Erstwhile Republican, and noted Never Trumper, Rick Wilson’s, book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, has injected a useful new metaphor, if not a cliche, into American political discourse. This is nowhere proven truer than regarding the once-famously-reliable GOP messaging discipline that served Republicans so well for so long. Even the Right Wing Washington Examiner has noted —
President Trump's rhetoric and tweets are scrambling the attempt at message discipline on the part of his Republican allies and his own White House aides seeking defend him against impeachment.
The White House issues regular talking points and is running what one senior House Republican described as an unusually “professionalized” effort to protect Trump from an impeachment inquiry initiated by Democrats in the House. That effort is dovetailing with a House Republican operation in which lawmakers and staff from key committees meet regularly to exchange information and coordinate communications strategy.
But with Trump's Twitter posts that can land at any moment in rapid succession and shocking commentary that can erupt anywhere from the Oval Office to rallies around the nation, some Republican insiders worry the endeavor is useless.
Conversely, Congressional Democrats’ messaging discipline has reached new heights of largely unprecedented effectiveness. As Exhibit A on this, consider Nancy Pelosi’s press conference yesterday after meeting with the Democratic caucus, where she battled back against Trump’s nonsense about Do Nothing Democrats with a mountain of done deeds by Congressional Democrats backed up by an extraordinarily fine and strong slogan for her colleagues to take up —
LEGISLATE INVESTIGATE LITIGATE
Speaker Pelosi may as well be conducting a seminar on how to create unified messaging in a small d democratic way. Messaging has always been easier for totalitarian minded Republicans, who revel in the giving and taking of orders. Democrats are famously less amenable to taking direction or getting into lock step. So, in an act of pure leadership, Nancy Pelosi has been using the LILGate slogan for weeks to frame the current Congressional agenda, issuing bullet points built around the slogan in an official statement issued August 2. But weeks before then, she test drove the slogan with the press as a foil against questions suggesting Democratic disunity on impeachment, as reported in POLITICO last month —
Speaker NANCY PELOSI seemed quite perturbed about questions regarding Democrats’ mixed impeachment messaging this morning. She answered a few questions, and then said she was done with the subject -- although she continued to answer inquiries, periodically.
PELOSI’S CATCHPHRASE on her party’s Hill agenda: ‘LEGISLATING, INVESTIGATING and LITIGATING.’
-- PELOSI ON IMPEACHMENT: “I support what is happening in the Judiciary Committee, because that enables them to do their process of interrogation and investigation.”
-- She parried multiple reporters’ follow-up questions of whether Democrats are giving mixed messages on impeachment: “I’ve said what I am going to say, that’s it. … I am not answering any more questions on this subject.”
Then, yesterday, this —
Speaker Pelosi rolled out of a closed-door meeting, with the Democratic Caucus, into a presser, and led with the LEGISLATE INVESTIGATE LITIGATE slogan with bullet points to back it up —
LEGISLATE
- Improving Medicare and Health Care
- Improving College Affordability
- Improving US Canada Mexico Trade Agreement
- Passing Universal Background Checks
INVESTIGATE
- Intelligence Committee bearing down, working during recess
- Chairman Schiff briefed the progress separately
LITIGATE
- Congress wins Trump loses on hateful public charge rule
- Congress wins Trump loses on sham border emergency
- Congress wins Trump loses on compliance with House Oversight Subpoenas]
- Three wins to none in just one week. More to come.
Trump touched formerly well-disciplined Republican messaging and it died. Hence, we are experiencing an unusual political interval. Bottom rail on top, this time. We’re Topsy Turvy. Republicans are falling into disarray as Democrats find voice in a simple slogan that celebrates truth, honesty and simplicity while rhyming with Watergate and all the gates thereafter. Sweet. Enjoy the moment.