Christopher Hayes reports on the Common Purpose Project: "From day one the (Barack Obama) administration has pursued a strategy of keeping its progressive allies on the White House playbook. In a weekly Tuesday night meeting called Common Purpose, representatives from dozens of well-established progressive groups--environmental organizations, labor unions, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign and others -- gather at the Capital Hilton to meet with White House reps. According to about a half-dozen people who attend, the meeting is generally run by deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and attended by political director Patrick Gaspard, as well as staff from Organizing for America. Often the White House will bring in policy experts to give briefings on legislation such as healthcare or financial reform. Once in a while David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel shows up. ... If access is the carrot the White House dangles in front of progressive groups, frozen out of the meetings or, worse, having funding squeezed, is the stick. 'There's no question that the big donors are funding the groups that are helping to pass the president's program,' said one attendee. 'And they're not particularly interested in funding groups that are challenging the president's program.' "

Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill sees the liberal Center for American Progress teaming up with leading neoconservatives and going to bat for Barack Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan. On April 3 CAP hosted a forum titled A New Way Forward in Afghanistan to release their report Sustainable Security in Afghanistan. Scahill notes the event includes "a leading neoconservative activist, Frederick Kagan, one of the lead proponents of the 'surge' in Iraq. In addition to being a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, which was basically Dick Cheney's bunker away from the bunker in the 1990s, Kagan was also a major figure in advocating the agenda of the neocon-Project for the New American Century, which molded the Bush administration's conquistador foreign policy. Kagan's brother Robert Kagan along with William Kristol started a new version of PNAC a few weeks ago, called The Foreign Policy Initiative. Another key figure in the group is Dan Senor (who is married to CNN's Campbell Brown), formerly L. Paul Bremer's righthand in Iraq."

The narrow election win of Mauricio Funes as President of El Salvador has spurred extensive media coverage on the political success of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a center-left party that has its roots in the guerilla movement of the 1980s. However, none of the media coverage mentions the role of the Washington D.C.-headquartered political consulting firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. In a media release, the firm states that it provided "public opinion research and strategic advice" for Funes' campaign. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has previously worked on campaigns for Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The firm's work for Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election was documented in the film "Our Brand Is Crisis."

Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "Daily Show"An article in the New York Times asks whether Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's Daily Show has become the most trusted man in America, pointing out that his fake news comedy show has emerged in recent years as a "genuine cultural and political force." While 24-hour news networks like FOX, MSNBC and CNN have been pumping out infotainment-style news about topics like dead celebrities and sexual predators, the Daily Show has been critically tracking the cherry-picking of prewar intelligence, the politicization of the Department of Justice and the efforts of the Bush Administration to increase the power of the executive branch. Stewart has proven to be a master at calling out government and corporate spin, hypocrisy and red herrings, and helping his audience see them, too. A 2008 study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Enter for the People and the Press found that the Daily Show has had an impact on American dialogue and that it is "getting people to think critically about the public square."

Attendees at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin were offered the latest Nation magazine with a cover article by Christopher Hayes. He writes, "This year, MoveOn turns ten. ... Capable of dominating a news cycle with a single ad and raising millions of dollars with a lone e-mail, MoveOn pioneered an entire approach to conducting politics through the Internet that has been replicated and spun off across the country and around the globe, an approach that, as the Obama campaign has dramatically demonstrated, has permanently transformed the landscape of American politics. ... Perhaps the most damning criticism leveled at MoveOn is that by creating a clear and easy outlet for people's frustration and angst, the organization delivers people a false sense of accomplishment. In other words, MoveOn can be tremendously successful without being effective." CMD's John Stauber is one of MoveOn's critics interviewed for the piece.

The cover of the upcoming issue of the New Yorker magazine bears a satirical cartoon that incorporates practically every jab the right wing has taken at Barack Obama and his wife Michelle: the couple is pictured standing in the White House Oval Office dressed in Muslim garb. Barack is wearing a turban, Michelle has an "Angela Davis"-type afro hairdo and is shown toting a machine gun. An American flag burns in the fireplace as the couple engages in a "terrorist fist-bump." A portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs over the fireplace. The cover is titled, "The Politics of Fear." Both presidential campaigns quickly condemned the lampooning cover as "tasteless and offensive." Jeffrey Goldberg, a blogger at the Atlantic.com laments the whole situation as "the death of humor."

Karen Hughes and Mark PennFormer undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and longtime George Bush advisor and confidante Karen Hughes has taken a position with PR giant Burson Marsteller. She will be working closely with former Hillary Clinton campaign guru Mark Penn. As CMD previously reported, Penn's dual role with the Clinton campaign and B-M was problematic. He was found to be working for Colombia on a free trade deal that Clinton opposed. B-M also works for anti-union clients, while Clinton was counting on labor's support. For her part, Hughes was unable to repair a badly broken U.S. image abroad. Hiring Hughes is part of a larger effort by Penn to increase B-M's "reach and expertise." Summing up the partnership, Penn said "Karen and I have had so many of the same experiences in the White House and campaigns, and have worked around the world. But we agreed that we won't let politics interfere in our business."