Greg -- good that you are keeping on this. These canvassing and call center outfits are parasites on the political process, misusing the idealism of their workers and pretending that this is what politics consists of. The advocacy groups that contract for their services devolve from idealistic beginnings into phony, pseudo-political talk shops whose function is to employ their staffs more than to change society.
All this is hard to avoid, but that difficulty doesn't mean we have to condone it.
I often think of them as parasites as well, but the analogy always makes me a little squeamish, as there is only one way to treat a parasite- exterminate it. However, I do think we need to Purge the PIRGs from any and all leadership of field operations. With the ways that these organizations have behaved over the past 20 years, they have absolutely no place within the progressive/liberal movement. It is the duty of the netroots/grassroots to stand up with our, to use Greg's analogy, proletariat brothers and sisters, and make sure that all of the organizations who are employed by "liberal" organizations adhere to the same standards we demand of others (transparancy, ability to take constructive criticism, treating workers with the respect they deserve).
