OK, these partially-formed thoughts of the day found good reception on the "Sinking Ship" diary, so I will offer them up here to start better tactical wheels than my own turning on the subject:
Democrats are about to get busy shooting themselves in both feet.
The Air America and Ed Schultz talk shows today seem to be mostly emphasizing lecturing the Prez to RAISE TAXES to pay for Katrina recovery.
(My peevish nature reveals itself below...)
That fallacious Democratic addiction to policy wonkist logic again. Has the public ever rewarded this virtue, at the right time and for the right reasons? Don't hold your breath awaiting that day.
In the public's word-associating mind, "Democrats" still equals "Taxes". So Bush gets the credit card blame-free to spend, spend, spend, and Dems are therefore expected to send in the clean-up crew afterward with the unpopular (and election-losing) news about taxes?
Dems seem to be rushing forward, shouting "Yeah, let's get out in front of that bullet meant for him. Let's spin that "High Tax Democrat" wheel one more time! Let's keep the Merkins hating both parties!"
There are points to hammer upon, but you've got to get on the right ones! You've got to slice the right cuts from this feast of issues we're getting handed.
There is a time to preach responsible taxation, but for now, it's Bush that has done the Treasury such overwhelming ill with tax cuts, unlimited military splurging, corruption, and Iraq, that he should enjoy the firestorm alone for awhile longer. Katrina's illuminations are but the cherry on the pie he's baked himself to demonstrate his neo-con regime's unpreparedness for real-world situations.
"Bring Them Home Now" is way more popular than "Raise Taxes." Why not go there first?
The proper course to sail is to keep demonstrating the fiscal math and its inevitable consequences, but not to lead with the more unpopular prescriptions. Let Bush take the full heat for his own idiocies first. Make his Party prescribe the bitter medicines dictated by simple math, and the "magic" of compound interest.
Let him come to you asking for help, as his coalition fractures.
Let the Repubs dine fiercely upon each other first.
Until you really have the fiscal reins in hand, why oh why fall on this grenade for him, in the name of some future sense of responsibility that you must first win an election in order to implement?