|
I believe that this coordinated assault by the Republicans on our patriotism by accusing us of treason deserves a coordinated response from the Democratic Party. I hope they are already planning it, but let me suggest this:
Hold a huge Dem Party press conference that includes every top leader in the Democratic Party with sound-byte rich speeches responding in turn to the Republican's remarks. And make sure that all the speakers get the memo: make sure you look totally outraged. Cause, well, we are.
The following people should be speakers:
1. Bill Clinton 2. Al Gore 3. Jimmy Carter 4. Howard Dean 5. Nancy Pelosi 6. Harry Reid 7. A Dem Governor or two (fly in Schweitzer?)
Then behind them should be other luminaries like Barbara Boxer, John Conyers, Biden, Lieberman (I suppose...), and any other Democrat they can round up in Washington that day. Each of these speakers should have worked out the overall message of the press conference and coordinated before hand. Then each needs to give a speech responding in his own way to the accusations from the Republicans. Make sure Bill comes up with the perfect metaphor to frame the issue for the public in the news. Makes sure that for every accusation we make clear that the ones to blame are those in power.
Karl Rove, The White House, and Ken Mehlman have called us traitors. This deserves the strongest, sternest, heaping scorn response that we can muster. They deserve no better for trying to blame us for their mess.
The Republicans have a hard lesson to learn: Absolute Power also confers Absolute Responsibility. Their tactic may have worked in Vietnam, but that was different, as Democrats deserved a lot of blame for getting us into that war, escalating it, deceiving the American people with the Gulf of Tonkin, etc. Nixon did his part, too, but parsing blame was a little more difficult in Vietnam, particularly since the Dems controlled Congress even under Nixon. But not now. Now, the Republicans control the House, the Senate, the presidency, and have a majority of justices appointed by their party on the Supreme Court (enough to side with Bush in 2000). So, blaming the Dems for any failure holds no water, now.
Now, this war is Bush's War, started with Bush's Lies, and on the authority and oversight of a Republican Congress. The War was executed by the Bush administration and his appointees with a war plan that he approved. If there is failure in Iraq, then they have no one else to blame but themselves. So, now they are trying to blame the Democrats, many of whom tried to warn them of the disastrous consequences before we ever went in. And now, when we are proved right, they try to cast the blame on us.
But that's not going to fly this time. However, it is our duty to point that out to make sure it doesn't.
|