I sent a memo to Harry Reid's office today

All this criticzing of Dean is so counterproductive. He has given them a terrific opportunity to talk about issues: specifically how bad the GOP policies are for working people and how hyper Christian the GOP has become, ignoring the separation of church and state, etc. But they didn't take the ball and run with it, and now it has been intercepted by the goons.

They should hire you as their strategist..because it seems they have no one.

That's EXACTLY what they should have done, and do from now on.

'Put Nancy Waterman on the payroll.'

Your memo was great!

Well Done my friend!
:dem:

Bush's War (instead of the War in Iraq)

Corporate Welfare (instead of tax breaks for corporations)

The Party of the Corporations (instead of Republicans)

Herbert Hoover Republicans want to end your social security but they don't want Paris Hilton to have to pay any taxes on the millions she inherits (I haven't checked out Paris Hilton's status so that would need to be done to be sure that is correct)

The Republican Party uses religion as a way to distract people from complaining about the transfer of their money to the corporations (instead of religion is used to divide)

Give Paris Hilton tax cuts,

And take the security out of retirement!

Republicans and their corporate sponsors.

I was thinking the same thing today. The Dems are so naive. They try to answer the questions with nuances and the soundbites come back to bite them.

They should answer EVERY question with a criticism of the Republicans. You gave good examples. The only suggestions I have is for the Dems to get together on their talking points so that they sound unified. And they need to get their talking points into short soundbites that the people will remember.

And I agree they need some clear talking points as well. They just aren't thinking strategically at all.

senator: Downing Street Minutes need to be investigated because Iraq was a sham sold to us and the American people. So get our troops home

say but they are more interested in making the headlines themselves.

They are worse than little children sometimes. Maybe we could just throw the whole lot out and hire some adults to run the country.

Here's a sample dialog that accomplishes a number of goals.

Attack on Dean > horrors of Election 2004 > RNC Chair vow to suppress votes > Other Mehlman problems, including his lie about DSM >

It is not hard to move the ball to our turf!

Carping Beltway Insider: Dean said {insert trivial and out-of-context remark}. Republicans are calling on Democrats to condemn the remark as {insert phony, overblown reaction}

Member of Democratic Caucus/Conference/Leadership: At the "Take Back America" conference, Gov. Dean condemned the intolerable lines that the voters in minority and Democratic-leaning precincts faced in this last election. Countless voters were unable to wait and were disenfranchised by those lines. Howard Dean’s remarks were right on. Those lines were wrong.

This nation was founded on the principle of consent, and that consent must be obtained in elections that afford voters of every class an equal opportunity to cast their vote and have that vote counted. I suggest you read Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election if you don’t think we have a serious problem here.

Carping Beltway Insider: But, aren't Dean's inflammatory remarks counter-productive?

Member of Democratic Caucus/Conference/Leadership: What inflames my passions, and the passions of the voters in this nation, are violations of our most fundamental principle – the principle of consent.

Just a few weeks ago, Ken Mehlman, the RNC chair, shamelessly declared the Republican Party's intent to employ voter suppression when he vowed to "do whatever we can to help make sure Jerry Kilgore becomes the next governor of the state" - including, according to the AP "having poll workers on hand to challenge voter eligibility." Whose eligibility do you think they intend to challenge to "ensure victory"? Certainly not the voters they expect to vote for Kilgore. Selective suppression of votes is wrong.

Over and over again, Mehlman plays by the Norquist playbook, where the ends justify the means. We saw it when he violated the law as Bush-Cheney campaign manager, and more recently, when he attempted to use deceit to conceal deceit on Meet the press with his demonstrably false claim that disclosures in the Downing Street Memo "have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it."

This is just what I am talking about. Dean causes enough of a stir that people are listening now. So the Dems could really put it out there. Your comments about the voting in Ohio are exactly the kind of thing they should be talking about.

Let the opposition try to ignore (or divert attention from) the context. We need to make sure they don't succeed!

Here is what Dean was saying when he made the "honest living" aside (you’ll find the transcript at ourfuture.org). You don’t need to look any farther than the surrounding sentences to see what they are trying to divert attention from!

We need to be the party of election reform. We ought to do everything we can to make it easier for more Americans to vote. The Republicans are all about suppressing votes; two voting machines if you live in a black district, 10 voting machines if you live in a white district. I think every single American ought to be able to vote! I used to say in the campaign -- I meant this sincerely -- I would rather have you go out and vote, even if you vote Republican, than stay home. I really would…

You -- you know, the idea that you have to wait on line for eight hours to cast your ballot in Florida -- there's something the matter with that. You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever, and get home and then have a -- still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives. But for ordinary working people, who have to work eight hours a day, they have kids, they got to get home to those kids, the idea of making them stand for eight hours to cast their ballot for democracy is wrong.

will come from the grassroots/progressives whichever preferred.

That's exactly how every Democratic leader should answer any question from the media whores relating to Dean.

I talk with my Congress men and Senators today and I asked them to support Dean! When Democrats should be going after Republicans, NOT dean!

I'm on a letter writing kick right now.

I am trying to get this idea out there as much as I can. I have been posting it on DU, I sent it to Harry Reid, and I even sent it to Josh Marshall (no response). It is a simple strategy that would make them much more effective. Their response to Dean this week and how much they have unwittingly been manipulated has me fuming.

better things to say than any of them !

and if Dean has some secret strategy then he should have let the rest of the Democratic Party in on it BEFOREHAND.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3820252


Cher

I think Dean making headlines this way is just fine, whether he is doing it on purpose or not. Because there is more than an element of truth in everything he says. But it takes a team, and the team keeps screwing up and losing the ball after he has gotten it for them.

because he's always spot on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/

Jann Wenner
Slamming Dean: The Democratic Establishment Echoes the GOP Echo Machine

Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, and Tom DeLay don’t even have to bother attacking Howard Dean anymore; their work is being done for them by the stalwarts of what’s left of the Democratic Party establishment.

Dean says that the Republicans are essentially a party that is by, for, and of the white Christians, which we all know is fundamentally true -- though clearly not the most nuanced description of the long-standing economic, racial, and social divisions that the GOP draws its strength from -- and all of a sudden we have Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi chiding him for one reason or another. And today it’s reported that Hillary Clinton’s spokesman also thinks Dean is speaking too boldly.

However they choose to phrase it, the bottom line effect of all this sniping is to marginalize and shame Dean for speaking a truth that the Republicans do not wish spoken or given credence. Our guys are doing the work of the so-called GOP Echo Machine.

And it’s not like this is the first time this has happened. The party elite jumped on Dean when he said white guys who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flags should be voting Democrat because voting Republican was against their own interests. But Dean was right. We were letting Bush and company fool these good folk, and we turned our backs on a voting bloc that helped cost us the election. Dean also said the US wasn’t any safer for the capture of Saddam. And he was criticized instead of supported. But he was right. Again.

Have we so bought into the ethos of the Echo Machine and the Washington press wizards and the values of Tim Russert, that we are now afraid to trust voters with the truth? Dean may not be the slickest and most media savvy speaker, but when did we agree that Democrats are the only ones required to play nice?

It was VERY effective. Of course, he didn't make big news (just as you anticipated). But anyone listening to him probably thought he made very reasonable points.

You are a gifted writer and thinker! Thanks for doing this. If they were smart, they'd hire you.

:kick: Recommend

Contact the DNC and Give 'em Hell About NOT Acting on Election Fraud

NEW LEADERS FOR A NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY

kick!