{"id":5634,"date":"2005-10-25T15:30:14","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T19:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5634"},"modified":"2005-10-25T15:30:14","modified_gmt":"2005-10-25T19:30:14","slug":"dem-strategery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/dem-strategery\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem strategery"},"content":{"rendered":"

In terms of media interest, the Plame scandal drives itself; Democrats don’t actually have to do<\/i> anything. When reporters stake out Karl Rove<\/a> and Scooter Libby<\/a> at their homes, it’s not as if a tip from a Dem put them there.<\/p>\n

In fact, looking back over the last two years, Dems have been largely irrelevant in driving the Plame scandal, sometimes through no fault of their own. In 2003, some leading Dem senators did their best<\/a> to generate interest in what they saw as a blockbuster White House scandal, but the media showed little interest at the time. In early 2004, House Dems tried to keep the story alive<\/a>, but, again, it didn’t catch on.<\/p>\n

Obviously, with the possibility of indictments hanging over the White House, the political world is engaged, and Dems don’t have to push the story along. But the question remains the same: What do Dems do now? Roll Call reported today<\/a> that party leaders are finalizing their plans.<\/p>\n

Anticipating that indictments could come down against senior White House officials this week, House Democratic leaders have spent recent days devising a Caucus-wide plan to further highlight GOP ethical missteps and national security compromises. <\/p>\n

Sources say House Democratic leaders have held several private meetings to shape their Members’ message if federal indictments are issued against senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. […]<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders today are arming the Democratic Caucus with message points on a response that consists of a two-pronged argument accusing the Republicans of continuing to foster a “culture of corruption” and of compromising the nation’s security by leaking classified information. Democrats are also expected to call for the resignations of Rove and Libby if either or both are indicted. <\/p>\n

“This is a very focused effort,” said one senior Democratic staffer. “These people compromised national security. It will be a shift away from the typical ethics strategy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m hesitant to get my hopes up, but I think Dems might be on the right track.
\n
\nThe “culture of corruption” approach works when it comes to DeLay, Cunningham, Ney, Pombo, Frist, and the other congressional Republicans who are under investigation and\/or indictment, but throwing the Plame scandal in with that group undermines the significance of the controversy.<\/p>\n

To be sure, this is a scandal with some complexity, but the message shouldn’t be too difficult to articulate if indictments are issued.<\/p>\n

1. It’s a scandalous breakdown in national security that put America at risk during a time of war.<\/p>\n

2. The White House lied about Iraq, then they lied to cover it up.<\/p>\n

3. Perjury and obstruction of justice matter, even when they have nothing to do with sex.<\/p>\n

Throw in George H. W. Bush’s quote<\/a> on the subject (“I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors”) and RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie admitting<\/a> that this scandal is worse than Watergate “in terms of the real-world implications,” and it seems like Dems have a pretty compelling pitch for the public, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In terms of media interest, the Plame scandal drives itself; Democrats don’t actually have to do anything. When reporters stake out Karl Rove and Scooter Libby at their homes, it’s not as if a tip from a Dem put them there. In fact, looking back over the last two years, Dems have been largely irrelevant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}