The strategy of division

[John Reynolds]

The Washington Post reports on the latest GOP strategy to wear down support for the leading Democratic candidates -- make them and their allies debate and vote on divisive issues in Congress. "Republicans plan to use Congress to pull Sen. John F. Kerry and vulnerable Democrats into the cultural wars over gay rights, abortion and guns, envisioning a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates' positions on divisive issues, according to congressional aides and GOP officials."

The strategy is in full force today, as John Kerry and John Edwards have to interrupt their Super Tuesday campaigning to return to Washington for votes on gun legislation. From the Post: "A top Edwards aide said the senator is "not thrilled" to be voting on gun control one week before southern states such as Texas hold their primaries. Kerry, who has missed every Senate vote this year -- plus several key votes last year -- canceled a Florida campaign event tonight to be on hand for the gun votes, several of which are expected to be close."

"Republicans openly welcome the discomfort that votes on issues such as gun control might cause Kerry, Edwards and other Democrats, now and later this year. 'The Senate floor is full of bear traps,' said Eric Ueland, deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)."

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html/index.html

 

[epicstruggle]

The Washington Post reports on the latest GOP strategy to wear down support for the leading Democratic candidates -- make them and their allies debate and vote on divisive issues in Congress. "Republicans plan to use Congress to pull Sen. John F. Kerry and vulnerable Democrats into the cultural wars over gay rights, abortion and guns, envisioning a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates' positions on divisive issues, according to congressional aides and GOP officials."

The strategy is in full force today, as John Kerry and John Edwards have to interrupt their Super Tuesday campaigning to return to Washington for votes on gun legislation. From the Post: "A top Edwards aide said the senator is "not thrilled" to be voting on gun control one week before southern states such as Texas hold their primaries. Kerry, who has missed every Senate vote this year -- plus several key votes last year -- canceled a Florida campaign event tonight to be on hand for the gun votes, several of which are expected to be close."

"Republicans openly welcome the discomfort that votes on issues such as gun control might cause Kerry, Edwards and other Democrats, now and later this year. 'The Senate floor is full of bear traps,' said Eric Ueland, deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)."

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html/index.html

Why shouldnt the republicans exploit this for all they can. Its not like the dems were willing to curb the anti-bush campaign ads. Politics is a dirty game and the winner is usually as dirty as the looser (if not more).

later,
epic

 

[epicstruggle]

Kerry, who has missed every Senate vote this year -- plus several key votes last year

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html/index.html

And kerry doesnt plan on resigning his senate seat either. So basically he doesnt vote, plus he doesnt want his(part of the) state to have one either. Great to see his character. AWOL from the senate.

later,
epic

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Hmmm...quite the dubious stratgey here. I mean, observing and knowing how a candidate will actually vote is just truly devious.

 

[RussSchultz]

Kerry needs to do something to earn his paycheck.

(Hint: he's been AWOL from the Senate floor for campainging and is still recieving a paycheck. http://news.bostonherald.com/national/national.bg?articleid=1168)

Plus, heaven forbid their position on issues be exposed.

God no, that would be like informing the public with the truth. Can't have that.

 

[L233]

I think the problem here is that the Republicans try to distract from the actually important issues (economy, jobs, foreign policy, Iraq etc) by introducing highly emotionally charged but rather irrelevant topics into the focus of public attention because they know that they pretty much fucked up in regard to the important issues.

Gerhard Schröder did something similar during the last election campaign in Germany. By milking the Iraq issue and the 100% justified misstrust against Bush and his neocon accomplices he successfully distracted from his failure to deal with the enormous domestic problems.

 

[epicstruggle]

L233, I dont know how your economy is doing, but the US economy is recovering quite nicely. We had a growth of something like 4% in the latest quaterly report. Not bad at all.

Healthy GDP Raises Hopes for Job Growth
Fri Feb 27, 9:32 PM ET

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Brisk business spending helped the economy expand at a healthy 4.1 percent pace at the end of 2003, raising hopes that the recovery will be durable and spur more meaningful job growth in the coming months.

The Commerce Department (news - web sites)'s latest reading on gross domestic product, released Friday, showed the economy grew slightly faster in the October-to-December quarter than the 4 percent annual rate estimated a month ago.

later,
epic

 

[John Reynolds]

God no, that would be like informing the public with the truth. Can't have that.

Yeah, that would be like only sacking foreign nations with accurate intelligence. Or disclosing the minutes of your energy plan meetings.

L233 hit the nail on the head. Not that keeping the public's focus away from any administration's goofs and screw-ups is owned by the right.

 

[Sazar]

L233, I dont know how your economy is doing, but the US economy is recovering quite nicely. We had a growth of something like 4% in the latest quaterly report. Not bad at all.

