They allow the GOP to control the message. Our sheepish corporate media just tows the party line of those in power. That's what the Dems. need to fight.
The illegal wire-tapping issue is a perfect example.
An article about the Dem's troubles in today's New York Times boldly declares:
Their [Democratic Party's] concern was aggravated by the image of high-profile Democrats, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, challenging the legality of Mr. Bush's secret surveillance program this week at a time when the White House has sought to portray Democrats as weak on security.
So the "most respected newspaper in the country" has already conventiently defined the illegal wire-tapping issue just the way the administration does: it's a question of avoiding a terrorist attack versus some undefined rights of some anonymous terrorists.
The Democrats need to do everything in their power to reframe this issue. I fullheartedly appreciate the privacy rights involved here, and that needs to remain a focus, but Dems. also cannot ignore national security in this day-and-age of paranoia and a backwards "red neck agenda."
For example, I have not seen any Dem. attacks (at least that have caught the corporate media's attention) on the completely unsupported rhetoric that this illegal wire-tapping is actually effective. Democrats should HAMMER DOWN the image of intelligence agents on an expensive but blind fishing expedition. This program is wasting resources that should be used to pursue actual terrorists once there's some indicia of evidence (as suppported by a FISA warrant, for example), not just to chase any random person in the United States who makes an international phone call.
To cede that illegal wire-tapping somehow helps national security is to bury your head in the sand until you choke.
That's exactly what Democrats did with the Iraq War. They hedged too much and basically gave the GOP the assumption that this war was going to help the war on terrorism. I have always believed, and still believe, that this ridiculous hedging, which really continues to this day among many Democrats, is what cost the party the White House in 2004.