Friday, June 24, 2005

Bush World

Bush:

"They try to kill, and they do kill, innocent Iraqi people, women and children, because they know that the carnage that they reap will be on TV, and they know that it bothers people to see death. And it does. It bothers me. It bothers American citizens. It bothers Iraqis. They're trying to shake our will, that's what they're trying to do."

Who's to blame? The media of course for giving the insurgents what they want! If they just stopped reporting on the carnage the insurgents would wrap it up and go home!

It's so simply in Bush world isn't it?

Bush Lame Duck Watch

This Week's Bush Lame Duck Watch: 1560 (+908)

Big jump this week. But it's not entirely Bush's fault. There are a number of hits for an AP story about Tony Blair trying to avoid being a lame duck. The story just happens to mention Bush so that counts as a hit (Google News doesn't have a "near" option as far as I can tell).

That doesn't mean Bush is in the clear, as there are a lot of other stories that do specifically talk about Bush being a lame duck.

The biggest hit for Bush came from the Bolton story. There is this AP story about Frist's reversal on the Bolton nomination that includes this line: "Six months into his final term in office, Bush is struggling to avoid the perception of a lame duck at a time when his proposal for revamping Social Security has made little progress and some lawmakers are calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq." And this Newsday piece: "If Bolton is not confirmed, it is likely to leave both Bush, who in his last term is said by some political analysts to be looking like a lame duck, and Frist, who has been trying to garner support for a presidential candidacy, both weaker politically." Other Bolton stories that talk about Bush as a possible lame duck here and here.

Also of interest is this story from Phoenix about a possible resurgance of power for moderate Republicans, especially on environmental issues: "With Bush facing lame-duck status, congressional Republicans with moderate leanings are beginning to get their sea legs, as evidenced by the so-called Gang of 14 judicial-filibuster compromise and the House's recent approval of $100 million for stem-cell research. Is it possible, then, that the two sides could find common ground? Can the red states turn green?"

Howard Kurtz gets into the lame duck game: "All right, let's face it. Bush has had a rough go of it lately. But isn't it too soon for the media to start suggesting he's a limping lame duck? The president won a tough reelection battle last year and we're writing him off before July 4?" Of course, Kurtz is trying to fight back against the lame duck meme. But remember your Lakoff! Even mentioning it in the negative can reinforce the idea.

All in all its been a pretty quacky week for Bush.

Note: there were quite a few foreign news stories that talk about Bush as a lame duck. But I've decided to focus more attention on the domestic news stories as those are the ones that are most likely to impact public perception.

(Explanation: The Bush Lame Duck Watch is a weekly measure of the hits on Google News for "Bush" and "Lame Duck". The numbers in parenthesis represents the change from the previous weeks number (It is also a link to the previous weeks post.))

Thursday, June 23, 2005

We've Got Your Back Democrats!

Reward Good Behavior

Well, when I proposed this idea little did I know that the first candidate for cover would be the ENTIRE Democratic party!

Karl Rove has publicly claimed that Democrats want our troops to die. Democrats are appropriately demanding an apology or a resignation (I personally think it should be both).

In the meantime, we need to demonstrate to the Dems that We've Got Their Back. Accordingly, I've set up an ePatriots account on the DNC web page where we can contribute money to the party to indicate that we support the Dems in this current struggle.

Reward Good Behavior

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Dean shows how it is done

Watch this video of Howard Dean on The News Hour (courtesy Crooks & Liars).

I mean it! Watch it! Now! I can wait.

(whistles)

Ok. Got it? Now that's how you deal with the media's attempts to twist you into the usual Democratic Supine Position. Gwen Ifill tried repeatedly to get Dean to second guess his own comments (as well as the comments of Dick Durbin). He simply refused to play the game she was trying to play. What's more, he did it with a smile that clearly charmed Ifill. By the end of the interview he had her eating of his hand. He consistently turned the discussion back to talking about issues and substance. He owned those twelve minutes as if he had paid for them.

And you know what? He did it without ever once knocking down a fellow Democrat. He did nothing but praise any Democrats mentioned by name. I bet, if asked, he would also praise Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman! That's the kind of guy Dean is.

Proposal: We've Got Your Back! A Democratic Support Campaign

Following up on my previous post about the Durbin fiasco...

Any Democrat who takes a courageous step into the minefield of the Republican Noise Machine has to keep one thing in mind: they will get very little support from their fellow Democrats. It's a sad statement but one that is born out by recent history.

Is it any wonder then that so few Democrats are willing to take those stands? There's just no benefit to it that they can see. There thinking is simple: why stick your kneck out if even your fellow party members will run away at the first sign of trouble?

Howard Dean has the advantage that he has a LARGE grassroots following that will back him up when he comes under fire. The recent brouhaha over his comments about Republicans is perfect evidence of this. His following raised over $100,000 for the DNC in one day and the "Howard Speaks For Me" campaign netted thousands of signatures of support. Were it not for that you can bet the rest of the Democratic leadership would have ditched him over the side after his first controversial comment. The only reason they haven't is because they know they will get as much heat from us as they are likely to get from the Republican Noise Machine.