Healthy GDP Raises Hopes for Job Growth
Fri Feb 27, 9:32 PM ET

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Brisk business spending helped the economy expand at a healthy 4.1 percent pace at the end of 2003, raising hopes that the recovery will be durable and spur more meaningful job growth in the coming months.

The Commerce Department (news - web sites)'s latest reading on gross domestic product, released Friday, showed the economy grew slightly faster in the October-to-December quarter than the 4 percent annual rate estimated a month ago.

later,
epic

year on year there will be a growth but if you want to compare whats happened since bush came to office take a look @ the big picture...

compare economic growth from when he took office to now... it sounds nice and rosy when you see the "OMG A GAZILLION PERCENT INCREASE" but if it was in the doldrums it will naturally sound good even though it is still lower than it was just a few years ago...

total number of jobs lost = approx 2.3 million since bush came to office... net gain/loss comparison with his policies and their predictions don't paint a rosy picture either

when looking to do a term review of someone... you don't take a look @ what happened over the latest month but rather the actions of the collective term... focusing on that as a chunk... there is good reason for bush to shift focus from his failures...

however this policy is not that much different from bush's policy of defelection on his environmental policy.. healthy forest/clear skies

 

[Natoma]

Ahem.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=222001&highlight=#222001

But it's a window into the political strategies pursued by the Republican Party leadership. If you feel your base slipping, rely on these "red meat" issues to shore it up.

Now why did this come up in this thread? The reason is because I feel that the Republicans are repeating history with the current cultural controversy over gay americans receiving equal rights to their heterosexual counterparts. The Republican Party will run on this issue, punch it into the ground, if they can. We've already seen the rumbling of the storm on the horizon wrt this aspect of politicking, and it frankly disgusts me.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=222031&highlight=#222031

And voila, Bush rolls out the "red meat" to shore up the base, after his abysmal performance on Meet the Press, and his falling approval ratings over the past month or so.

.......

So typical. When you're getting battered over things that matter, switch the topic of conversation to your divisive bread and butter.

What the republicans are doing now is simply right on cue, as expected.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I think the problem here is that the Republicans try to distract from the actually important issues (economy, jobs, foreign policy, Iraq etc)

Are you kidding?

The republicans are going to run on those issues.

 

[Natoma]

Yep. When you can't run on things of substance like jobs or the economy or national security, try to divide and conquer with gay marriage. Gotta love that robust, unifying, compassionate conservative political platform.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

year on year there will be a growth but if you want to compare whats happened since bush came to office take a look @ the big picture...

You mean, look at the time starting with the recession that was left to us starting with Clinton's last term?

 

[John Reynolds]

You mean, look at the time starting with the recession that was left to us starting with Clinton's last term?

Agreed, but when you see a recession coming you don't invent a new ideological war and go on a wild spending spree, inventing new federal departments and invading foreign nations because of erroneous intelligence (scrubbed to a pleasing aural pitch by your OSP cronies). Bush inherited a economy in a decline, 9/11 certainly didn't help (didn't help he kept telling our intelligence community to back off the Saudis prior to 9/11 either), but Bush appears too much to me as "I'll write a fat check and let others pick up the bill." Like CA citizens are, to the tune of roughly $2 billion/year for the next 30 years thanks to his deregulations. But when you're all snuggled up with companies like Enron and your VP is in closeted energy planning meetings that your administration absolutely refuses (at least so far) to divulge the minutes of. . . .

 

[Natoma]

You mean, look at the time starting with the recession that was left to us starting with Clinton's last term?

What? The CBO and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) both concluded the recession began March 2001. I don't recall Clinton being in office at that time.

 

[John Reynolds]

What? The CBO and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) both concluded the recession began March 2001. I don't recall Clinton being in office at that time.

And catalysts for that recession just sprang up out of thin air in Jan. and Feb.?

 

[Natoma]

Not at all. Just having a little fun.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

What? The CBO and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) both concluded the recession began March 2001. I don't recall Clinton being in office at that time.

(Psst...that was Clinton's budget.)

 

[Natoma]

Clinton didn't lose 2.2 Million jobs on his watch. But anyway that's all water under the bridge.

As I've long said, the republicans can't run on their economic record from the last 4 years, nor can they run on national security. Hell there's not much they can run on. So they'll pull out the ol' divisive playbook. Just scrap the negroes and pump in the gays, and voila, modern day political strategy.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Clinton didn't lose 2.2 Million jobs on his watch. But anyway that's all water under the bridge.

No, he just set the stage is all.

As I've long said, the republicans can't run on their economic record from the last 4 years, nor can they run on national security.

They'll run on both. Come back to this thread once the campaigning goes full steam.

What, pray-tell, is Dean running on BTW? Other than "whatever Bush does is wrong...but um...yeah...that's it."