Liberals show they can work together

…Name a major interest group aligned with the Democratic Party (the AFL-CIO, the trial lawyers, the League of Conservation Voters and the abortion rights organization NARAL), and it has a representative at the meetings that began last fall. As veteran organizer Cecile Richards, a former aide to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and the daughter of former Texas Democratic governor Ann Richards, puts it, "Some of these folks have never worked together before, and now that they are, it's kind of exciting." Richards, who heads America Votes, presides at the unity meetings of these organizations that (surprise!) all seem to have a vested interest in defeating George W. Bush for re-election. Under the nation's permissive campaign laws, the anti-Bush groups are allowed to coordinate their activities as long as they do not share information with a campaign, such as that of John Kerry's, or a Democratic Party organization.

Since 1993, a consortium of Republican-loyalist conservative groups has been holding Wednesday confabs hosted by Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. In a political year when the shock troops of the Democratic Party have been emulating the organizational moxie of the GOP right, it was inevitable that liberals would steal a page from Norquist's playbook. Asked about the competing America Votes effort, Norquist admitted he was "flattered" but quickly added skeptical comments about the ability of liberal groups to work together.