Many of the comments in various diaries indicate concern that the "Protect a Predator" scandal will get knocked out of public consciousness by Karl Rove's much-anticipated "October Surprise." We don't know precisely what the October Surprise will be (attack on Iran? producing Bin Laden's body?), but some folks on dKos have been quaking in fear of how Rove will use it to destroy Democratic election hopes. I have a suggestion for how we can get in front of and neutralize the political effects of an October Surprise...
In February 1999, shortly after surviving impeachment, President William Jefferson Clinton was accused of having raped
Juanita Broaddrick in April of 1978. A month later, when the U.S. and NATO began bombing Yugoslavia on March 24, many Republicans vociferously accused Clinton of "wagging the dog" - of starting a war in order to change the subject from accusations of rape.
Wag the Dog, as a political term, has its origins (so far as I know) in a 1997 movie (starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Anne Heche) about an American President who distracts attention from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood producer to create a fake war.
In other words, the political use of "wag the dog" is connected, in its origins, with sex scandals. And this is why we can use it in an anticipatory frame. It's already somewhere in the back of people's minds as a gameplan for changing the subject.
So I suggest that we get ahead of Karl Rove's October Surprise, and start asking a very simple question - and get this question implanted in the minds of the American people. The question is this: "How do the Republicans intend to 'wag the dog" in order to distract the American public from the Foley scandal and its coverup by the GOP House Leadership?"
Yes, I do understand that the Iraq War, the Torture Bill and all the various other screw-ups and abuses by the Republicans are more significant in the grand scheme of things than this scandal. But this scandal has got the public's attention. After all, it's sex. Even Fox News is departing from its regularly scheduled justification of all things Republican.
So if we can use the scandal to get the "wag the dog" frame out there in advance of any October Surprise, then Americans just might become pretty cynical concerning anything Rove launches before 11/7. They may just think instead: "Yeah, the Republicans are just trying to change the subject. They're just wagging the dog."
If we can do that, then we've neutralized Karl Rove.