Ben Smith reports in Politico that Republican operatives, and bloggers Michael Goldfarb and Matthew Continetti, are launching a new organization called the Center for American Freedom.
Remarkably they are modeling it on the Center for American Progress, and will have their own blog, imitating ThinkProgress.org. If that wasn't enough, the Center for American Freedom will also attempt to be like the Center for American Progress Action Fund (which does more political messaging and research), Media Matters for America, Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post. Gee, I wonder why someone didn't try to take on this very modest project before?
The project is being bankrolled by the Koch Brothers. They are taking a Ben Domenech-inspired stance in terms of how they are describing themselves:
The real inspiration for the Center for American Freedom, though, is the Center for American Progress — the new group’s mission statement, for instance, appears at points to be literally copied and pasted from CAP’s, with the word “freedom” substituted for “progress” — as well as other unabashedly liberal websites.That's pretty shameless.
Republicans have repeatedly tried to launch online campaigning organizations that ape such capacities on the left and have repeatedly failed. The grandeur of this attempt seems to immediately make it destined to join other failed efforts, with little to show for it but fancy K Street offices and small dents in the Koch Brothers' fortune.
