The Progressive Agenda: An Interview With Robert Borosage

Democratic progressive activists gathered in Washington Monday through Wednesday for the annual "America's Future Now!" conference in what was a tough week for progressives.

In the Tuesday Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas, incumbent Blanche Lincoln defeated Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, the progressives' choice, who received strong support from organized labor. After Lincoln won, an anonymous Obama White House source accused unions of flushing an estimated $10 million of their members' money "down the toilet" by backing Halter.

Asked about the remark on Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president "would not necessarily agree with that characterization made by somebody here." But Gibbs did not run away from the point.

"And while the president might not have agreed with the exact characterization, I think that whether or not that money might have been better spent in the fall on closer elections between somebody -- between people who cared about an agenda that benefited working families and those that didn't, that money might come in more handy then, " Gibbs said.

As the voters were at the polls in 11 primaries and the runoff in Arkansas on Tuesday, the progressives at the conference, sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future, were mulling where things stand and what happens next. The frustration within the Democratic family was evident: A liberal stalwart, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was heckled during her speech.

Last Monday, the opening day of the conference at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel in Washington, I sat down with Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, to discuss President Barack Obama, how progressives are doing in the Obama era and the Lincoln-Halter battle.

The following are edited portions of my interview with Borosage:

On Obama: "The president [is] presenting proposals that were not as bold as we certainly would have liked and making compromises more quickly than we would have liked."

On the big picture: "There is pretty good consensus here. I was surprised actually about the scope of consensus, about the need to organize independently of the White House and build a movement that has a moral voice, a mass base, and is driving reform, as opposed to one that is organized around the interstices of a legislative agenda."

On how he sees Obama's job: "He does want to cut the deal; he really does believe in bipartisanship if he can get it. And so with the existing balance of forces, he'll get the best deal he can get from that balance."

On how he sees the progressive activist's job: "It is our job to change the balance of forces, to change the context in which he is operating. I think there is pretty clear consensus about that."

On what to take aim at: The "corporate dominance of the legislative process and corruption of government that we have seen in every area, from finance to the catastrophe in the gulf, to health care reform, and the need to take that out to the country where the real populous voice is as opposed to the faux populous voice of the Tea Parties. ... And then, as part of that, to challenge Democrats that are on the wrong side of that political divide. So I think the Lincoln-Halter race is only the beginning of what you are going to see, not the end. You are going to see progressives more and more willing to challenge in primaries Democrats in these fierce struggles for reform, where there are clear corporate divides."

On progressives (or lack of) in the White House: "There aren't many progressive operatives in the White House. This is a White House that is filled with largely the Clintonista economic team and political team, so it is not filled with progressive allies."

On Organizing for America (the Obama presidential campaign structure folded into the Democratic National Committee): "OFA's purpose is to support the president's agenda and I think it has had a difficult time finding its footing. And hopefully it will be more effective as we head into the elections, because then it can go back to ... how it was originally formed, which was electorally as a vehicle to register people and mobilize them and get them out to vote and hopefully they will be more effective at that."

On getting first-time Obama voters to vote again: "I think If you are tough on the banks and fighting for jobs, you are in the best position you can be with the rising electorate, with the union electorate, with everybody."

On the debate within the Democratic family: "The debate is now structured in a totally wrong-headed way. So there is a focus on Social Security, which is not broken, instead of health care, which is; there is a focus on entitlements, which aren't the problem, as opposed to health care, which is; there is a focus on domestic spending rather than military spending ... and so we are going to have a huge fight about this stuff going forward that we will be in the middle of."