It sounds as if the Democrats are getting their political message together — by moving towards a message that is less-defensive. One that raises a key concern independent voters have had about the present incarnation of the Republican Party.
First, note this from New York Senator Hillary Clinton:
One day after suffering a pair of defeats on the Senate floor, Democratic leaders argued yesterday that their internal divisions over Iraq will help push the country toward a change in policy and accused Republicans of blindly following President Bush on a path that has been disastrous for the nation.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Democrats emerged from this week’s Senate debate more united than critics contend around a policy aimed at forcing the new Iraqi government to take responsibility for suppressing the insurgency. Party unity is important, she said, but not as valuable as an open debate about how best to change course.
“We’re not blindly united like the other side is, where they are like the three monkeys — ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,’ ” she told reporters after a speech to the Democratic group NDN. “They’re not going to say anything negative about the president, the vice president, the secretary of defense or anybody else. I think that’s irresponsible. It’s negligent.”
Clinton’s comments reflected Democratic efforts to regroup on Iraq after being thrown on the defensive by Republican charges that they favor a “cut and run” policy of retreat and after seeing competing approaches to the withdrawal of U.S. forces lose badly on the Senate floor.
Is it a concidence that THIS POST by Clinton-confidante, political strategist Paul Begala (who never minces words), appeared earlier on Talking Points Memo Cafe website? Its advice to Democrats reads, in part:
The fact is the American people want a new direction in Iraq, and the Democrats offer several. The Republicans, on the other hand, offer nothing more than a four-word strategy: more of the same.
Democrats should seize this moment to attack the rubber-stamp Republicans for their lemming-like devotion to a failed strategy and a set of incompetent and dishonest leaders. Republicans have a faith-based Iraq policy. They have faith in Donald Rumsfeld, they have faith in Dick Cheney, they have faith in George W. Bush. We don’t. They are liars and nincompoops – and the lives of tens of thousands of our best are in their hands.
Every time the GOP says “cut and run,� Democrats should say, “rubber stamp.� Every time they say we’re weak, we should say real strength is standing up to your president and your party when American lives are on the line. When they attack our patriotism, we should challenge them to sign their kids up for the military: “Since when did the sons and daughters of working people corner the market on patriotism, Senator? If this war is so wonderful, so noble, so vital, why the hell is your son throwing up on his date at Ivy League frat parties?�
In short, Democrats can and will win the debate over the war in Iraq not by playing defense (pleading “We’re NOT for cut and run!�) but on offense: the Republican Congress has blindly backed a failed strategy that has left 2,500 Americans dead, 20,000 wounded, and put us $2 trillion in the hole.
Being part of a party that has three or four different new approaches to Iraq beats the hell out of being part of a party that marches in lockstep off a cliff.
We’ve used the word “lockstep” often in our posts on this site. You have to differentiate between GOPers who display an independence of thought (often Libertarians) and those who will jettison previous principles, assertions, and values to get in-line with whatever the new White House line is. It’s a BIG concern to independent and centrist voters.
So Begala’s post apparently hit on something that Clinton and the Demmies decided was compelling enough to use — unless they have been on the same wavelength all along.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.