Think Tank's Leader Charts A New Course
Center for American Progress Takes Forceful, Liberal Stance
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 22, 2006; Page A15
After national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley delivered a speech unveiling President Bush's new national security strategy, departing audience members were handed glossy, red-white-and-blue booklets titled "Integrated Power: A National Security Strategy for the 21st Century."
The booklets, however, outlined not Bush's strategy but that of the Center for American Progress, a three-year-old left-of-center think tank and refuge for Clinton administration alumni. Rather than issue a paper and hope it would be noticed, the center dispatched aides to personally deliver its rebuttal.
The moment outside the Mayflower Hotel this spring captured the essence of the Center for American Progress. Suffice it to say, this is not a traditional think tank. Founded by John D. Podesta, who was chief of staff in the Clinton White House, the center blends the scholarship of old-style research organizations with the in-your-face war room tactics of a presidential campaign. Ideas are only part of the mission. Selling them in a 24-7 Internet world is the challenge.
"We're definitely trying to shape debate and be engaged," Podesta said in his well-appointed headquarters brimming with flat-screen televisions and computer screens just blocks from the White House.
Bankrolled by wealthy liberals such as financier George Soros and bankers Herb and Marion Sandler, the center has emerged as a growing force within the Democratic Party, aggressively making the case against the Bush administration even when congressional leaders and the party itself do not....
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