... seems to be much more tailored to follow a leader and happily line-up for a lemming march. They seem to be naturally born followers. As much as I would like to see a Democratic messaging infrastructure that can rival the Repubs as little do I see any practical way to get there. Even if the Democratic establishment were to get their head out of their collective hind end. I'd be happy to be convinced otherwise - but I just can not get the picture out of my head when Colbert collected a couple of Democrats from different strata at the 2005 convention and got them merrily to shout their own agenda in perfect cacophony.

If democrats don't earn criticism, bloggers wouldn't chastise them. Are the dems prepared to dump Liberman?

Pelosi's position is admirable...Democrats need to be held to the same standard of ethics as Republicans.

Request denied from my perspective...grow a spine!

Coupled with Newberry’s 3 pronged strategy, with tactics listed below intertwined as battlefield actions can help win the War. Make no mistake this is economic war on the non-investor class, has been for 30 years now. George the Younger brought the steroids this time.

Rove's Rules - Deduced and Uncensored from Koss

One cannot outmaneuver an enemy without understanding how he thinks. A close scrutiny of the 2004 presidential race enables one to deduce Karl Rove’s strategic principles in managing the
Bush-Cheney campaign.

Rove’s approach is really quite simple. It is to create and sustain a rock-solid base of credulous gun-totin', SUV-drivin', Bible-thumpin', Rapture-awaitin', science-rejectin', contraception-and-abortion-opposin', tolerance-refusin', gay-bashin', civil rights-denyin', anti-race-mixin', WWE-watchin', cage-fightin', Fox-News-believin', Rush-Limbaugh-admirin', foreigner-despisin', Muslim-demonizin', militia-joinin', torture-approvin', permanent-war-lovin' social conservatives.

Here is how Rove might explain the strategy to his political operatives:

ROVE'S RULES:
Ten Maxims to Ensure Republican Dominance

1. CONCENTRATE ON THE DUMB AND DUMBER.

One can never underestimate the intelligence of the
American voter. Remember George W. Bush's wise
guidance from March 31st, 2001 in Washington, D.C.:
"You can fool some of the people all of the
time, and those are the ones you want to
concentrate on."

2. IF YOU THROW ENOUGH MUCK AT AN OPPONENT, SOME OF IT

IS SURE TO STICK.
Politics is a blood sport, and nice guys who play
fair are doomed to finish last. Hire shills and front
groups to do the dirty work of attacking, attacking,
and attacking yet again so that the opponent is always
on the defensive. However, George W. Bush himself must
pretend to stand nobly above the fray, though Dick
Cheney can be turned loose on occasion to toss red
meat to the receptive multitudes.

3. THE BIGOTS AND ZEALOTS ARE THE REAL BASE.

Yes, we all must keep in mind what George W. Bush
told us at that formal dinner in New York City on
October 19th, 2000:
"This is an impressive crowd, the haves and
the have mores. Some people call you the
elite. I call you my base."

Ah, if only Ken Lay could still funnel Enron money
to us as he did back in the good old days in Texas
before his arrest and trial. But let's face reality. The wealthy
corporate sponsors who fund our campaign and whom we
in turn serve with multi-billion dollar contracts and
tax breaks can only deliver one or two percent of the
vote by themselves. We need to scrape together another
48 or 49 percent of the voting public from somewhere.

So here is our main stratagem: fortunately for the
GOP, substantial numbers of Americans are intolerant
of those from different cultures, different races,
different faiths, and different lifestyles. To secure
a firm base, we can take political advantage of the
bigotry, racism, and intolerance still remaining.
Focus especially on the former slave-owning states of
the South, as well as on the rural areas in the
Midwest and West. Shrewdly exploit the primal beliefs,
fears, and aversions of voters who tend to make
election day decisions on single issues linked to
their religious beliefs. Convince socially
conservative voters that GOP stands for God's Only
Party, and that a vote for George W. Bush is a vote
for God in the White House. Convince the gullible that
the Bible and the Ten Commandments are purely
Republican policy documents. Hey, this same strategy
with the Koran works for the Ayatollahs in Iran.

