He's baaaack! Like that other monster, Jason of horror movie fame, Karl Rove won't go. Now that he won't be indicted either, we have to deal with him and more importantly his tactics somehow. Let's talk about it.
Crossposted at
Texas Kos. Soon to be renamed!
It seems to me that Rove's most recent blast at Kerry and Murta is an example of one of his standard tactics: attack your opponent's strength. The Democrats have been gaining traction on the Iraq War. Make'em defend themselves on this issue. As the one site I found on the Web that addresses Rove's standard strategies puts it he "
Linkforces his opponent to back away from the very qualities that makes him/her an attractive candidate."
So what should Democrats do? I say take on the issue, and bridge the discussion to what we want to talk about. That is exactly what a Kerry spokesman did when he replied thusly:
LINK "The closest Karl Rove ever came to combat," said Kerry spokesman David Wade, "was these last months spent worrying his cellmates might rough him up in prison. This porcine political operative can't cut and run from the truth any longer."
Wade continued: "When it came to Iraq, this Administration chose to cut and run from sound intelligence and good diplomacy, cut and run from the best military advice, cut and run from their responsibility to give our troops body armor, and in November Americans will cut and run from this Republican Congress."
This response is a model for how we can handle any number of issues, local and national.
Here is why this is smart. You can't ignore them, be it Rove or Perry or whoever. No matter how outrageous the lie or the accusation, you must answer back and answer quickly. So, you blast back right away, before their venom becomes the standard talking point on a given issue. That they own the air waves and the press is no help. But, in this case you use the press' laziness against it. They love the phony balance of a "he said, she said." story. You become the "she said".
The second lesson you can take from the Kerry reply is this: use their blast to push your agenda. It is call "bridging". [See here]
Notice how the last paragraph of the reply steals their magic words "cut and run" and links them to issues we want to talk about.
Try it yourselves. For example, Here's a Rick Perry ,Texas Governor, blast:
Gov. Rick Perry today signed into law House Bill 1, which provides the largest tax cut in Texas history, a $2000 across-the-board pay raise for teachers, and major education reforms. "I wholeheartedly believe this is one of the most significant legislative accomplishments for Texas in a generation, because it is one of the most significant steps we have ever taken to improve opportunity for the next generation," Perry said.
Here is a possible reply, had anybody been paying attention:
Rick Perry's idea of a tax cut is to shuffle the tax deck so that local schools get the heat for raising essential revenue to improve our schools. Typically, his idea of governing is to cut taxes and blovinate about it.
If Rick Perry was serious about education, we would have seen new monies for necessary programs, innovative ways to fund music and art and other programs cut for his lack of leadership. We would have seen new ideas for attracting and keeping first rate teachers. Republicans can't govern, all they can do is dismantle the services and public goods the people of Texas desperately need. Be it CHIPS for children or money for education, their answer is always the same - cut taxes, cut fairness, cut opportunity.
This approach can work with anywhere, even in your state or city.