In Bush's War Room, 'It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid' -NYT

[Rose Siding]

ARLINGTON, Va., July 13 - Shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday, a handful of President Bush's campaign aides huddled around two small speakers in a room that, with its shades drawn, was lit by the glow of 15 television monitors. They were listening to the voice of Senator John Kerry.

None of the networks were carrying Mr. Kerry's entire speech to a group of financial donors, mostly women, in Boston that day. But Mr. Bush's operatives had somehow arranged for their own audio feed, they refused to say how, and were listening intently, ready to pounce on any opening for attack.
...
Mr. Bush's operation, however, is rooted more in offense, devised to seek out and exploit every possible opportunity to paint Mr. Kerry as a political equivocator who switches positions on important issues when it suits his political interest.

As such, the war room is the nerve center of what Democrats, and some presidential scholars, have called the most relentlessly negative re-election campaign in memory - and what Republicans say is a necessarily energetic drive to hold Mr. Kerry to a record they say is rife with contradictions. On a daily basis, the assembled Republicans hope to pick new fights based on Mr. Kerry's most recent statements, and those from his past.

The central tenet of Mr. Bush's communications operation is on a sign on the office door of Nicolle Devenish, Mr. Bush's campaign communications director, which says: "It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid," a play on the famous sign in Mr. Clinton's 1992 war room, "It's the Economy, Stupid."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/politics/campaign/14repubs.html?hp

[doctorbombeigh]

1. A slogan guaranteed to bite them in the ass...

Love it.

[TahitiNut]

12. Well, they really are better with the hypocrisy than the economy.

They're just going with their strength. :shrug:

[GaryL]

2. Oh Lord!

Do these people doing nothing but project?

[al bupp]

11. Apparently Not! /eom

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. "...had somehow arranged for their own audio feed..."...

What a surprise....more dirty tricks from the FratBoy team.

Gee...I wonder if they're going to be concerned that their little team was discussed in such fine detail? I wonder who was recording THEIR audio?

[Robbien]

4. So they are bugging the Kerry campaign?

BushCo gets to hear what Kerry is saying but the media doesn't let us hear?

Yes it is the hypocrisy, stupid.

[olddem43]

5. sounds like Watergate all over again.

[AussieInCA]

6. ah I see.. more examples of those great "conservative values" - NT

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Is George WIll going to steal Kerry's debate prep book again?

What dirty trick AREN'T the Nazis doing this year?

[truthisfreedom]

8. hahaha. and they think this kind of publicity will garner respect or

admiration? this whole article just makes them look like a bunch of crooks! what a creepy lot.

[daleo]

9. Bush, bringing good old fashioned values back to the White House

"It's the hypocrisy, stupid", as he spies on his political opponent a la Nixon.

Let's see:
Nixon - missing tape recording, Bush - missing military records.
Nixon - dirty tricks, Watergate, Bush - spying on opponents.
Nixon - hopeless Asian war, Bush - hopeless Asian war.
Nixon - faltering economy, Bush - faltering economy.
Nixon - drinking problem, Bush - drinking problem (dry drunk now).
Nixon - impeached, Bush -??

I am sure there are plenty of other similarities, such as the overwhelming sense of paranoia from both administrations.

[UpInArms]

10. these are the people that were going to change the tone

in DC???

They can't even carry a tone in a bucket.

[HuckleB]

13. Now that's funny. Bush's face is in the encyclopedia next to the term.

Talk about hypocrisy. These guys don't have mirrors, do they?

[rocktivity]

14. They plan to beat Kerry on HYPOCRISY???

BRING IT ON!!! I'd rather have a president who "switches positions on important issues when it suits his political interest" than one who TAKES positions which suit his PERSONAL interests! It's the STUPIDITY, Stupid!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Snazzy]

15. That's ripped off

Us Grey hairs were saying exactly that about Whistleass before it got so damn evil (hard to pin down when that happened).

An important thought for the Kerry War Room, should you happen across this:

Give us an email address (i.e. [e-mail])--sure you will get lots of crap, but amongst that will be gems. I've got (like many here, clearly) strategy stuff, nearly daily, you can gladly have for free. Lots of former campaign/pr execs and journalists here. Tap in! Can't hurt, no?

