While some of this is dishonest and destructive, Democrats would do well to start following some of these before we become a one party state--which Grover Norquist has openly said is their goal.
Several years ago, (about 1995-96) while working in the Bush Admin in Austin, a loyal Bush activist related to a friend of mine some of the Bush Administration's "rules of engagement".
It goes like this:
- Perception is more important than fact.
- Offense is better than defense, so Attack, Attack, Attack.
- A charge unanswered is a charge agreed to and those under Blitzkreig attack will not only faulter with confusion, but be perceived as being in an exaggerated weakened state.
- Never leave an enemy or a distractor standing. Finish the job and finish them off.
- What appears in the press will be what we author, check and double check. Press surprises are strictly unacceptable - a fatal staff occurrence.
- Always remember who has the power and never let it escape from your grip.
This person is now a very senior White House figure, by the way.
Our strategy against this is best said by a variation on Sun Tzu that General Dwight David Eisenhower used in his briefing for the D-Day planners:
"The vulnerability of any plan is almost always when that same plan is used against its planner. The plan is almost always developed based upon our exaggeration of our own perceptions and our own vulnerabilities."
http://www.democrats.com/node/8201