Game Plan, Rove-Style

I've been clear that I think this Karl Rove stuff is a distraction, at least if it's not handled properly.  But it's also an opening big enough to drive a Mack truck through if the Democrats have any sense at all.  And I'm not talking about the "Karl must resign" stuff.  Although I understand the impulse behind it, I won't sign that petition.  First of all, I'm on record as  thinking it's useless.   It's not even particularly good political theater, unlike John Conyers' Downing Street Letter.

Second, and more important, it's (yet again) putting the Democrats' fate in the hands of George W. Bush.  If he doesn't fire Karl Rove, the Dems look like pansies.  And guess what?  Bush won't, and the Dems will.  When has this president ever apologized for anything, fired anyone or otherwise shown any hint of reconsidering even patently stupid decisions? Stop asking Bush for things you know he won't give you.

Third, and most importantly, I don't want Karl Rove to resign, any more than I want Dick Cheney to resign, or Donald Rumsfeld or Tom Delay to be out of the public eye.  I want to tie Karl Rove and the rest of those criminals  to George Bush so tightly that in years to come, one will be able ask why George Bush crossed the road, and the answer will be "Because he was attached to Karl Rove." 

And then, you use Karl Rove and the rest of those criminals as a club with which to beat on George W. Bush in those areas where everyone thinks he's strongest:  the war on "terrah", his bogus "likability" and his "leadership".  So here's the game plan:

1)  Make all of these vicious unappealing hacks into the public face of George Bush.  A boss is responsible for everything his subordinates do.  Everyone knows that.  So use it.  Don't worry about offending the Republican base.  You won't peel any of them off anyway, so stop trying to appease them.  Don't ask for anything.  Just make the case.  And don't act as if any bad acts are closed.  Every single disrespectful thing that any of these folks have ever done is open for criticism as something that George Bush agrees with (he is their boss).

Sample talking points:

• Karl Rove speaks for George Bush when he attacks as a traitor everyone who's not a Republican Extremist like Karl and George.  George Bush really believes that he is the president of less than 40% of the country.  He proved it in his closed loyalty-oath campaign rallies.  He proved it in his closed loyalty-oath Social Security events, where dissenters were arrested.
  
• Dick Cheney really spoke for George Bush when he told Pat Leahy to "Go fuck himself".  Cheney works for Bush, so you really have to assume that he's speaking for George Bush at all times.
• Donald Rumsfeld showed how little George Bush cared for the troops when he signed condolence letters for dead soldiers with a machine.  If George Bush understood how disrespectful that was, Bush would have fired Rumsfeld just for that. 
  

These people work for George Bush.  They're saying what George Bush believes.  Don't ask for a repudiation -- that's for wimps.  Just paint George Bush with the brush of his own lieutenants.

2)  Make the truthful case that Rove and Mehlman and Cheney and DeLay and all the other Republican mouthpieces are out here attacking Americans on behalf of George Bush because they know that George Bush is an unpopular and incompetent president.  (Let's say that last bit again:   George Bush is an unpopular president.  Repeat ad nauseum.) 

Sample talking points:

• Rove is attacking regular  Americans on George Bush's behalf because he wants us to forget that George Bush  hasn't had any success attacking our real enemies.  Where is Osama bin Laden?  Even if Bush finds him now, Bush has  failed.  George Bush gave Bin Laden 5 years of freedom, while three thousand Americans were being buried and mourned.
• Rove is attacking regular Americans on George Bush's behalf because they know better than to agree to George Bush's irresponsible, bad plan to destroy Social Security.
• Rove is attacking regular Americans on George Bush's behalf because they know that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was George Bush's bad idea, which is costing ordinary Americans their lives.

3)  Call George Bush out.  Not by demanding that he repudiate anything that his mouthpieces say, but by calling him a coward for not saying it himself.  If his lieutenants are saying these things, we'll assume he agrees unless he says otherwise.  And we're not asking him to say otherwise.

Sample talking points:

• Rove and Mehlman and Cheney and Delay and all the other Republican mouthpieces are out here attacking Americans on behalf of George Bush because George Bush is a coward.  He's afraid to come out say what he really thinks of regular Americans, so he has these mouthpieces say it for him. 
• Rove and Mehlman and Cheney and Delay and all the other Republican mouthpieces are out here attacking Americans on behalf of George Bush because he's afraid to face the American people unless they're a hand-picked crowd, just like in all of his loyalty-oath campaign rallies and the "town meetings" on his Social Security destruction plan.
• Rove and Mehlman and Cheney and Delay and all the other Republican mouthpieces are out here attacking Americans on behalf of George Bush because he's afraid to face the American people directly, because people know he's failed at catching the man who murdered three thousand people five years ago, and because the American people know that George Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq wasn't worth it.

