The communicative principle of Rovian zerosum politics:
Rove scared of x = Dems benefit greatly from x.
We can deduce from this principle that we need more eggs in this Judiciary Committee hearings basket. Feingold's a stud, but this could be the whole ball game. The big "I". We can prevent two more Alitos (Stevens' and Ginsburg), plus end the war, plus never have to look at another budget as revolting as this new one, plus a million other things you guys already know. So why are we sitting around here chatting? His name is Mike DeWine. Don't stop until you hear him spell "uncle" backwards.
The Insight Article on the Jud. Comm. spells out that Rove has an audience of one. Specter, Graham, Brownback...who is it that has a close race in November 2006 and might care about support from the White House? Mike DeWine. He's the pressure point. To win this, we need 1 GOP vote. DeWine currently has about 3 million COH. He could use some fundraising help from Bush, but he's not broke. So Rove's leverage is reduced to that extent.
What he fears more than missing out on a few Bush fundraisers is the prospect of being tainted with any one of several scandals currently destroying the OH GOP--becoming a target for the media. He also fears a challenger who can make the case that DeWine is a crook. A challenger who has a country-wide donor base producing endless streams of cash, and a massive staff of dedicated volunteers, pissed off about DeWine the chickenshit who caved on the FISA vote, ready to settle a score.
So I say we call him. And we tell him that his vote will decide his future. He votes like Rove tells him to, and he's at the top of our list. We'll dig, and dig until we find all the dirt. If it's not coingate, or Abramoff, or Delay, or Ney, it will be something else. We'll find the girlfriend, the kickback, the crony criminal. Whatever it takes. And we'll make flyers: "DeWine chose Bush's money over the Constitution." Lots of flyers. And we'll give the flyers to people, and ask them to read about their pathetic weasel of a Senator, Mike DeWine. We won't rest until he's toast.
And to make sure he's toast, we'll also give thousands and thousands to the OH-Sen general fund, and promise him that it's just the beginning of it. And we'll all be volunteering, and setting out for Ohio in October for GOTV. Just like Hackett this summer, but a hundred times bigger and better and starting now.
Or he can cast a vote that just might save his ass, and keep the GOP majority in the Senate, plus having the nice side benefit of saving the Constitution and the country from dictatorship. We won't work for him, but he'll be further down the list. Under Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, and Missouri, and Montana, and Tennessee, and even Arizona.*
He decides his future right now.
That same call. Every day. Tens of thousands of times a day. For the next two weeks. Plus LTE in all the Ohio papers, spelling out his choice: money from Bush or the Constitution. Plus flyers in doors. Organizing campus Dems at Ohio Universities and Law Schools to flyer the crap out of the entire state: "Tell Mike DeWine not to choose Bush's money over the Constitution."
Let's see if he pees his pants.
Russell Senate Office: 202 224 2315
Xenia: 937 376 3080
Cincinnati: 513 763 8260
Cleveland: 216 522 7272
Columbus: 614 469 5186
Marietta: 740 373 2317
Toledo: 419 259 7536
http://www.cleveland.com/...
http://news.enquirer.com/...
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http://www.toledoblade.com/...
List of more Ohio news sources at the bottom of this page:
http://www.politics1.com/...
*Offer may not be valid if DeWine casts a bunch of other dumbass votes or if we find out anything else that pisses us off--like that he waited for a good whip count from the House on the Impeachment proceedings, or secretly lobbied House members to vote against Impeachment, or that he took $8 million dollars of coingate money and pocketed it, or what have you.