Twenty-nine percent of voters disapprove of
interracial marriage. At least twenty percent of
voters (and eighty-one percent of the evangelical
fundamentalists) believe the creationists’ literalist
dogma that God created the entire cosmos six thousand
years ago; fully thirty-seven percent think that the
teaching of creationism should replace the teaching of
evolution in the schools. Thirty-two percent consider
themselves to be "born-again" Christians. These groups,
together with the twenty-four percent who demand the
right to own automatic assault weapons, largely, but
not perfectly, overlap. To them we can add many
recruits who can be lured to the polls to vote against
gay marriage and to deny gays even the right to form
civil unions. Democrats tend to be too prissy to pander
to such groups, but Republicans need have no such scruples.

So in a nutshell, the Bigot and Zealot Bloc--Archie Bunker's
America--if we consciously cultivate it, can give us a solid,
unwavering base of at least thirty to thirty-seven percent of the
vote, and much more in some states. We Republicans can take
it to the bank.

4. DEBASE THE MEANINGS OF WORDS.

Discard the Enlightenment and the principles of
tolerance so foolishly promoted by Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and the other Founding
Fathers.

Using Orwellian logic and repetition, convince
voters that the following now have become disparaging
words and phrases: tolerance, liberal, interracial,
multicultural, diversity, learned, secular, educated,
intellectual, articulate, science, environmental
protection, progress, progressive, rational, realistic,
reasonable, pragmatic, enlightened, modernity, unions,
government, antitrust, anti-monopoly, workers' rights,
public interest, international, allies, multilateral,
global, United Nations, Old Europe, public sector,
civil rights, and freedom of choice. Make voters'
faces wrinkle up at the mere mention of such newly
pejorative terms. Plaster these terms all over the
Democrats, who can hardly deny that they apply.

We may need to have George W. and Laura Bush pay
some occasional lip service to tolerance, though, to
avoid scaring away all of those free-thinking
Independent voters inclined to "live and let live."
But we must make sure that such lip service to
tolerance does not alienate the GOP's socially
conservative core voters and prevent them from going
to the polls.

Remember the sage caution given us by George W.
Bush at Texas A&M University on April 6, 1998:
"We live in a culture of moral indifference,
where movies and videos glamorize violence
and tolerance is touted as a great virtue."

We Republicans certainly cannot afford to let
tolerance get out of hand and be regarded as a virtue.
What has worked for us in Texas can work just as well
in the swing states in solidifying the Bigot and
Zealot Bloc and in luring even some normally reasonable,
moderate, tolerant voters to the Republican banner.

The supreme Republican goal should be Disenlightenment.

5. TOUT GUNS, NOT BUTTER.

Promise that the Republican Party will let voters
buy all the weapons they want without bothersome
police record checks. Pander especially to the
hard-core twenty-four percent (higher in some swing
states) of voters who want automatic assault weapons
to be available for purchase by anyone. Assert that
the scheming Democrats want to take hunters’ guns
away.

If we make the voters worry about their guns,
they'll have less time to worry about losing their
jobs, seeing their purchasing power decline, affording
health care, or paying for their children's schooling.

Reach out to the militias and the weekend paint gun
warriors in their cute camouflage suits. Never forget
that the gun lobby, if periodically stroked, can form
a substantial part (roughly half) of the GOP's
unwavering voter base and can provide useful funding
via the NRA, as well. And just forget about Columbine.
Change that subject. Voters should worry about immoral
books in the libraries and the evil teaching of evolution
in the schools, not about guns in the classrooms.

6. DON'T LET IT BE ABOUT THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

If we would have had to defend the GOP's
performance on jobs (the worst since Herbert Hoover),
on managing the federal budget (by far the worst in U.S.
history, not to mention the history of Mankind), and on
the trade deficit (also by far the worst in the history of
Mankind), the GOP could be in serious trouble. So change
the subject! Maybe voters won't notice the mess that we
have made.

7. A LIE REPEATED SUFFICIENTLY OFTEN WILL OFTEN BE

BELIEVED.
Just keep saying, as we have Dick Cheney do
repeatedly, that Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda (Sunni
religious fundamentalists) and Saddam Hussein's regime
in Iraq (secular Baathists) worked together
hand-in-glove before 9/11. Keep saying, as head
cheerleader "Mushroom Cloud" Rice did repeatedly, that
Iraq must have had weapons of mass destruction and was
therefore a clear threat to the U.S. Of course, there
is not a shred of truth to either claim, but at least
most of our unwavering, gullible base will probably
continue to believe us.

