Progressive Policy Institute

[BayCityProgressive]

Has anyone read this website? Some of the ideas sound like good moderate winning ideas to me. A lot of it however, is going too moderate or right wing for me to stomach.
http://www.ppionline.org/

[KissMeKate]

1. repug on the board

take this group with a grain of salt.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. LOL

I am not a Repug. I take them with more than just a grain of salt. They are DLC. I am just saying that a few of these ideas sound like they could be good compromise ideas for dems and reps...if reps werent such extremists.

[Robbien]

3. Only if you believe in Republican light

MSM brings out PPI when they need a Democratic view which does not strongly disagree with BushCo. They love to label it Democratic when it is Centrist.

[MisterP]

4. PNAC with liberal dressing is NOT WINNING!

[Tinoire]

5. It's the DLC's think tank. Now starring the Christian Coalition

Kind of disgusting isn't it?

It's the DLC's think tank and actually shares offices with it. It was founded by Will Marshall founded. It has same proposals as the Neo-cons but they write it in Progressive-speak. Take any of their positions and compare it to the neo-cons; you won't find much difference. They were instrumental in, not just supporting, but egging the administration on for the war.

A lot of people were turned off to Kerry because the founder of the PPI, Will Marshall, was his campaign foreign policy advisor. Scary.
A nutshell of an example is this one...

You know how angry we are at Bush's foreign policy agenda. Check out the PPI's position:

Like PNAC and the Bush administration, the Progressive Policy Institute has a vision of national security that extends to fostering democracy and freedom around the world in “the belief that America can best defend itself by building a world safe for individual liberty and democracy.” It’s likely that PNAC itself would heartily agree with PPI’s criticism of those who complain that “the Bush administration has been too radical in recasting America’s national security strategy.” In fact, in assessing the Bush administration’s foreign policy agenda, the institute stated, “we believe it has not been ambitious enough or imaginative enough.”

The statement, according to the PPI media release, “takes issue with left-wing activists who routinely call for deep cuts in military spending, reflexively oppose the use of force, and embrace an anti-trade, anti-globalization agenda that would damage the U.S. economy and condemn developing nations to perpetual poverty.” (snip)

(snip)

The neoconservative leanings of the PPI are evident in the writings of the contributing authors to Progressive Internationalism. In a March 9, 2004 essay, Ronald Asmus and Michael McFaul assert that “a bipartisan consensus is emerging in America about the need to bring greater freedom and democracy to the Greater Middle East.” Having signed on to the neocon agenda of invading Iraq, based on false claims about Iraq’s stockpiles of WMDs, the liberal hawks after the invasion also became among the most vocal advocates of the regional political restructuring plans of such neocon institutes as the American Enterprise Institute and the Project for the New American Century. Asmus and McFaul call for a ten-fold budget increase for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a quasi-governmental “democracy-promotion” institute that was established as a neoconservative political project in 1983. Despite their proposal that Middle Easterners themselves take charge of the region’s democratization and restructuring, Asmus and McFaul say that NED should work closely with business and labor in this political project of overhauling the greater Middle East and argue that “nothing would set back the democratic cause in the region more than a premature American disengagement from Iraq, where a critical democratic transition is now underway.” They also advocate that NATO assume a role in Iraq. (10)


Both in articles in the DLC’s Blueprint and in media interviews, PPI President Will Marshall has struck out at Democrats who have either opposed the Iraq invasion or who call for the U.S. to pull out before it is commonly agreed that the “liberation” of Iraq is, as President Bush declared on May 1, 2003, “mission accomplished.” On the “They Said It” part of its website, the Republican Party highlights Marshall telling the Los Angeles Times: “You hear way too much from the Democrats in this race about turning over the whole mess to the U.N. Well, that's not credible and most people know it. It doesn't have the power to achieve the only outcome we can accept.”

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/ppi.php


Check out their funding...

Funding

PPI is part of the Third Way Foundation (whose chairman is Al From), and describes itself as a “nonprofit corporation” (emphasis added). Between 2000 and 2002, the Foundation received $225,000 from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, one of major top right-wing foundations. http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?2355


The DLC and its closely associated Progressive Policy Institute are the recipient of grants from many Fortune 500 firms as well from such right-wing foundations as the Bradley Foundation. Corporate contributors to the Progressive Policy Institute include AT&T Foundation, Eastman Kodak Charitable Trust, Prudential Foundation, Georgia-Pacific Foundation, Chevron, and Amoco Foundation.

“Progressive Policy Institute,” Capital Research Center, 2002
http://www.capitalresearch.org/search/orgdisplay.asp?Org=DLC101

The Third Way Foundation, which is an umbrella group for the New Democrats of the DLC, receives funding from the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Ameritech Foundation, and General Mills Foundation.

