Dem plan: Split GOP, tea party By: Manu Raju and John Bresnahan January 26, 2010 12:44 AM EST
Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their electoral woes — and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez is working hard to make sure it’s not him.
Showing that they’ve learned the lesson of Massachusetts, Menendez and his staff will distribute a memo Tuesday advising Democratic campaign managers to frame their opponents early — and to drive a wedge between moderate voters and tea-party-style conservatives.
“Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right in their party, there is a critical — yet time-sensitive — opportunity for Democratic candidates,” the DSCC writes. “We have a finite window when Republicans candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record.”
The memo urges Democratic candidates to force their opponents to answer a series of questions on health care, taxes and some of the favorite causes of the far right:
“Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?”
If a Republican candidate says no to any of the questions, the memo says Democrats should “make their primary opponent or conservative activists know it. This will cause them to take heat from their primary opponents and could likely provoke a flip-flop, as it already has several times with Mark Kirk in Illinois.”
As chairman of the DSCC, Menendez has been rocked by a series of setbacks: the out-of-the-blue retirement announcement from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.); Monday’s news that Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden won’t run for the seat previously held by his father, Vice President Joe Biden; and Republican Scott Brown’s stunning win last week in the race for the late Ted Kennedy’s former Senate seat.
Menendez has escaped much of the blame for the Massachusetts massacre, and he plainly hopes to keep it that way. In his memo, he suggests the way to avoid similar losses in the future is to do what Democratic candidate Martha Coakley didn’t: frame the Republican contender early and track any shifting positions by video or other means.
Unlike his predecessor, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Menendez had maintained a fairly low profile running the DSCC. But that changed in the immediate aftermath of Massachusetts. .............>>>>.............>>>>.............http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31991.html
Bill Sherman must have written that memo, how funny.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Bill Sherman must have written that memo, how funny.
What does Sherman have to do with this????
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Didn't Parisi split the GOP by dumping Mertz - a sitting Republican? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Are you saying Sherman would have formed the NNTP if Mertz was endorsed by the local Republican Party?
Didn't Parisi split the GOP by dumping Mertz - a sitting Republican? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Are you saying Sherman would have formed the NNTP if Mertz was endorsed by the local Republican Party?
If this is true, than the 'leader' of the rep party should have had the insight to see this coming and changed his direction. But instead, not only did he dump mertzie, a long standing fellow rep, but put out a press release to brag about it.
What was the leadership thinking? Did they really think that airing their dirty laundry out to the 'court of public opinion' was going to garner them support? This was the beginning of the end for the rep party as it sit today.
This alone shows poor leadership and insight. IMHO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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