Even Democrats knock Obama’s new nonprofit

President Obama’s new advocacy group, Organizing for Action, is not just off-putting to Republicans and government watchdogs, who are alarmed that the tax-exempt group is not subject to normal Internal Revenue Service nonprofit regulations.

Now Democrats are complaining.

Organizing for Action sprang into being last week, when Mr. Obama announced the conversion of his campaign machine into a nonprofit aimed at “mobilizing around and speaking out in support of important legislation.” First lady Michelle Obama touted the group in a YouTube video on Friday as the “next phase in our movement for change.”

Politico reports the group will be headed by Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign manager. Other members include former president campaign and communication staffers Stephanie Cutter and Robert Gibbs.

As Matthew Vadum, author of “Subversion, Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers,” reports in FrontPageMag.com, the new group sets the stage for more administration-driven bully-pit politics.

“Obama will be able to pursue his politics from inside government and from outside through his Organizing for Action thug army,” Mr. Vadum writes.

But Democrats, too, are grumbling — albeit for different reasons. They’re worried the new group will siphon dollars from the Democratic National Committee and other fundraising mechanisms for party politicians.

“It’s a big question mark right now,” Minnesota Democratic Chairman Ken Martin said in a Politico report. “We were told before the end of this campaign that all of that [Obama campaign machinery] would fold into state parties. Now we’re being told something different.”

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.