http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/democratic-national-committee/dems-look-to-expand-offensive-on-rnc-fear-gate/Dems Look To Expand Offensive On RNC “Fear” Gate
With the fallout continuing to widen from that RNC “fear” fundraising doc featuring Obama as the Joker and warnings about socialism, national Dems are now planning to expand their offensive on it. The next frontier: Local press around the country.
In coming days, the DNC will be pressing local media to put House and Senate Republicans on the spot and demand they take a stand on the RNC document, in order to generate more local press coverage of it and get the story out of the Beltway.
DNC message chief Brad Woodhouse circlated a memo to Dem strategists today outlining coming steps. “This week we are going to turn more aggressively to demanding rank and file Republicans take a position/make a comment on the RNC’s tactics,” Woodhouse wrote.
“We are continuing to link this episode to the broader Republican effort over the past 14 months to use fear as the only tool in their arsenal to thwart the agenda of President Obama and Democrats in Congress,” Woodhouse continued, citing a pattern that includes “death panels, rationing, socialism, government takeover, etc.”DNC officials note that the story has already generated scathing opinion pieces in local papers in Seattle and Kansas City and Florida.
Dems, of course, would be able to draw a sharper contrast with the “fearmongering” and “obstructionist” GOP if they passed health reform and began sucessfully selling it to voters, demonstrating their own effectiveness. For now, the main impact of this kind of thing is to rile up the Dem base.
Either way, Dems are hoping that this story has real potential beyond the Beltway bubble and can gain traction in local media around the country.