(13) “Third Way Foundation,” Capital Research Center, 2002
http://www.capitalresearch.org/search/orgdisplay.asp?Org=DLC102


According to a magazine report, the DLC counts on funding from Bank One, Citigroup, Dow Chemical, DuPont, General Electric, Health Insurance Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Occidental Petroleum, and Raytheon. (14)

John Nichols, “Behind the DLC Takeover,” Progressive, October 2000
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1295/10_64/65952690/print.jhtml

(14) John Nichols, “Behind the DLC Takeover,” Progressive, October 2000
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1295/10_64/65952690/print.jhtml


More, much more here... http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/ppi.php


Oh and their latest coup? They just brought one of Ralph Reed's right hand men from the Christian Coalition, a PNAC signatory named Marshall Wittman on board and made him both a DLC and a PPI spokesperson/Sr, Advisor. He's listed right up there with Al From and Will Marshall. This is some very, very sick stuff.

Reposting from an older post because this is damn important:

It is NOT by accident that the DLC and PPI are very close in philosophy to... elements on the other side. The DLC's latest acquisition from the neo-cons is a PNAC signatory named Marshall Wittman who was one of Ralph Reed's right hand men in the Christian Coalition. They think so highly of him that they made this "prodigal son" an official DLC spokesman and a Sr Advisor of the PPI (the DLC's version of the AEI). The gall.

The Christian Coalition is now in the Democratic Party courtesy of the DLC. It is little coincidence that we are suddenly hearing all this talk of "fath-based initiatives" in the party & politicians are mentioning "God" in every other sentence and letting us know how they just pray, and pray and pray several times a day.

We are in a fight for the soul of our party and they will stop at nothing. Big, big money at stake here. What we are fighting are the corporations, the Military Industrial complex, the National Endowment for Democracy, the neo think tanks, etc... Right now they're trying very hard to fracture the anti-war movement knowing full well that it's the glue holding many of us together because of our rage over Iraq and the political cohabitation that led to it. They will stop at nothing to divide us nor will they stop at anything to keep power.

We can't let them win. The stakes are too important.
==

Straight from the page of the DLC's neoliberal Progressive Policy Institute, they seem SO proud of their latest addition as they trumpet his "accomplishments":

PPI | Bio | September 22, 2004
Marshall Wittmann
Senior Fellow

Marshall Wittmann is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. Previously, he was Director of Communications for Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Mr. Wittmann has served in various positions with the Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, Christian Coalition, and in the administration of President George H. W. Bush.

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=87&subsecID=112&contentID=252919

*Here's the entire Staff list: http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_sub.cfm?knlgAreaID=87&subsecID=112


In order to find the right spokesperson, please contact our press office at [phone].

DLC Spokespersons:


Al From, founder and chief executive officer of the DLC.

Bruce Reed, president of the DLC.

Holly Page, vice president for strategic development for the DLC.

Ed Kilgore, policy director for the DLC.

Debbie Cox, chief of staff for the DLC.

Marshall Wittmann, senior fellow.

PPI Spokespersons:


Will Marshall, president and co-founder of the Progressive Policy Institute.

Rob Atkinson, vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute and director of PPI's Technology & New Economy Project.

Paul Weinstein Jr., chief operating officer of the Progressive Policy Institute and PPI senior fellow, covering issues of pension and tax reform, transportation policy, and corporate responsibility.

John Cohen, director of PPI's Community Crime Fighting Project.

Edward Gresser, director of PPI's Trade and Global Markets Project.

David Kendall, director of PPI's Health Priorities Project.

Jan Mazurek, director of PPI's Energy and The Environment Project.

Steven Nider, director of foreign and security studies.

Andrew Rotherham, director of PPI's 21st Century Schools Project.

Fred Siegel, PPI senior fellow, covering urban issues, smart growth, and transportation.

Marshall Wittmann, PPI senior fellow.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=86&subid=85&contentid=1238



Marshall Wittman

Marshall Wittmann is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and one of the nation's most quoted analysts on political and congressional issues. He specializes in the growing role of the independent voter.

Prior to joining the Institute, Wittmann held notable positions in government and private institutions. In the private sector, he served as the Heritage Foundation's director of congressional relations both for the U.S. House and Senate. Wittmann also served as the Christian Coalition's director of legislative affairs. In the Bush Administration, he served as the deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. Wittmann also was the legislative representative with the National Association of Retired Federal Employees and a public affairs specialist with the National Treasury Employees Union. He holds both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan.

Wittmann is widely quoted on issues concerning politics, elections and Congress. He has been published in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

http://pewforum.org/events/0410/wittmanbio.htm

You really have to get a load of this site!:

Bioethics
Death Penalty
Faith-Based Initiatives
Just War Tradition
Religion and Gay Marriage
Religion and Human Rights
Religion and Public Schools
Religion in American Public Life
Religion in Politics
School Vouchers
September 11 and Beyond

http://pewforum.org/issues /

====

At the Hudson Institute, he was the

Director, Project for Conservative Reform
Senior Fellow

http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_...

(the page was recently blanked out now that he's had a miraculous transformation from neo-con to Dem but the links of his name still point there).

And when you research Marshall Wittman + Conservative Reform, you discover that he left that to go manage John McCain's campaign (oh yeah, Wittman had managed Alan Keyes campaign at one time)

Bill Kristol and Marshall Wittman- real tight buds there.

Really scary stuff...