The Democracy Alliance is alive and well, and its Vice-Chair is about to be born again.

Today, the “Queen of Labor”, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Chair of the Change to Win labor federation, Anna Burger, announced her retirement.

Anna Burger was defeated by current SEIU President Mary Kay Henry when she ran against Henry for the spot vacated by outgoing President Andy Stern. Despite that loss, Burger had insisted that she’d be staying on as Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU. Instead, she will be replaced as the head of Change to Win by United Food and Commercial Workers president, Joe Hansen. Henry is likely to appoint one of her own insiders as SEIU Secretary-Treasurer, a practice that was already causing tension between Burger and the new guard of SEIU (even though both guards are not all that different from one another).

Burger’s departure marks not just the end of an era for SEIU, but more importantly it’s indicative of a new era for the Progressive movement.

As I’ve recounted the history of the Democracy Alliance during a prior post about the birth of Media Matters, Anna Burger was a key player in the formation and management of Democracy Alliance. The organization was conceived as an elite umbrella of ultra-rich liberal funders and Hollywood elite, and part of a broader plan to kill off the Democratic Party and replace it with a Progressive Party that would masquerade as the same old-school Democrats to nudge people to the left. As I also recounted in a recent post, George Soros was an instrumental figure in turning this blueprint into a reality. It was first called The Phoenix Group, to represent the rising of the Phoenix from the ashes. But after the defeat of their chosen candidate John Kerry, many of the spinoffs funded by DA eventually fizzled out, though a few do still remain quite active today, and other, stronger groups have been launched since then. With Burger’s renewed interest in “building a sustaining progressive infrastructure”, the Phoenix Group would almost seem an appropriate title to retread.

The timing is especially interesting as well, while many of the old players from the days of DA have sprung back onto the political scene, and other partnering notables like former President Bill Clinton have begun challenging their own party operatives. If one were to watch closely enough, the upcoming weeks may more than closely resemble the days of 2005, when the Clintons and their friends, along with Soros and Podesta, were gleefully funding candidates and building a lasting network together. This time, all the same signs are there that figureheads are in place to buck the Democratic establishment, but perhaps with a bit more secrecy intended this time around. Once again, Anna Burger appears poised to help lead this effort…again. And Andy Stern, who has been traveling in recent months to states like North Carolina to build a new progressive party to go after Democrats who opposed the health care bill, is likely to be quietly walking in lock-step with his former partner in crime, so to speak.

Burger wrote in her blog post today on The Huffington Post,

I love SEIU but it’s time for me to find my new path forward. I leave SEIU knowing that in locals across our union, the next generation of leaders is ready and committed to a mission of Justice for All.

While I will continue to work with SEIU as a consultant in the years ahead finding economic solutions for working people, I will have the space to work in the broader progressive movement. I am passionate about building and sustaining the progressive infrastructure that protects American values of fairness and justice and look forward to working with a range of progressive allies to make this happen.

We have incredible opportunities as we push to make this nation a nation for all of us and recreate the American Dream.

Read Burger’s whole post here.

I’ll have more to follow on this breaking story shortly, as we learn what it means to push the nation to “Recreate the American Dream”.