RC

Roll Call:

Democratic Think Tank Mixes Ideas With Bush-Bashing

October 17, 2005, ROLL CALL
By Morton M. Kondracke,
Roll Call Executive Editor

Behind a sulfurous fog of anti-Bush diatribes, there is a Democratic new-idea factory operating at the Center for American Progress.

It’s ridiculous that CAP labels itself a “nonpartisan” think tank. It’s manned almost exclusively by Democrats. It was created and is headed by Bill Clinton’s high-energy former White House chief of staff, John Podesta.

And practically every pronouncement it makes, even on the ideas front, is couched in anti-Bush vituperation.

For instance, a thoughtful CAP report proposing a new U.S. national security strategy called “Integrated Power” says in its executive summary that because of President Bush, “our military is weaker, many of our historic alliances are frayed, our Treasury is depleted, Osama Bin Laden remains at large and our tarnished reputation abroad has diminished our capacity to exercise moral leadership.”

That could have been said by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 or on any afternoon by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). In fact, it was written by Lawrence Korb, a Defense Department official in the first Reagan administration and the CAP’s main claim to bipartisanship, and former Clinton White House aide Bob Boorstin.

You might recall hearing about the Center for American Progress in the news.  This "think tank" is Tom Daschle's current employer.