Re-engineering the Democrats?

Matt Bai's got the story about the "Phoenix Project," an effort led by Democrats to re-engineer the party through a collection of online advocacy organization, think tanks, media, and other Internet-enabled groups. He makes the excellent point that the groups who benefit the most from campaign finance reform are the so-called 527 organizations that are effectively party freelancers.

Here's the nut of the story.

While the Democratic Leadership Council attacked Dean for his angry brand of populism, [New Democrat Network leader Simon] Rosenberg looked for a way to tap into the genuine passion among Democrats for a more creative, more defiant kind of politics.

According to Bai, the project enables Web-savvy Silicon Valley types, who have traditionally been boosters of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, to make peace with the Dean-aics.