As GOP Tortures Pelosi, Dems Must Attack.
RE-ISSUED POST of May 19, 2009: I’ve not re-issued a post before, but with the midterm elections just two months away, the Democratic Congress – despite “majorities”* in both chambers – still remain ineffective. As in May 2009, when I posted the article below, today, with Midterms looming, and few legislative days remaining before adjournment, the Dems still have little fight in them. Their agenda has been kidnapped by filibuster-crazed GOP, holding hostage the growing population of the poor and the shrinking middle class. Remember the unemployment insurance extension battles, GOP filibusters on rocket fuel. Will they fight for the 2010 stimulus proposed by the Obama administration? Although Republican House gangleader Boehner has lately shown some tax plan compromise wiggle room, can the Dems prevent the extension of the Bush Billionaire Tax Cuts on, basically, Republican terms? Victory there will affect the Midterms, and it can be done.
* Majorities, of course, have been rendered nearly useless in the Senate due to filibusters – in effect, to pass a meaningful/controversial bill there Democrats need to cobble together 60 votes in order to invoke cloture and then move to a vote.
Against this background, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine appeared on the September 8th Daily Show, exuding enthusiasm for the upcoming midterms. Under Stewart’s glare, however, Kaine was never allowed out of the sun. For example, Stewart described a nearly absent Democratic message or legislative strategy that hasn’t already been tried and defeated by the GOP’s aggressive use of stalling tactics, chicanery and double crossing. Stewart bluntly told Kaine, “I don’t think ‘they suck worse’ is a great campaign slogan.”
Worst of all, despite a small contingent of Dem fighters like Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY-9th Dist.) , Kaine modeled a Democratic Party lacking the stomach for the kind of brutal war of words that the GOP and Tea Partiers wage. Yes, it is true that GOP regulars face not only a tepid slate of Democrats, but a determined group of fanatical Tea Party/Libertarian insurgents who make Tom DeLay seem enticing, and Newtie almost statesmanlike. Should some Tea People succeed in November, and the GOP regain a majority in, let’s say, the House, just how will the GOP organize a renewed majority, with what is likely to be a feisty group of far-far-far right wingers? And, moreover, even now there is only a shadow moderate GOP wing in the Senate (ex.,Maine’s Snowe and Collins). They view nearly all Democrats, even the execrable right wing “Blue Dogs,” as socialists, communists, or traitors. Given the recent and serious breakdown of Dem party “discipline,” (thanks to groups like the right wing “Blue Dogs”). Under this scenario, a With all these determined insurgents Congress may begin to resemble a French multi-party system . . . which, perhaps, may be an idea whose time has come . . .
*************** Post of May 18, 2009 follows ***************
“Charge, Dems! Charge! I admit I’m an apologist for Speaker Pelosi in this ongoing “who knew what about torture and when.” I think she has made some mistakes here. Pelosi’s mistakes, and the Democratic party’s mistakes, are not that some Dems knew about torture techniques as early as 2002. Their almost rookie mistake is in taking the GOP “he said/she said” bait hook, line and sinker.
I just wrote on Saturday about the underlying “philosophy” that was the modus operandi of the entire eight years of both the Bush administration and their Congressional allies, if you call craven lying a philosophy. In that piece, I discussed how the present GOP attempt to smear Pelosi and other Democrats for what she may have known is pulled from the same play book used by Coach Rove in the Bush years – a kind of political “bait and switch.” The Pelosi, a political end run, allows them to change the question from what the Bush administration did to what Pelosi and other Democrats knew about what Bush & Company did.
Democrats need to get the offense on the field, and soon, or those independent and younger voters out there are going to begin to buy into this latest GOP ploy. A Rasmussen poll today [May 18,2009] shows the country split 43% to 41% in their belief that the CIA did lie to Pelosi, but it’s that 16% of “not sures” that Democrats need to move off the question entirely. And a Research 2000 poll shows that Pelosi’s popularity has dropped 7% from May 11 to May 14. Democrats need to quickly and forcefully stop the bleeding. A wounded Pelosi is a wounded Democratic majority.
Five Point Plan. What needs to be done:
1. Learn from your enemy. Pelosi and the Democratic party need to do exactly what the GOP would do – and did so well during the Bush-Rove era – ignore and deflect the GOP criticism and respond by staying on the primary message: What Bush & Company DID, and what GOP Members of Congress enabled.
2. Avoid Pyrrhic counterattacks. In their new messaging, Democrats must stay away from saying “Well, the Republicans were briefed too, so they knew about it too.” Perhaps counter intuitively, for the Dems this is a Pyrrhic victory. Why? It keeps the focus on what people knew about torture policies or practices, not on what the Bush administration did.
3. Attack. Move immediately to schedule torture-related hearings, and push the Obama administration to release at least a representative sample of the approximately 2,000 torture pictures they are withholding, as well as the 2004 CIA Inspector General (IG) report on Bush era torture tactics, what some have called the “Holy Grail” of Bush era torture documentation. Again, move the message to what was done.
4. Attack on all fronts. Democratic leaders must write and speak out at every opportunity to push the message in every forum. They seem strang
ely – albeit, predictably – quiet. When will they realize they are now the MAJORITY PARTY in BOTH houses of Congress? Agreed, they’re making progress, like using reconciliation to quiet GOP filibustering, but much more macho is required here.
5. Persevere. Continue this messaging even after the CIA’s actual briefing notes are released, as they surely will be, leaked or otherwise. Leon Panetta recently said the agency’s records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers “briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed.'” I sense a leak is on its way, and soon.
Be aggressive in every way. The GOP has traction here, however undeserved, but they captured the pulpit. We must recall they are now a rump party with little support. By letting them change the question before the country Democrats risk much: a radically weakened Speaker, an exodus of some just newly-minted – young – Democratic voters, and a weakened Obama agenda. Most important, we risk a successful GOP counterattack in the war on Bush era torture. Losing that war damages our country now and forever.
