By Camille T. Taiara

IT'S BEEN 15 years since Michael Moore emerged from his backwater hometown of Flint, Mich., with Roger and Me. In the years following the release of his first film, the neophyte director was little more than an underground icon – hardly a blip on the radar of Washington, D.C.'s chief decision makers. Now, it seems, he's evolved into one of their prime subjects of contention – as top political campaign managers for the Republican and Democratic Parties enter the fray over Fahrenheit 9/11.

"Fellow Americans, there has seldom been a more important time in our nation's history for the people of America to stand up and proclaim our love for this great nation," Howard Kaloogian wrote in a May 21 pronouncement launching Move America Forward, which describes itself as "a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization."

Among Move America Forward's prime directives: "to support our courageous troops and our embattled President" in the war on terror.

Among its first targets: "domestic enemy" Michael Moore and his "Bash America" new film.

Within three weeks, Move America Forward had initiated a campaign targeting close to two dozen companies that had either already committed to showing Fahrenheit 9/11 at their theaters or were considering screening it, and had listed related e-mail addresses and phone numbers on its site.

But evidence recently came to light indicating that Move America Forward is little more than a GOP front group. As Kurt Nimmo first reported on the Alternative Press Review's Web site, a check on www.moveamericaforward.org showed the domain was registered to Russo, Marsh, and Rogers, a firm dedicated to running conservative Republican electoral and political campaigns – it's spearheaded campaigns for the California Republican Party's anti-affirmative action Proposition 209 (1996), conservative New York governor George Pataki (1994), and even Violetta Chamorro (during her successful 1990 bid for the Nicaraguan presidency against Sandinista incumbent Daniel Ortega).

Curiously enough, Russo, Marsh, and Rogers' name was removed from www.moveamericaforward.org's registrant information June 13 – just hours after Nimmo's article was posted.

Melanie Morgan, cohost of KSFO, 560 AM's Morning Show (on just before Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura) and vice chair of Move America Forward, promptly conceded a relationship between Move America Forward and the campaign consulting firm, which she told me provides her group with advice "for cost." Indeed, Russo, Marsh, and Rogers' founder, Sal Russo – who launched his career working for then-governor Ronald Reagan – serves as Move America Forward's chief strategist.

"We never claimed to be nonpartisan," Morgan initially said. "We're unabashed conservatives."

When I pointed out that the first sentence on www.moveamericaforward.org's "About Us" page specifically uses the term "non-partisan" to describe the organization, Morgan reported that the group includes Democrats and Libertarians among its volunteers.

Its board of directors and staffers reflect no such political diversity, however, but rather a small group of professional, archconservative politicians, legislative staffers, and lobbyists. Chair Kaloogian is a former California assemblymember who helped "champion" Proposition 13 and, more recently, helped launch the recall campaign against Gray Davis. He also led the Defend Reagan Committee in its successful efforts to get CBS to back out of broadcasting The Reagans miniseries, a not-completely-sunny look at the former president.

Move America Forward's initial e-mail campaign generated "well over 200,000" messages to theaters nationwide, Morgan reported. "You can probably quadruple that figure" to estimate the total number of communications the group's effort has generated so far, she said.

This is certainly not to say the Democrats haven't been doing their own behind-the-scenes work. Moore's camp actually hired some of the Democratic Party's biggest backroom players to counter Republican attacks and put their own spin on the issue. The effort is headed by former Bill Clinton advisers Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani. Lehane – who quit the John Kerry campaign last fall, some say over differences about how tough to get in the primary race against Howard Dean – is particularly renowned for fighting hard and dirty, according to numerous reports. Others in what's been dubbed Moore's "war room" have included Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former campaign press secretary Howard Wolfson and Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign advisor Michael Feldman, both of whom were on hand for Fahrenheit 9/11's launch at the Cannes Film Festival, according to a May 19 Washington Post article. (The doc subsequently won the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or award.)

Of course, plenty of groups have been taking public stances and launching campaigns related to Fahrenheit 9/11 over the past half year – well before the film's release. Quite a few blogs (such as Moorewatch.com, MichaelMooreHatesAmerica.com, Moorelies.com) are dedicated specifically to trashing Moore and his work – some of which predate the filmmaker's latest production. On the other end of the spectrum, liberal Internet campaign powerhouse MoveOn.org recently sent out a plea to its reported 2.2 million subscribers asking them to pledge to go see the film on opening weekend.

Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films Releasing, which (along with IFC Films) took over distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 last month, speculates that efforts to suppress the film will only backfire in the long run. "They will likely only succeed in bringing more attention to Fahrenheit 9/11 and rallying support for the film," he told me.

Although Ortenberg admits that "a select few" theaters have expressed concern about screening the movie, the overwhelming majority "are supportive" – and, in many areas, theaters are competing to be the first to bring Moore's latest to their local audiences, he reported.

"The most important lesson we can learn from Fahrenheit 9/11 is that we need less censorship in this country, not more," Ortenberg said. As for all the politicking, he hopes that in the end, the film will simply "speak for itself."