Rove, Gillespie Plot to Reclaim Power

I'd think that this would scare me a bit, but it really doesn't. Remember how Rove insisted he "had THE math"? Well, it feels like this is of a similar vein. Ben's got the list of groups involved, story via Taegan-

"The Republican Party's best-connected political operatives have quietly built a massive fundraising, organizing and advertising machine based on the model assembled by Democrats early in the decade, and with the same ambitious goal -- to recapture Congress and the White House," Politico reports.

"The new groups could give Republicans and their allies a powerful campaign apparatus separate from the Republican National Committee. Karl Rove, political architect of the Bush presidency, and Ed Gillespie, former Republican Party chairman, are the most prominent forces behind what is, in effect, a network of five overlapping groups, three of which were started in the past few months."

Said Gillespie: "Where they have a chess piece on the board, we need a chess piece on the board. Where they have a queen, we shouldn't have three pawns."

ARIvederci, Tiger

By GottaLaff



Love 'em and leave 'em:

Meanwhile, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer acknowledged in an e-mail to the AP that he had been working for Woods and had decided to withdraw.

The AP gives no reason for Fleischer’s departure, but FoxSports reports that Fleischer “fell on his sword because he felt he was becoming the story": “[...] Having him in behind the curtain gave the impression Woods had something to hide, and that words were being fed to him.”

Pfft, why would Woods have anything to hide?

Ari-vederci, Tiger.

It was bad while it lasted.

H/t: Ellen

Tiger Woods hires Ari Fleischer

By GottaLaff

This is who Tiger Woods hires to get us to accept him again? With smarmy representatives like this, who needs enemies?

If this is how Tiger intends to rebuild his image, why not just hire Karl Rove? Or Mark Sanford? Or Tickle Me Massa?

How to cement Worst Judgment in the World status:

Two sources in the golf community have told The Post that Ari Fleischer, the former presidential advisor to George W. Bush and the man who was brought in to help repair the steroid-shattered image of Mark McGwire, has been huddling with Woods, plotting a strategy for his return to golf — at the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting March 25 at Bay Hill in Orlando.

That did it. I can't even look at the guy now...

... as if I could before.

What's that under President Obama's robes?

By GottaLaff

Chess, not checkers. Strong closer. You've heard the various descriptions of how President Obama plays the political game.

And that brings us to the Quote-O'-The-Day:

[T]he president is giving a decent impression of the Dalai Lama on a quiet day. But he's done that before, only to reveal a Ninja under the robes.

--Andrew Sullivan

Let's leave what's under Prez O's robes out of this, mmkay? Mmkay.

David Axelrod says he has a 2010 strategy

By GottaLaff

David Axelrod always has a strategy. Let's hope his latest works as well as some of his others:

In an interview with National Journal, White House political adviser David Axelrod outlined "several keys to strengthening the Democratic position in an election that all signs suggest is shaping up as extremely difficult for his party."

Yes. Yes it is. I strategically knew that. So what oh what shall we do about it? I smell a strategy coming. How strategelicious:

[I]mprovement in the economy, some (but not vastly more) legislative action and, most pointedly, an effort to draw sharper contrasts with Republican positions. His comments may foreshadow a much more pugnacious Democratic message as the election approaches." [...]

Said Axelrod: "In certain ways we are at the mercy of forces that are larger than things we can control. If we see steady months of jobs growth between now and next November, I think the picture will be different than if we don't."

Color me impatient, but I want more strategizing than that.

Health care watch: White House visitor logs

By GottaLaff

The White House had visitors, as the logs reveal, and they were talking health care reform:

Top aides to President Barack Obama met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show. [...]

The records show a broad cross-section of the people most heavily involved in the health care debate, weighted heavily with those who want to overhaul the system.

Here are a few on the list:

• Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School, single payer advocate
• George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans
• Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assoc.
• Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist who represents Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among others
• Billy Tauzin, head of PhRMA
• Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Assoc.
• Laird Burnett, a top lobbyist for insurer Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
• Joshua Ackil, a lobbyist whose clients include Intel, U.S. Oncology Inc., and Knoa Software Inc.
• Alissa Fox, a lobbyist with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, met March 31 with Peter Orszag
• Mark Agrast, a lobbyist for the Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Amador "Dean" Aguillen, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi who is now with Ogilvy Government Relations, where he lobbies for clients including pharmaceutical companies
• Merribel Ayres, a lobbyist who appears to focus on environmental issues such as energy and climate change

There is much more information on these visitors and others here.

