www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24179-2003Nov10?language=printer
Overnight, Soros, 74, has become the major financial player of the left. And with a tight nod, he pledged: If necessary, I would give more money. Soros believes that a supremacist ideology guides this White House. He hears echoes in its rhetoric of his childhood in occupied Hungary. When I hear Bush say, Youre either with us or against us, it reminds me of the Germans. It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit The enemy is listening. My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me, he said in a soft Hungarian accent. Soross contributions are filling a gap in Democratic Party finances that opened after the restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold law took effect. In the past, political parties paid a large share of television and get-out-the-vote costs with unregulated soft money contributions from corporations, unions and rich individuals. But non-party groups in both camps are stepping in, accepting soft money and taking over voter mobilization. Its incredibly ironic that George Soros is trying to create a more open society by using an unregulated, under-the-radar-screen, shadowy, soft-money group to do it, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson said. In past election cycles, Soros contributed relatively modest sums. In 2000, his aide said, he gave $122,000, mostly to Democratic causes and candidates. But recently, Soros has grown alarmed at the influence of neoconservatives, whom he calls a bunch of extremists guided by a crude form of social Darwinism. Neoconservatives, Soros said, are exploiting the terrorist attacks of Sept.
Sitting in his robe, he wrote his ideas down, longhand, on a stack of pads. In January, PublicAffairs will publish them as a book, The Bubble of American Supremacy an excerpt appears in Decembers Atlantic Monthly. In it, he argues for a collective approach to security, increased foreign aid and preventive action. It would be too immodest for a private person to set himself up against the president, he said. Soros invited Democratic strategists to his house in Southampton, Long Island, including Clinton chief of staff John D. Standing on the back deck, the evening sun angling into their eyes, Soros took aside Steve Rosenthal, CEO of the liberal activist group America Coming Together ACT, and Ellen Malcolm, its president. Asked about his moment in the sun, Rosenthal deadpanned: We were disappointed. Malcolm: It was like getting his Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
In an effort to limit Soross influence, the RNC sent a letter to Dean Monday, asking him to request that ACT and similar organizations follow the McCain-Feingold restrictions limiting individual contributions to $2,000. Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, which promotes changes in campaign finance , has benefited from Soross grants over the years. Soros has backed altering campaign finance, an aide said, donating close to $18 million over the past seven years. Theres some irony, given the supporting role he played in helping to end the soft money system, Wertheimer said. Soros has decided to put so much money into a political effort to defeat a candidate. Soros has become as rich as he has, the aide said, because he has a preternatural instinct for a good deal. Asked whether he would trade his $7 billion fortune to unseat Bush, Soros opened his mouth.
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