8. FIGHT SPLENDID LITTLE WARS.

And manage the news as best we can to divert
attention from the even worse mess that we created by
launching an unnecessary war in a region that we
poorly understand. At the very least, keep Fox News,
"U.S. News and World Report," Robert Novak, and Matt
Drudge securely in our pocket (notice that flashing
GOP advertisement that we pay for on Drudge's home
page?) to spread our propaganda and campaign themes of
the moment. At least our base will think that we are
winning.

Sure, even a splendid little invasion of Iraq, a war
that has nothing to do with terrorism except to
provoke more of it, can end up costing more
than we expected in lives and money. But look on the
bright side: at least the taxpayers' money is going to
deserving recipients and GOP supporters, such as
Halliburton and the Carlyle Group. And just look at those
record Exxon-Mobil profits! Even if some honest
Pentagon auditors happen to catch Halliburton
officials red-handed as they overcharge a wee bit now
and then on their no-bid government contracts, the
voting public won't care enough about corruption in
high places for such revelations to make a difference
on election day.

9. MOBILIZE OUR VOTERS; DIVERT, DISCOURAGE AND

INTIMIDATE THEIRS.
Unfortunately, a lot of Democrats and
Independents--even a few out-of-lock-step
Republicans--just don't think the rightist way.
However, by helping under the table to support Ralph
Nader's candidacy wherever possible, at least we tried
to divert a percent or two of such folks away from
Kerry and Edwards in a few key swing states.

Another good technique is flooding the phone banks
of Democratic get-out-the vote efforts. Remember how it
worked in New Hampshire?

We can adopt Jeb Bush's methods of arbitrarily deleting
likely Democratic voters from voter lists, manipulating vote
counting procedures (especially with absentee ballots),
and using Florida State Police to intimidate aged and infirm
Democratic voters and discourage them from sending in absentee
ballots. Maybe we can even find ways to manipulate the electronic voting machines produced by Diebold, one of our main corporate contributors.

The Democrats do not have enough competent lawyers
and poll-watchers to keep polling procedures honest
everywhere.

10. WE JUST NEED TO FOOL A FEW OF THE PEOPLE ENOUGH OF

THE TIME.
Abraham Lincoln probably was right in concluding
that "...you can't fool all of the people all of the
time." But we don't need to. With our carefully
cultivated, unwavering base of corporate sponsors,
bigots, evangelical fundamentalists, and assault
weapons proponents already in our pocket, we just have
to fool a few of the people enough of the time.

Some normally reasonable moderates have already
gotten in the habit of holding their noses while
voting Republican, so just an additional percent or
two in the key "swing states" is all that we really
have to target. It should be a snap. Surely our
hardball smear tactics and ample funding for attack
advertising can enable us to fool one or two
additional people out of a hundred where we need to
the most. Did you notice how the namby-pamby Democrats
were helpless against our Swift Boat campaign and our
Wolf Pack in the Forest attack ad?

And now we can start laying the groundwork for Jeb
Bush in 2008!

FMArouet FMArouet21st@yahoo.com

"Takes a bucket of blood for a barrel of oil"

Steven Bruton

I meant to analyze, as in looking at and how can we counter these moves. Use the kinetic energy of the Enemy to your advantage.

"Takes a bucket of blood for a barrel of oil"

Steven Bruton

on the base, but on the swing. Too many people on the left are too obsessed with the knuckle draggers of the right wing as where the mass media action is. It isn't - they are the province of micro media: Christian Radio, The Washington Times and so on. Rove doesn't spend much time on them - instead it is people like Grover Norquist whose job is to chum the base.

Rove's target is Republican dominance for a generation, thus he is looking for the next "disruptive moment" in American politics, and spends more time on creating the climate of fear and hysteria, the national security "threats" and the images that propped Bush up as a "popular President" than on the base.

Thus Rove's methods are often involved in creating moral equivalence. For example, the Patrick Kennedy crash - who got the police officers to make accusations in an on going investigation? Strictly prohibited by police procedure, yet there they were - on television throwing rumors into the bin, confident that a right wing Congress won't let them get punished, and will reward the department when budget time rolls around.

That's Rove, or one of his acolytes, at work.

Is there a quiet logical minded person advising Rove? Or is Rove the grand strategist and implementer. Is Rove overrated as a strategist? Just curious about this almost mythical individual, that seems to strike a bit of fear into people.

"Takes a bucket of blood for a barrel of oil"

Steven Bruton

repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & ineffiency with authoritarian tendencies.

Lie and lie again, repeat until it becomes the truth.
What it the problem here?