One of the favorite "gotcha" tactics of our beloved media whorestablishment, of folks like Wolf Blitzer and Tim Russert, is to have their interviewee respond to a quote or a clip of a political opponent.
You see it all the time. It goes something like this:
MEDIAWHORE: Generic Democratic Elected Official, let's take a look at what Senator Wingnut has to say:
"SENATOR WINGNUT: All Democrats are evil, and their plans are evil, and if we follow the Democrats, America would turn to evil. Do you want America to be evil. I don't. But Generic Democratic Elected Official does."
MEDIAWHORE: Would you care to respond to that, sir?
Now, any direct response to this question immediately puts whomever answers it into a defensive posture. We give legitimacy to the accusation by denying it.
Along with my diary on why Democrats should begin to Abstain from false votes engineered by the Bush Republican leadership, Democrats across this land need to take notice of what Senator Joe Biden did this past Sunday.
I know most of us dislike Senator Biden for some positions he has taken, but put that aside for the moment, and learn.
From Atrios:
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting, and no matter how you carve it, you can call it anything you want, but basically, it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight.
BLITZER: All right. You want to respond to the vice president, Senator Biden?
BIDEN: No, I don't want to respond to him. He's at 20 percent in the polls. No one listens to him. He has no credibility. It's ridiculous.
Damn straight. Atrios goes on...
That's a good response from Biden, and it's the same response Democrats should be making not just for anything that comes out of Dick Cheney's mouth but anything which comes out of George Bush's mouth. Dems seem to generally lack the understanding of how effective general dismissive disdain and contempt can be. Bush has been in the 30s for about 4 months now. No one except the people who write The Note listen to him or think he has any credibility. He is, indeed, ridiculous.
I posit that responding in such a way to these 'ridiculous' "gotcha" clips that media whores so love to show us reinforces a new frame. No longer are we on the defensive. No longer do we give legitimacy to discredited opinions of unpopular and failed leaders by denying their opinions in reasonable way. Instead, by responding like how Biden responded, we force into the conversation that such discredited opinions are not even worth the time of the interviewee as they are so ridiculous.
Standins for the Bush Administration have been spewing the same ridiculousness for nearly 6 years now. And it has worked, in part, because we reasonable Democrats are trapped into responding to these "gotcha" clips because we think we are being reasonable. We think we are engaging in debate.
Every Democrat should take their cue from Biden on this point. Not only should they stop voting in Republican sham votes, they should stop responding to "gotcha" clips.
UPDATE: From LithiumCola, who pens what is perhaps the best comment in the history of Daily Kos:
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting, and no matter how you carve it, you can call it anything you want, but basically, it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight.
BLITZER: All right. You want to respond to the vice president, Senator Lieberman?
LIEBERMAN: . . .
BLITZER: Oh, Mr. Senator. Don't do that! Pull your pants up, please, Mr. Senator! We're live!!! Cut to COMERCIAL FOR GOD'S SAKE and get the Junior Senator from Connecticut a napkin!
UPDATE II The video is [here http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/06/26/hagel-and-biden-on-cheney-potted-plants-and-20-of-nothing/].