Top Dems Privately Urging Major Donors To Fund Outside Attack Groups

In a sign of just how nervous senior Democrats are about Barack Obama's situation, top Democratic Party operatives are privately urging the party's major donors to get serious about putting big money into outside groups looking to attack John McCain in key battleground states.

Several senior Democratic strategists unaffiliated with Obama's campaign convened a private conference call late last week with at least four dozen of the party's most prolific donors to progressive causes and outside groups -- a call designed to instill a sense among donors that things are "pretty damn urgent" right now, one of the organizers of the call tells me.

The call is yet another sign that donors and outside operatives -- who had earlier gotten the message from Obama that he doesn't want such activity -- now recognize that Team Obama is privately hoping for such efforts to gear up in earnest.

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