Yesterday Tom Harkin made news by calling Dick Cheney out as a coward. I think this is the right thing to do, and I doubt it was spontaneous. The only GOP response was that Harkin was being shrill. The problem is that in typical Democratic Party fashion, it appears that the allegation will be made once, then it will die, having done little or no damage to the BC campaign.
If there is one thing the GOP has attempted to teach us all these years is that things only stick if they're repeated over and over. Check out this quote from The Clinton Wars regarding Newt Gingrich, who understands the power of language:
In 1990, Gingrich commissioned his pollster to test-market words that could be used to demonize the Democrats. The ensuing document, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control," was worthy of exegesis by George Orwell. These were among the words Gingrich urged Republicans to use: "sick...pathetic...decay...corrupt...waste...liberal...traitor." The context of usage was unimportant, and so were the issues. No matter what they were, the Democrats were to be tainted as perverse un-Americans --- McCarthyism without communism.
While Gingrich used these words to great effect, helping the Republicans to a 54 seat net gain in the House in 1994, they were and still are of course mostly lies. In the case of Harkin, there is actually an element of TRUTH! But no one has gone to bat and reiterated the claim for today's news cycle. This is absolutely required if the message is ever to stick. I hope I'm being premature in saying that, and that someone will step forward today, but I doubt it will happen. Yes, it's nice that Kerry is calling Bush out today regarding the Swift Boat ads, but the specific use of the word COWARD needs to be repeated...not by Harkin, but by other Democrats at his level.