[WilliamPitt]

16. Bring 'em on

[bemildred]

18. Indeed, "bring 'em on", "it's the stupidity, hypocrit". nt

[dusty64]

17. chimp has always

been mr. gloom and doom terra and taxcuts for the rich. How a "majority" see him as the more optimistic candidate is simply beyond me.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. LOOK AT HOW THEY PLAY THE PRESS, AND THE PRESS TAKES WHAT THEY FEED THEM..

From the article:

After sitting impatiently through what seemed to be a typical stump speech, they found one: Mr. Kerry said he was "PROUD" of votes by him and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, last fall against the president's requested $87 billion appropriation for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a vote that Republicans have used to make a case that Mr. Kerry has been failing to support the troops after voting to authorize the war.

Within an hour or so, Mr. Bush's team, at the campaign's headquarters in a corporate office building in suburban Virginia, across the Potomac River from the White House, had sent a release via E-MAIL TO HUNDREDS OF JOURNALISTS, supporters and campaign surrogates. The e-mail message included the new quote and one from September, when Mr. Kerry implied it would be "irresponsible'' to vote against such spending. THE QUOTATION, along with the idea that Mr. Kerry's position on the money had evolved, FOUND ITS WAY ONTO FOX NEWS AND into articles in THE WASHINGTON POST, USA TODAY, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE and THE ASSOCIATED PRESS....

(KERRY, the article states,"WAS ACTUALLY REFERRING TO MR. EDWARDS when he said: 'I'm proud to say that John joined me in voting against that $87 billion when we knew the policy had to be changed.'")

***

After Republicans sent an e-mail message about the comment to their vast list of reporters, Mr. Schmidt followed up with TELEPHONE CALLS TO SELECT REPORTERS TRAVELING WITH MR. KERRY to make sure they noticed it. "THE NEWS OF THE DAY," MR. SCHMIDT PROCLAIMED in one phone call to a reporter, "IS an evolution on the $87 billion. Now John Kerry said he was proud."....On Tuesday, Mr. Bush's aides, while careful not to credit themselves for persuading reporters to jump on the quote, were clearly pleased that it popped up in many articles. Even so, they were not entirely satisfied. Mr. Schmidt said he would ask some of the campaign's SURROGATES TO BRING IT UP AGAIN DURING TELEVISION APPEARANCES....But in the end, surrogates were not necessary. Mr. BUSH, apprised of the quote by campaign aides, brought it up in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday....That SOUND BITE was featured prominently near the beginning of "WORLD NEWS TONIGHT" ON ABC on Tuesday. The program's average, nightly audience far outreaches any single newspaper: MORE THAN EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE.

[Sabriel]

20. Hmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Who else in this country get to have their own "audio feed," do you suppose? The Kerry/Edwards war room? The Democratic Senators? Lucky them....

[Terran]

21. It's no wonder they're losing

if this is the fantasy world they live in. They truly don't get it...but I guess if they did get it, they'd all just pack up and go home.

[Cocoa]

22. instead of spending all this energy attacking Kerry...

why don't they run on Bush's great record in office? Or his strong leadership?

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

23. I found this paragraph interesting:

The room has three long tables lined with computers. Most are staffed by college students or recent graduates who constantly monitor politically oriented Web sites and watch the television monitors, which are regularly tuned to all of the major cable and financial news networks, the various C-Span feeds and the major broadcast networks.

[Mari333]

24. Perhaps we can send all those college students

enlistment forms?
Its high time they put their bodies on the front lines for Bush's corporate war.
High time.

[kayell]

25. Hi kids, Howya doin'?

:hi: You know your boss is a bigger criminal than Nixon, right? Have a nice day. :hi:

[duvinnie]

26. Ha!

The people that brought us "clear skies" and "healthy forests"
are trying to make HYPOCRISY an issue?

Will the ironies ever end??!

[bleedingedge]

27. It really chaps my ass the way they equate "hypocrisy"...

with a change of opinion. I believed in the death penalty about 10 years ago. Now I don't. Does that make me a hypocrite? No, it makes me capable of changing my mind after the consideration of new facts.

So they take a vote Kerry made in 1632 and compare it to a vote he made 1999 and say "Whoa, he changed his vote. What a hypocrite!"

But this fits perfectly with Bush's pathology of never admitting a mistake because in order to change one's mind, you have to admit to yourself that you were wrong.