WE ARE THE DEMOCRATIC NOISE MACHINE!

Unfortunately, the Durbin situation proves that we need to take this to the next level. Durbin did not feel that he had the kind of backing that Dean gets. There weren't any fundraising drives on his behalf. There weren't any "Durbin speaks for me" petitions. He probably received calls and emails of support. But that kind of thing doesn't speak as loudly as $100,000 raised in less than 24 hours.

Durbin felt he had to grovel because he didn't feel he had the kind of support Dean got.

This is bad. We need to do better.

I've been thinking about this all day and I think we need to establish a permanent "We've Got Your Back!" campaign that will stand behind Democrats, any Democrats, who step into the Right Wing Noise Machine's fire. This campaign that will track signs of Democratic courage in the face of Republican attacks. If the attacks become particularly egregious (as they did against Durbin) then a fundraising bat will be created that links to those Democrat's campaign donation page and petition drives will be started to demonstrate our support for their courage.

If done right, all future Dick Durbins will have evidence with 24-48 hours that there is strong support for them to continue their efforts on our behalf. Then they can turn around on the future Richard Daleys and Joe Bidens, wave those signatures and that cash in their faces and say "bite me!"

Anyone interested in getting this started? My web skills are for shit so I don't think I can do this on my own. But I'm interested in helping out where I can. Let me know what you think.

Connecting Reform With National Security

Josh Marshal has some interesting information about the Duke Cunningham graft scandal and how the man behind it, Mitchell Wade, is apparently a defense contractor. This raises the interesting possibility that Wade's largesse towards Cunningham was part of an effort to get the inside track on government defense contracts.

Hint to Democrats: here's a way to turn the corruption and reform story into a national security story as well. After all, shouldn't our nation's defense be contracted out to those who can give us the best defense and not to those who are just really good at greasing a congressman's palm?

As goes Leno...

...so goes the nation?

Jay Leno: “And tomorrow, at the White House, President Bush will meet with the first prime minister from Vietnam to visit the United States in 30 years. Do you know why he is coming here? It's a lot easier than trying to get Bush to go to Vietnam.”

Jay Leno: “We tried that. We couldn't get him to go to Alabama.”

Jay Leno: “The White House spokesman Scott McClellan said it would be hard to create an artificial timetable for getting out of Iraq. You think that's true? We went in for artificial reasons, using artificial intelligence. Why not have an artificial timetable to get out?”

That last one is worthy of Michael Moore!

“On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan (from Canada), I would like to thank the Academy for this award. I have invited the other Documentary nominees on stage with me. They are here in solidarity because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction because we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where fictitious election results give us a fictitious president. We are now fighting a war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.”

To those who pooh-pooh framing

Dean shows how it is done:

Dean says that while Democrats believe in a "small government just big enough to get things done," Republicans "believe in a government just small enough to sit inside Terry Schiavo's nursing-home room." It was a clear reference to Republican attempts to keep the brain-damaged woman on life support.

My particular mantra is this: government should be as small as possible and as large as necessary.

A healthy political process is simply the non-violent method of resolving what "possible" and "necessary" mean.

Durbin Democratic Discontent

I am not happy that Durbin apologized. I don't think he should have used the Nazi analogy (not because it was wrong but because it was to obviously distracting). I think he should have used the platform this controversy was giving him to double down on his criticism of the Bush administration over the treatment of prisoners at Gitmo. By apologizing he validated the critics and set back the effort to enlighten the American people about what is happening. I'm not just unhappy. I'm angry!

But, even so, I think it is a monumental mistake for us to brand Durbin as a traitor and a coward because he gave in to the pressure.

Understandably, many are angry that Durbin, by his actions, has reinforced the image of Dems as to eager to bow to pressure even when they are objectively correct. But this problem will not be solved by purging Durbin from our ranks.

Instead, we need to look at this fiasco for the lessons it can teach us.

Durbin was under an immense amount of pressure from a coordinated Republican Noise Machine attack. He was receiving thousands of protest calls and letters. Furthermore, other Democrats, especially Illinois Dems, were receiving similar pressure. This is probably what lead to Mayor Daley criticizing Durbin and that is probably what pushed Durbin into taking the long walk on the Senate floor.

So here's the lesson: when Democrats are under attack by the Noise Machine it is vitally important that we let them know that we have their back. My impression is that we spent a lot of time attacking the attackers and not enough letting Durbin know that we liked what he said and wanted him to stick to his guns.

Where were the "Durbin speaks for me" petition campaigns? Where were the fundraising bats for Durbin's campaign?

Durbin's failure of will is our failure to provide Democrats with a platform from which they can feel safe making potentially controversial statements. We did great backing up Dean but we won't get anywhere if Dean is the only Democrat who garners that kind of support.

Make no mistake about it, Durbin fucked up by issuing his apology. But supporting our guys when they do right is more important than attacking them when they do wrong. Purging and ostracizing Durbin just compounds the mistake.