Fundraising letters, by their very nature, have to be at least a little over-the-top. I know; I’ve written more than a few.
But these shameless appeals for cash have to be tempered by a certain, inescapable reality — sometimes they’ll be read by someone other than your target audience. With that in mind, no matter how hyperbolic a group/candidate/PAC is prepared to be, whoever is backing the fundraising letter has to be prepared to stand behind it.
Which is why it’s so hilarious that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), under the signature of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, sent out a letter to GOP donors accusing a couple of U.S. allies of being sponsors of terrorism.
Roll Call’s Ed Henry had this gem in his “Heard on the Hill” column this week.
It seems the NRCC has more than ruffled feathers among two important U.S. allies in the war on terror by rushing out an “Ask America 2004” policy survey to Republican campaign donors.
One question read: “Should America broaden the war on terrorism into other countries that harbor and aid terrorists such as Thailand, Syria, Somalia, the Philippines etc?”
For some reason, some of these countries were less-than-amused by the accusation that they “harbor and aid terrorists.”
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, who has been praised by President Bush for her role in helping America and was feted at a State Dinner last May, expressed personal alarm at the charge.
Arroyo told the New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper, that she was asking her foreign office to demand an apology for the “unfair and baseless accusation” from the House GOP leadership.
That seems reasonable.
Even an NRCC spokesman said the questions “should probably have been vetted better” than they were. The Dems had an amusing response.
But Greg Speed, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told HOH that he’s worried about how this latest development will affect all of the menus in Thai restaurants located in the United States.
“House Republicans’ foreign policy is apparently getting even more reckless — they’ve gone from renaming french fries ‘freedom fries’ to naming Thailand and the Philippines ‘terrorist countries,'” cracked Speed. “I guess soon we’ll have to call our Thai food ‘pad liberty.'”
That’s not a bad line, but if the Dems were to screw up something like this — under our House speaker’s signature — you better believe the GOP would have this story everywhere. I can see it now…
Republicans would instantly create “Thai- and Filipino-Americans for a Better America,” which would hold a press conference at the National Press Club with a dozen crying Thai and Filipino children who have been traumatized by the “hate-filled speech” coming from the Democrats. Elderly citizens would be on hand, holding signs saying, “I’m Not A Terrorist.” Tom DeLay would be there to ask how any Thai- and Filipino-American voters could be expected to vote for Democrats on Election Day after they’ve levied such offensive and baseless attacks against them. Ed Gillespie would appear under a professionally-made backdrop — with the words “Republicans Stand With Pacific-Asian Americans” on it — to announce a new voter registration initiative for the community. “The Democrats won’t respect the Thai and Filipino communities,” Gillespie would say, “but we will.”
We — Dems — are just not as good at this kind of demagoguery. It’s a shame, because this nonsense works.