Flag pins, "liberal baloney", subpoenas are disruptive; who's in charge of making up that stuff and getting it out there? Jack Kingston.
Here's Jack Kingston and then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay at DeLay's final Theme Team meeting, 9 June 2006, as found on Kingston's own blog.
Like me, maybe you never heard of the Theme Team, and didn't know Kingston is its chair. But it's the propaganda center for the Republican party, and Kingston is its chief propagandist. How do they get all those talking points out there so quickly? Read on.
Here's Kingston with Dick Armey, former Majority Leader (before DeLay), meeting with the Theme Team again on 27 April 2006. This is a weekly meeting, well known to Democrats: Rahm Emanuel showed up to gloat in May 2008. Scott Ritter showed up at the Theme Team in April 2001 to argue against invading Iraq.
According to what appears to be its charter:
Purpose: To present to the American people a unified message on certain Republican themes.
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Ideally, the Theme Team will develop ideas and phrases to be used by all Republicans.
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The most immediate function of the Theme Team is to organize one-minute speeches. One-minute speeches should convey a single message, be clever enough to catch the attention of the viewing audience, and be clear enough to be effective with the public.
So this is where Rush and O'Reilly get a lot of their stuff.
Bob Schaffer, a former theme team member, provides some examples:
He referred to Democrats as "liberals" or called their policies "liberal baloney" 96 times in floor debate. Universal health care was "fascism." A lack of competition for government-owned schools would lead the country in the direction of Russia's "communist legacy," he warned.
Charming, huh?
Who's their leader?
Rep. Jack Kingston, vice-chair of the House Republican Conference and chair of the Theme Team
That's according to Kingston's own web pages.
What we have here is the chief tactical propagandist for the Republican Party.
You all know some of the methods Kingston uses: Bill Maher's show, the Colbert Report, and O'Reilly. Maher and Colbert think they've got a goofy tame Republican, but look who's using whom.
Obama doesn't wear a flag pin? Kingston started it.
Obama doesn't say the pledge? Kingston started it.
Obama's middle name is Hussein? Kingston may not have started it, but he was on national TV with it, early and often.
Kingston also works through others, as in his action alert about Rep. Waxman (D-FL) subpoenaing Condoleeza Rice, which instructed Republican bloggers in how to spin Waxman's legitimate use of subpoena power as being disruptive to important business:
"This could be a great place for us to get our foot in the door in showing that Waxman is unecessarily issuing the subpoena and, in doing so, is standing in the way of Dr. Rice doing what we all agree is necessary – building and improving on international support for our efforts worldwide," wrote Chris Crawford, who works for the Congressman, in an e-mail to bloggers.
The email continues, "Waxman’s actions border on harassment and will prevent the Dr. Rice from completing those duties entrusted to her office."
"The subpoena threatens to disrupt a busy and important schedule including trips to a NATO conference on Afghanistan, the Iraq Neighbors Conference in Egypt, and facilitating talks between Israel and Palestine," the "Theme Team Action Alert" states. "Is Mr. Waxman more concerned with getting press or is he trying to save the diplomatic limelight for Speaker Pelosi?"
You wondered how Republicans can leverage so many PR opportunities so quickly? Kingston is the lever.
And it's not "just" propaganda. It's also policy.
Who invited Ritter? Jack Kingston. Much good it did Ritter:
While Rep. Kingston and his fellow Republicans were receptive, thanking me for my testimony (which they claimed was "enlightening"), the Theme Team backed, and continues to back, President Bush’s disastrous decisions on Iraq.
They picked his brains and used what they found to make more propaganda.
Despite being on TV a lot, Kingston manages to keep a low profile by coming off as goofy and dumb. One kossack remarked about Kingston's hardcore rightwing views:
nothing unique there, him and 90% of his GOP colleagues in congress as it is currently constituted....
Ah, that's what he'd like you to think. But he is unique. It's not just that he brags about being to the right of everybody else in Congress:
In fact, in 2005 Congressman Kingston was rated as the "most conservative member of the House" by National Journal for his voting record the previous year.
His record bears that out: he gets an F from themiddleclass.org, a C from IAVA, and a zero from the League of Conservation Voters.
But he's not acting alone. He's not just a rightwing loudmouth; he's the scriptwriter, the disseminator, the meme generator: the propagandist for the Republican party.
Kingston is the right's community organizer.
Obama talks about winning against the politics of division. The Theme Team is the manufacturing plant for the politics of division and Jack Kingston is its CEO.
Oust Jack and confuse and dismay the rest.