‘The Other K Street’-...a Pocket of Liberal Activists Settles In

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/07/1035/

‘The Other K Street’
In the Concrete Canyon of the Business Lobby, a Pocket of Liberal Activists Settles In
by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

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Welcome to 1825 K St. NW — what inhabitants of the building call “the other K Street.” The 13-story structure looks like any other boxy building along the congested avenue, and it has a wide range of tenants, including Associated Press Broadcast and the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. But in the past year and a half, two of its floors have turned into a clubhouse and clearinghouse for liberal causes. Its most prominent tenants form an abbreviated who’s who of well-funded allies of the Democratic Party.

The convergence began in January of last year when USAction, a grass-roots organization with eager activists in two dozen states, was hunting for additional space and leased more square footage than it needed on the second floor of 1825. It ended up subletting to Americans United for Change, its rapid-response confederate in the successful fight in 2005 to defeat President Bush’s plan to add private accounts to Social Security. (Woodhouse is president of that group.)

Soon thereafter, Campaign for America’s Future, which promotes liberal causes mostly on the economic and domestic fronts, was also seeking a new home and decided to alight on the fourth floor. It moved there in mid-February of this year and soon took on a tenant of its own — Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a coalition directed by Thomas Matzzie, who is also the Washington director of MoveOn.org Political Action.

Now every weekday is a rolling meeting with staffers from each of the organizations mixing with one another on such issues as lowering prescription drug prices and increasing funding for children’s health programs.

Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, called this clustering of a critical mass of these groups “a happy accident,” and a very useful one.

“The ability to walk down the hall and see somebody and get things done is great,” agreed Jeff Blum, executive director of USAction. Then, sounding just as corporate as anyone on K Street, Blum added: “We believe in synergy.”

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[unpossibles]

1. good. I was worried by the title of the article

because I feared it would be either a report of real corruption attempts or even an accusation of false corruption, but this seems pretty good on the surface. I'd have to look a bit deeper though.

[Hestia]

2. I was thinking that all the organizations should have one building

so their costs will be reduced. I have way too emails begging for money, generally for overhead and new computers. Not a bad idea, really. Of course, though, I can where 'insiders' would be driving the agenda's, asking us to climb onboard their train, no matter what we have to say about it.