Daily Digest: What Progressives Want (and What They Should)

• Should the Left Root for an Organizing for America Collapse?: One of the hottest questions in participatory politics right now has to do with the future of Organizing for America, the DNC-housed organization that evolved out of the Obama campaign. It's a discussion happening on techPresident. Is OFA a president-centric monolith that rips agency and authority from the grassroots, reaching around the mainstream press to direct followers on how to pass and promote an agenda they did nothing to create? Or can OFA be a loose and nimble people-powered vehicle for expression by a hyper-engaged citizenry? Zephyr Teachout's tP post predicting the failure of OFA has generated a great discussion thread on tP, including a note from blogger Jerome Armstrong on the possibility that the DC-based DNC could function as a regional, if not state-based, body. Do check it out. But Teachout's death knell over OFA earned her a sharp rebuke from The Field's Al Giordano: "She clearly doesn't 'get' that the Obama movement was an insurgency in the Democratic party." Also on tP, Tom Watson argues that while pushing the stimulus package was a poor fit for OFA's first exercise, there's a perfect next mission for the organization in health care reform.

• For White House Bills, Is Five Viewing Days a Worthy Goal?: We've talked in this space about a promise made by the Obama White House to post non-emergency legislation to WhiteHouse.gov for a full five days before presidential signing -- a promise that was broken with the Lilly Ledbetter Act, as PoliFact has noted. Attempting to do a better job of it, the White House has posted the Senate-passed version of legislation extending the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. Great, but the posting raises a great many questions. Here are three of them. First, is "public comment" in the form of a static web form count as participation? Second, "posting" entails a link off to Congress' THOMAS legislative tracker -- a reminder that Congress, not the executive branch, is the real relevant authority when it comes to legislative transparency. And third, what's the purpose of having public comment on legislation that's already passed Congress, anyway? To get into the weeds on this discussion, join the debate over in the Open House Project threads.

• 43Alumni.com: Just launched is the new Bush-Cheney Alumni Association website. For servants of a president who made a point of pooh-poohing talk of legacy, the alumni seem awfully eager to write their draft of history. ThinkProgress' Amanda Terkel points out some of the highlights, and while there's not much in the way of content yet, a blog is promised. "We were there," reads the site. "And as members of the team, we know the difference between rumor, reality, fact, and fiction. This is our chance to stand up, speak up, and set the record straight." Stay tuned.

• How Do You Know Candidate Smith?: The line between friend and ATM can already be awfully fuzzy for a politician. After all, the job description often requires hitting up your personal acquaintances for campaign cash. And that line is getting even blurrier thanks to Facebook, writes the New York Times' Caren Chesler. The site's value is rooted in the worth we attach to personal relationships, so what's the proper social-networking etiquette for a candidate hoping not to get routinely de-friended?

• Conservative Advertising Stream Dries Up: Pajamas Media's blog ad network, the conservative solution to monetizing blog content, is folding up its jammies come April 1st. The organization's business strategy has never been all that clear, and the collapse has left some right-leaning bloggers fuming. In a letter to bloggers left adrift, CEO Roger Simon details plans to spend less time on ads and more on web TV.

• RNC Blogger Relations in the Steele Era: Does newly-elected RNC chair Michael Steele have room in the Republican tent for ornery bloggers disinclined to give a stamp of approval on his every word? Only time will tell. But there's at least one sign that he might, writes Townhall's Matt Lewis: Steele rang up the Heritage Foundation's Robert Bluey for a conversation after Bluey backed another candidate. Lewis notes that conservative bloggers are already letting Steele know what they have in mind for the rebooted RNC. It involves, perhaps surprisingly, holding onto the past: Bluey, Mike Krempasky, Erick Erickson and others have started up a Facebook group to urge Steele to hang on to RNC Internet director Cyrus Krohn.

• Inside TIGR: IBM vet Irving Wladawsky Berger offers a peek into the inner-workings of the best-named policy group in the recent presidential transition: TIGR. Or, if you want to get all wordy about it, the Technology, Innovation & Government Reform (TIGR) transition team.

• Shovel-Ready or Not: Finally, well worth checking out is Stimulus Watch, a volunteer-created project that invites citizens to track, analyze, and rate the "shovel-ready" projects in their local areas.

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