenthal, Ellen Malcolm, Gerald McEntee, and Harold Ickes. None of these is a household name. But for Bush enemies they are the elite of the post-campaign-finance-reform world. They have all formed entities that can legally accept as much money as anyone cares to give and dispense the funds for political purposes–as long as their groups don’t blatantly back any particular candidate. Their lawyers won’t allow them to say so, but they are all determined, in effect, to elect Democrats in general, and the Democratic nominee for President in particular, next year.
Multi-billionaire George Soros has launched a scathing public attack on President Bush, likening his administration’s rhetoric to that of the former Soviet Union.
‘I lived through both German and Soviet occupation,’ Fortune magazine quotes Soros saying. ‘When I hear President Bush say that those who are not with us are against us, I hear alarm bells.’
The hedge fund investor has also put his money where his mouth is, donating $10m (£6m) to the Democratic presidential campaign. Soros says in the interview that Bush’s approach to international democracy, that ‘you can have freedom as long as you do what we tell you to do’, was dangerous and similar to the rhetoric of Soviet Union.
Soros is soon to publish a book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, attacking what he sees as Bush’s tendency to resort to violence and ignore international co-operation.
Excerpts from a Soros interview by David Brancaccio (pdf)
If we re-elect Bush, we are endorsing the Bush doctrine. And then we are off to a vicious circle of escalating violence in the world. And I think, you know, terrorism, counter-terrorism, it’s a very scary spectacle to me.
On the PATRIOT ACT
Now, the Democrats caved in. I’m very critical of the Democrats. But of course, it was a moment of, I suppose, national calamity. It was a tragedy and people were very emotional. It’s a traumatic event. But there was a group of people who took advantage of it and who’s been leading us in the wrong direction.
On what America Coming Together will do
GEORGE SOROS: Get out the vote and get people engaged on issues. This is the same kind of grassroots organizing that we did or we helped in Slovakia when Mechar was defeated, in Croatia when Tudjman was defeated and in Yugoslavia when Milosevic.
BRANCACCIO: But gee whiz, Tudjman, Milosevic, George Bush, almost in the same phrase? Those are fighting words?
SOROS: But I do think that our leaders…If you take John Ashcroft, I don’t think he’s an Open Society person, Donald Rumsfeld…I do think that we have an extremist element in the government. I think that President Bush has been captured by these people as a result of September 11.
BRANCACCIO: But you really think that if it’s true that the current administration has been hijacked by extremists, that the American public, which by and large and history doesn’t tolerate extremism all that well, resents extremism, that the American public by and large wouldn’t notice?
SOROS: I think that they are noticing it. I think that it’s happening. And this is exactly why I think that people are about, may I say that, coming to their senses.