Reid announces new office created (Communications `war room')

Communications `war room' to promote Democrats' messages, respond to GOP attacks

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the incoming Senate minority leader, said Monday he is forming a communications "war room" to promote Democrats' messages and respond to Republican criticism.

Reid continued to put his stamp on the Senate leadership when he announced creation of a Senate Democratic Communications Center that will aim to keep the party in the public eye. The center will be launched Jan. 4, when the Senate convenes for its 2005 session.

Jim Manley, press secretary for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has been hired as staff director for the center, which will be located in the U.S. Capitol.

Phil Singer, a former media adviser to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will be communications director, handling "rapid response" as Democrats seek to keep their messages on pace with the White House and Republicans in Congress. Singer also worked as national spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

more: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-30-Tue-2004/news/25371885.html

We need our own echo chamber.

The GOP has been doing this for a while now. I hope it helps.

show publicly didn't it.

never mind :crazy:

Keep it up.

when what's needed is offense.

Reid is a rethug, and he should just switch party and left us alone.

come out - whether or not they are sharp and concise enough to sway the average sheeple against the reThugs.

after Setback at Little Big Horn.

:evilfrown:

Sarcasm aside, at least they're finally doing something.

Jeez, we didn't have this already? WTF did Daschle do? Did he even have a fax machine???

But some one else lives there now.

How many losing elections is it going to take until the Democratic Party realizes they need to fight back and twice as hard?

Mr. Reid, tear down that pink tutu!

Time to get our own "freedom fighters",...ON MESSAGE!!

We need an alternative to the media whores. We need our own outlets, otherwise the message will go nowhere.

They need a printer in there that puts out index card with the Messages of the Day on them..

For a while when asked they all need to reach inside suit jacket and read the message of the day to the press.
Bush got away with it!

thought this would have been an obvious necessity since, oh i don't know, Clinton's Impeachment! wtf

It baffles me they did not think "playing the media game" was important enough. Unbelievable. Well, this move at least puts us where the Repugs were... back in 1992!

:shrug:

IT'S F-I-N-A-L-L-Y TIME THAT WE HAD OUR OWN "WARRIORS"!!!

:wtf: took so long???

He's faced odds his entire life and persevered...think he will surprise people.

Now if we could only get the MSM to pay attention to it!

the Senate. Tom told her that "this is not hand to hand combat".

Hillary was right about what was needed, Tom was wrong.

I wonder if Tom gets it now?

them set this up. She knows how to make it work.

Tom told her that "this is not hand to hand combat".

No, Tom, this is a war. This is a fucking bloodbath. But then, I guess you of all people know that now, don't you?

What a disaster. So many people want to blame Kerry or the DNC for our recent failures but he was actually the highest ranking elected official in the land with a D after his name and he took no role.
He just kept helplessly trudging through the halls of the Senate because that was the only game he could preceive. Small state guy with small vision.

Christ, it's worse than we thought.

Which has always pissed me off. Better late than never but many lives already have been lost and we are in a deeper hole than ever.

Pretty sad

i Like reid, despite what some say about him.

Which is a good thing.

good for him, I knew I was right to defend him against the attacks.

We finally come up a strong leader in the Democratic party once we lose any ability other than that to fillibuster. I feel inspired.

That a lot of our guys in Congress don't realize/suspect what scum most of their Republican colleagues are.

After all, they work with these guys every day, go to the same cocktail parties and dinners; I'm sure some of their spouses are friendly with one another.

I think they find it hard to believe that the people they play golf with and mingle with would stoop to the sort of underhanded treachery and name-calling that they do. This, I feel, is why governors tend to fare better in the national elections than Congressmen do. They know exactly who and what they are dealing with and typically don't consort with them as much as your average Congressman.

the days when both sides of the aisle socialized with each other are long gone. Things are too polarized now, and with most of them flying home on weekends, they don't see each other outside of the Senate or House.

There's been many articles about the "old" socializers complaining that there's no fun in DC anymore. The parties aren't what they used to be under Bush, what with his "early to bed" BS. In fact, the parties just aren't happening much anymore, if the gossips are to be believed.

At least someone is doing something!!!

And to all the Reid bashers, give the guy a chance.

Are you telling me that we haven't had a war room through all of the hell that we have endured over the past decades?

What the fuck has the Democratic leadership been doing?

How have they been coordinating GOTV efforts in all the states, systematically addressing Republican smears, and keeping all their responses immediate, straight, and consistent?

My hands are literally shaking. I cannot believe how ineffectual these people are.

Step Two would be getting some kind of link between this "war room" and the mass-media outlets, and set up web streaming so the public can have access.

Once this is cranking, get John Kerry's ass over there twice a week and have him and John Edwards (who should have some free time now) respond to each and every single stupid thing that comes out of the whitehouse. They need to say what they would do differently and why it would work. Have the minority leaders in congress give daily commentary on floor and committee activities. Give frequent press conferences in which questions are encouraged and solid answers given.

Democrats need to show We-The-People what we could have had.

See, Reid might not be so bad organizational wise, at least.

How long did we have to watch ourselves get steamrolled by Republicans staying "on-message" before some Democrat realized that we ought to start doing the same thing?!?!?!

OH. MY. GOD.

Better late than never, I suppose. :eyes:

-MR

Now it has to be used to play hardball. Democrats have to stop being courteous to hypocritical liars.

photos of Iraq war victims with the caption
"Sending our kids to kill their kids isn't making us safer"

Use your printer. Put this on every public surface you can. Now.

The Dem's on the hill let the repugs run over them like bullies in a school for fours years. None of them had the balls or backbone to mention the words greed and Neo-con in a single sentence let alone together. Their silence after the election and inference we tote the line speaks volumes about where they stand. Nothing more than a group of choir boys assigned to directly kiss Frist's butt. They're four years late in starting damage control.

"Phil Singer, a former media adviser to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will be communications director, handling "rapid response" as Democrats seek to keep their messages on pace with the White House and Republicans in Congress. Singer also worked as national spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass."

Because... we... REALLY need the people that did communications for KERRY'S campaign running the war room?

So, maybe I'm still a bit bitter about the SBVT thing, and other mishandlings in the campaign. And maybe I really need to give Reid a chance. He might do some good for the party - I recall him saying, a while ago, that we need to stop relying on the Clintons and their people, which is very, very true. And that he's at least taking STEPS to help things, and now we just have to hope for a damn good DNC chair. Maybe Schumer as the DSCC chair will take us somewhere...

Things could very well be looking up. (I hope!)