Looks like there will be a more overt alignment of left and left-wing groups to push forward Obama’s vision for the country:
Obama tightens reins on capital
"Marking a new season in his young presidency, President Barack Obama and his allies around Washington are about to give the capital a bracing lesson in one-party rule.
Democratic dominance, of course, has been a numerical reality since last Nov. 4 — but not always a political reality. The early days of the Obama presidency showed a president who trod gingerly in his dealings with Congress, showed deference to Democratic leaders and sometimes lost control of the daily message war against Republicans as a result.
No more. On a variety of fronts in recent days, the Obama White House and some of its closest special-interest and think tank partners have embarked on a campaign to promote the president’s budget and the far-reaching ideological objectives embedded in it."
"Aides in the White House and in leadership offices on the Hill conduct daily conference calls and soon will be laying out more definitive week-ahead road maps in order to better be on the same page. One aide said they were about to hit their “groove” in terms of coordination.Other voices in the chorus:
• The Obama grass-roots network — now known as Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee — has launched an e-mail pledge drive on My.BarackObama.com in which supporters sign their e-mail address to the statement: “I support President Obama’s bold approach for renewing America’s economy.” The pledge drive was announced with a video called “Ready for the Fight.” Plouffe e-mailed supporters over the weekend with a challenge labeled “the next few weeks”: “In the next few weeks we’ll be asking you to do some of the same things we asked of you during the campaign — talking directly to people in your communities about the president’s ideas for long-term prosperity.”
• A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new coalition, Unity ’09, which will draw together money and grass-roots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back White House legislation and other progressive causes. The online activist group MoveOn.org is a central player in the nascent organization, but other groups involved in planning Unity ’09 span a broad spectrum of interests, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Council of La Raza to Planned Parenthood, as well as labor unions, Media Matters for America, Health Care for America Now, and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club.
• Americans United for Change, a labor-funded ally of the White House, has begun airing an ad called “Crickets,” which begins with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) each saying, “No!” The narrator promises to give details of the Republicans’ budget, then the viewer sees a blank screen and hears the chirp of crickets.
• The DNC continues to try to brand Republicans as “the party of no.” But House Republicans say they plan to release a budget proposal of their own in the next few weeks, which could take the wind out of that attack."