4)  Make the truthful case that the Bush mouthpiece attacks on regular Americans are motivated by a desire to distract the American people from the truth that George Bush started the war with Iraq, that he lied to them when he said war was a last resort.  Keep pointing out that the Republican attacks on regular Americans have increased in intensity in the last week or two, as the Downing Street Minutes and other British memoranda have surfaced in the public consciousness and the [corporate] media.

Look, I'm an amateur.  I'm sure professional wordsmiths can tune up a lot of those talking points to be snappier and sound-biteyer.  And I'm sure that not every one of those attacks is the best one.  But those are the kinds of attacks that need to happen.  They don't rely on the Bush people to do anything.  Also the options for response by team Bush are a bit limited.  Either Bush comes out on his own to say or spin or repudiate those things, or they have to deny that the mouthpieces speak for Bush.  Or even more likely, you get more attacks from the mouthpieces, which you can spin right back at Bush with the same talking points.

I won't hold my breath, though.

Comments

[eRobin]

This is good. I like what the CAP* came up with too - America is less secure because of BushCo - but the subtext that he is a coward is fine as long as they don't push it too hard. Call him a coward and you're calling half of America cowards. But are we less secure? Yes, and that gets in BushCo's kitchen. (although the coward thing would probably drive him mad, which I would love to see) In a perfect world the idea of an ineffective and dangerous BushCo would also lessen the punch of the next 9/11, but in this world, I think that when it happens, it's going to do just what Team BushCo wants it to do - drive us headlong into the next war.

I had such high hopes that the Dems got it this time. Even with all the apologize nonsense, which I hated for the reasons you state, I thought they were going to follow the brightly lit path that Rove had created for them. It looks like they won't. Once the story dies or gets twisted in the corporate media, the Dems have no idea how to proceed.

* The CAP link goes to my blog. I still haven't found the link to the info on the CAP site. I haven't looked recently either though.

[paperwight]

Ah, but you're not calling him a coward because of his Republican affiliation. You're calling him a coward because he won't come out and face the music, and say what he really believes, and attack the half of the country that he sends his mouthpieces to attack. There's a big chunk of the country who might be Republican, but can't sign on to a man sending other people to do his dirty work.

And remember, there's 25-30% of the country that you'll never get, mostly because of their bigotry in one form or another.

[Redbeard]

"He needs other people to do his dirty work."
That was John Kerry's best line against the Swifty Liars because it's true: a rich boy like Bush always needs other people to fill his slot in Vietnam.

Too bad Kerry waited so long to deliver it.

[eRobin]

I don't know. I think the percentage of people who view politics as a less entertaining form of football is higher than 3o% and that they will take the coward label personally no matter what, if it's made the first line of attack. I know that the RWNoise Machine will definitely position them to feel that way. It's made to inflame trash talk even - strike that - especially well-reasoned trash talk. As for flat out slander, it can handle that too. If the Noise Machine were on our side, Rove would have died a thousand deaths for calling half of America terrorist sympathizers.

One day I have to put together a post I have in my head about the value American's place on security over every other political concern. You had a post up a while back that put liberty in that position, which was what got me thinking. So, since I'm Security Gal, I have to think that hitting him there is way to go. Not that any of this matters. The Dems don't seem interested in doing a single thing to capitalize on any of the huge missteps Team BushCo has made recently - or ever. How is that possible? I want on the gravy train they must be on that allows them to sit by while they get buried deeper and deeper by incompetents.

[carolyn]

Since Bush policy has been a disaster across the board, I would add the theme of incompetence. After their track record, how can we trust them to handle anything, especially Social Security?

[Mags]

That was great. Way better than I could have ever said it. And I think your strategy and tactics are right on the money.

[Michael]

Great strategy, but wrong target. Bush the Unready is done. He's got no more elections in his future. Karl Rove has not, to the best of my knowledge, ever held elective office, and I rather doubt he's going to start anytime soon.

So it seems to me that the better tactic would be to tie the lapdogs and the puppets to the Doofus-in-Chief and the guy who pulls all the strings. Let Bush and Rove be the twin millstones around the neck of each and every Republican candidate from here on out.