Democrats starting to get smart and tough at the same time

You had to dig deep to find the single most exciting article in today’s Washington Post (it was on page 19), but it’s definitely worth reading. Here’s the nugget sentence: “On an almost daily basis now, congressional Democrats are warning of a ‘credibility gap’ between what Bush says to the American people and what he does through new government policies.”

The piece notes that Democratic leaders “circulated ‘Caught on Film: a photo history of the Bush credibility gap,’ highlighting ‘various examples of the Administration making promises at various photo-ops and then slashing funding for the very priorities it stressed.’ It covered everything from education to programs for the poor.”

As far as Carpetbagger is concerned, this is exactly the right strategy at the right time. A year ago, Paul Glastris wrote a cover story for The Washington Monthly asking why Democrats can’t get tough. By going after the Bush administration for its constant, almost habitual, use of falsehoods and deceptions, Democrats are effectively standing up and saying, “No more.”

For too long, congressional Democrats have lacked the backbone to go after Bush in this fashion. It’s one of the key reasons, I believe, the party was unsuccessful in 2002. If the Democrats’ central message is “Bush is a nice, honest guy who likes tax cuts too much,” you don’t need overpaid pollsters to tell you this is a recipe for disaster.

Bush has been playing fast and loose with the truth since the campaign. While the national media seemed more interested in portraying Al Gore as a “serial fibber,” and obsessing over Bill Clinton’s lies about his extramarital affairs, Bush has lied repeatedly — without consequence — about matters of national import. Carpetbagger is nearly giddy about the Democrats’ new approach of, gasp, calling Bush to account for saying things that turn out not to be true.

Oddly, the Post article quotes an anonymous “top Democratic pollster” who suggested the strategy may fail — and indeed, backfire on Democrats — because research data reflects that “the American people trust Bush and disdain highly partisan politics, especially when the country is edging toward war.”

Call Carpetbagger crazy but, isn’t that the point of the project? Of course the American people tend to “trust Bush” — Democrats haven’t done a good enough job explaining why he’s not trustworthy. Memo to Daschle & Co.: Ignore the pollsters. Go after Bush, rally the base, and chip away at the ridiculous idea that the Bush White House is honest and honorable.