Friday, June 29, 2007

For years, one of the principal concerns on the left was creating a political and intellectual infrastructure that the right developed over decades. Conservatives had the think tanks, the massive membership organizations, the media outlets, the conferences, the deep-pocketed benefactors, etc. The left scrambled to catch up in the late '90s, but the right has a big head start.

But as it turns out, the envious looks cut both ways. The right wants its own MoveOn.org.

Veteran Republicans say they have quietly raised millions of dollars for a pair of nonprofit organizations that will launch this fall with the ambitious aim of providing a conservative counterweight to the liberal MoveOn.org, Politico.com has learned.

MoveOn.org grew out of the impeachment crisis, as lefty Democrats grew disgusted with Republicans and with what they considered to be round-heeled Democrats.

Today The Victory Caucus is seeing tremendous traffic for a site that is five days old, and an impressive commitment of resources from virtual volunteers around the country. Before long the Caucus will be identifying the congressional districts which have twice voted for George W. Bush but which are represented by Democrats. It already has a list of the 17 white flag Republicans up. I expect a great deal of effort to go into the identification of candidates for these 68 districts, candidates committed to supporting victory in the war.