GEORGE SOROS: ODD MAN OUT AT THE BILLIONAIRE'S CLUB

Billionaire George Soros is my hero.

I'm not used to looking up to rich people as a rule. You know, getting
a camel through the eye of a needle and all. But the 73-year-old
retired hedge fund operator who is the 28th richest person in the
world, with an estimated worth of $7-billion, is like no other really
rich guy I know. Soros has used his fortune to seed democracy around
the world.

By giving away nearly $5-billion globally, much of it to grass-roots
organizations throughout the former Soviet bloc, the Hungarian-born
Soros - who barely survived the Nazis and Soviets as a teenager - has
helped raise voices for freedom in teetering democracies. The groups
he funds shore up respect for minority rights, individual freedom and
self-determination in countries that are in danger of reverting to
authoritarianism and repression. Soros is even credited with playing a
key role in the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, by
underwriting the student group, Otpor, that organized the opposition.

But rather than be lionized as a man who, like a modern-day Moses,
opens societies and leads people out of their enslavement to the
state, Soros is the villain du jour on the editorial pages of the Wall
Street Journal and other conservative forums. The National Republican
Senatorial Committee declared him a "left-wing radical" pushing an
"extremist agenda on America," Fox television host Bill O'Reilly
denounced him as "one far out character" and the Wall Street Journal
accused him of angling to become "the biggest bankroller in Democratic
politics."

Soros is getting all this unflattering attention because he supports a
freedom agenda at home as well as abroad.

While most progressive funders put money into services for the poor
and disabled - acting to patch the threadbare social safety net -
Soros invests more like conservative givers: in research, thinkers and
efforts to change public policy. He puts money into the Drug Policy
Alliance, an organization promoting the sensible reform of the
nation's drug laws. His Open Society Institute provides grants to
numerous organizations promoting equal rights for homosexuals,
including efforts to defeat a constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage. His giving has helped put state voter initiatives on the
ballot to legalize medical marijuana and divert first-time drug
offenders to treatment rather than jail; and his money has worked to
defend legalized doctor- assisted suicide in Oregon.

Rather than being "far out," a number of the initiatives he sponsored
passed by wide majorities.

But what is really making America's right wing nutty is Soros'
targeting of President George W. Bush for defeat. Soros has a pretty
good nose for tyrants and he smells one in Bush. "America under Bush
is a danger to the world," he says, and he has pledged $10-million to
America Coming Together and $2.5-million to MoveOn.org to effect
"regime change" at home, as MoveOn snappily puts it.

This has Republicans steamed. They think everyone with a deep pocket
outside Hollywood should be one of theirs. How dare Soros not be
supportive of the Bush tax cuts that will make him and his ilk even
richer. How dare he not want to continue Bush's push toward the
dismantlement of environmental protections and fair wage-and-hour
laws, all to the good of big business. He's violating club rules.

All this conservative stomping of feet makes it seem as though Soros'
money is distorting the public debate, when in truth it is the
hundreds of millions of dollars contributed by the right that is doing
so. Soros' dollars in the United States are a pittance compared to
what is given to plant conservative ideas on the national radar. A new
report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a
nonprofit group that monitors charitable giving, finds that sustained
and massive contributions by right-wing foundations to advance a
conservative political agenda are having their desired impact. While
liberal and centrist foundations tend to give money for direct
services to the poor, the report says that givers on the right home in
on making the political landscape friendlier to their views.

Between 1999-2001, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
found, conservative foundations gave away $254-million in public
policy grants. The money is used to nurture a range of organizations
all existing to promote a conservative agenda. Think tanks such as the
Heritage Foundation provide right-wing scholars who package positions
for use by Republican lawmakers. Conservative periodicals and
broadcasters are underwritten to spread the word. Advocacy groups,
such as Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, are funded to lobby Washington
and generate grass-roots support. It is all coordinated to promote
conservatism on every front.

Forget Soros. Richard Mellon Scaife, who has been called the
"financial archangel" for the "intellectual underpinnings" of the
conservative movement, has directed over $340-million into right-wing
causes in the last 30 years. And how about the Coors family - remember
Contra beer? - a major supporter of endeavors by Pat Robertson, Paul
Weyrich, co-creator of the Moral Majority, and Schlafly. There are
many more deep-pocket givers here than on Soros' side.

Soros is a lightning rod because he doesn't toe the rich-guy
right-wing line. But a world without him would be a much more
intolerant and oppressive place. If there is a heaven, he's one of the
few billionaires getting in.