Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush
By Laura Blumenfeld
NEW YORK -- George Soros, one of the world's richest men, has given away
nearly $5 billion to promote democracy in the former Soviet bloc, Africa and
Asia. Now he has a new project: defeating President Bush.
"It is the central focus of my life," Soros said, his blue eyes settled on
an unseen target. The 2004 presidential race, he said in an interview, is "a
matter of life and death."
Soros, who has financed efforts to promote open societies in more than 50
countries around the world, is bringing the fight home, he said. On Monday,
he and a partner committed up to $5 million to MoveOn.org, a liberal
activist group, bringing to $15.5 million the total of his personal
contributions to oust Bush.
Overnight, Soros, 74, has become the major financial player of the left. He
has elicited cries of foul play from the right. And with a tight nod, he
pledged: "If necessary, I would give more money."
"America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," Soros said. Then he
smiled: "And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is."
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, 'You're 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.
Soros's 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. The parties are now barred from
accepting such money. But non-party groups in both camps are stepping in,
accepting soft money and taking over voter mobilization.
"It's 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. "George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party."
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. 11, 2001, to promote a preexisting agenda of preemptive war and world
dominion. "Bush feels that on September 11th he was anointed by God," Soros
said. "He's leading the U.S. and the world toward a vicious circle of
escalating violence."
Soros said he had been waking at 3 a.m., his thoughts shaking him "like an
alarm clock." 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 December's 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. "But it is, in fact" -- he chuckled -- "the Soros
Doctorine."
His campaign began last summer with the help of Morton H. Halperin, a
liberal think tank veteran. Soros invited Democratic strategists to his
house in Southampton, Long Island, including Clinton chief of staff John D.
Podesta, Jeremy Rosner, Robert Boorstin and Carl Pope.
They discussed the coming election. 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. They were proposing to mobilize voters in 17 battleground
states. Soros told them he would give ACT $10 million.
Asked about his moment in the sun, Rosenthal deadpanned: "We were
disappointed. We thought a guy like George Soros could do more." Then he
laughed. "No, kidding! It was thrilling."
Malcolm: "It was like getting his Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."
"They were ready to kiss me," Soros quipped.
Before coffee the next morning, his friend Peter Lewis, chairman of the
Progressive Corp., had pledged $10 million to ACT. Rob Glaser, founder and
CEO of RealNetworks, promised $2 million. Rob McKay, president of the McKay
Family Foundation, gave $1 million and benefactors Lewis and Dorothy Cullman
committed $500,000.
Soros also promised up to $3 million to Podesta's new think tank, the
Center for American Progress.
Soros will continue to recruit wealthy donors for his campaign. Having put
a lot of money into the war of ideas around the world, he has learned that
"money buys talent; you can advocate more effectively."
At his home in Westchester, N.Y., he raised $115,000 for Democratic
presidential candidate Howard Dean. He also supports Democratic presidential
contenders Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Rep.
Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.).
In an effort to limit Soros's 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.
The RNC is not the only group irked by Soros. Fred Wertheimer, president
of Democracy 21, which promotes changes in campaign finance , has benefited
from Soros's grants over the years. Soros has backed altering campaign
finance, an aide said, donating close to $18 million over the past seven
years.
"There's some irony, given the supporting role he played in helping to end
the soft money system," Wertheimer said. "I'm sorry that Mr. Soros has
decided to put so much money into a political effort to defeat a candidate.
We will be watchdogging him closely."
An aide said Soros welcomes the scrutiny. 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. Then he closed it. The proposal hung in the air: Would he
become poor to beat Bush?
He said, "If someone guaranteed it."
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