We missed the big SPECTRE meeting!

But I guess we weren't invited - Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush:

In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado.

The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition.

The report from Nicholas Lemann isn't online.

Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the future of progressive politics in America."

Those SPECTRE meetings are always so cool! All kinds of weirdos sitting around the table!

The Aspen meeting was supposed to have been a top secret within Democratic Party circles.

When The New Yorker inquired about the meeting, an assistant to one of the attendees was surprised by the call.

"No one was supposed to know about this," the aide told the magazine. "We don’t want people thinking it’s a cabal or some sort of Masonic plot!"

I'm sure the Masons will appreciate the comparison, Sweets.

Apparently the leader of the secret cabal is billionaire Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Cleveland, Ohio-based insurance company Progressive Corporation.

George lets Peter pretend he's the leader, because of all the drugs he's ingested.

Like another attendee, wealthy financier George Soros, Lewis has poured millions into Democratic 527 groups, including Americans Coming Together and MoveOn.org.
...
Another billionaire who attended was John Sperling, founder of the online University of Phoenix.

Also present were Herb and Marion Sandler from California. The couple founded Golden West Financial Corporation, a California bank reportedly worth $17 billion.

And once Number 1 and his minions were all around the table?

"The billionaires spent much of the time moaning the superior powers of the GOP," the magazine said, and the group even needed some cheerleading from Harold Ickes, a former top aide to Bill Clinton who is involved in the 527 efforts.

Those pesky peasants!

There was disagreement about some of the issues and policy positions the group should take.

Sperling, for one, argued that the main target of their efforts should be Wal-Mart. He wants to push for unionizing the giant retailer.

That idea was apparently vetoed by George Soros, who reportedly told the group he had no desire to support union initiatives and that his only single goal at this point was "ousting Bush."

Number 1 doesn't tolerate distractions! He's also a man of action:

The magazine said Soros had planned to keep a low profile in the closing months of the election, but suddenly changed course this summer when he decided to "jettison the strategy in favor of waging his own media-grabbing political campaign."

Soros hired a publicist and began a 12-city, $3 million personal crusade to defeat George Bush.

Sure, that'll work! The leadership of SPECTRE is clearly in good hands. George is even a wit:

More than that, he sees Bush as the face man for a secret cabal. "Bush was just chosen as a figurehead, an acceptable face for a sinister group," Soros told The New Yorker, adding, "Cheney is the Capo."

Clearly, Soros knows a thing or two about secret cabals and capos.

But only a half-wit.

Can you imagine the Mainstream Media headlines if there were a group of Republican billionaires having a clandestine clambake to plot defeat for the Donks?