How Obama Marginalizes Critics

By GottaLaff

Here's the plan: First, be the nicest guy ever and try to reach out to your adversaries, over and over and over again. Not getting results? Gee, these bullies are starting to look awfully petty and nasty. So, after being repeatedly rebuffed and ridiculed by The Meanies, turn the tables and smack 'em down hard, because, hey, they asked for it:

President Obama "is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds," Politico reports.

Among the White House targets: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Rush Limbaugh, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News.

"Obama aides are using their powerful White House platform, combined with techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, to cast some of the most powerful adversaries as out of the mainstream and their criticism as unworthy of serious discussion."

Mmmm, dee-lish.

By the way, as was pointed out to me by Joshua of The Joshua Blog, ClusterFox, conservatives, and religious zealots spent 8 years being the only ones invited to the White House, and now they're upset?

Joe Wilson is the Disease for Which Democracy Does Not Have Insurance to Cure.

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, courtesy of my buddy Mark Karlin:

Despite his impassioned and compassionate speech of Wednesday night, Barack Obama needs to understand that Joe Wilson is the disease for which democracy does not have insurance to cure.

Let me start with this fairly assured speculation: Wilson's outburst was designed by the GOP corporate PR fronts to distract media coverage following Obama's cogent and compelling remarks to Congress. [...]

In the summer of our healthcare reform discontent, Wilson's unprecedented assault on the dignity of the American presidency was part of a long-line of PR stunts to create chaos out of the effort to insure the health of most Americans [...] then the shocking outburst of Joe Wilson, which he apparently shouted twice. [...]

In the Bush Administration, if a Democrat had done that he would have been expelled from Congress. [...]

Until the Democrats start understanding the importance of theater, emotion, and corporate ownership of the media, they are sailing upwind even though the majority of Americans are on their side on almost all progressive issues.

Until the Democrats have a media strategy and ownership epiphany, Joe Wilson is the disease for which democracy does not have insurance to cure.

There's your excerpt. Here's the rest.

"If progressives think conservative attacks are just about Sotomayor, they may wind up helping conservatives regroup"

By GottaLaff

Interesting piece. The Rushpublics' attacks on Sotomayor may be what George Lakoff calls a "coordinated stealth attack":

There are several fronts: empathy, feelings, racism, activist judges. Each one has a hidden dimension. And if progressives think conservative attacks are just about Sotomayor, they may wind up helping conservatives regroup. [...]

Actually, something sneakier and possibly dangerous is going on.

Let's start with the attack on empathy. Why empathy? Isn't empathy a good thing?

Empathy is at the heart of progressive thought. It is the capacity to put oneself in the shoes of others - not just individuals, but whole categories of people: one's countrymen, those in other countries, other living beings, especially those who are in some way oppressed, threatened, or harmed. [...]

Progressives care about others as well as themselves. They have a moral obligation to act on their empathy - a social responsibility in addition to personal responsibility, a responsibility to make the world better by making themselves better. This leads to a view of a government that cares about its citizens and has a moral obligation to protect and empower them. [...]

President Obama has argued that empathy is the basis of our democracy. Why do we promote freedom and fairness for everyone, not just ourselves or the rich and powerful? The answer is empathy. We care about our countrymen and have an obligation to act on that care, and to set up a government for the protection and empowerment of all. [...]

In describing his ideal Supreme Court justice, President Obama cited empathy as a major desideratum. Why? Because that is what our democracy is about. [...]

Empathy in this sense is a threat to conservatism, which features individual, not social, responsibility and a strict, punitive form of "justice." [...]

But the target is not empathy as it really exists. Instead, the conservatives are reframing empathy to make it attackable. Their "empathy" is idiosyncratic, personal feeling for an individual, presumably the defendant in a legal case. With "empathy" reframed in this way, Charles Krauthammer can say, echoing Karl Rove, "Justice is not about empathy." The argument goes like this: Empathy is a matter of personal feelings. Personal feelings should not be the basis of a judicial decision of the Supreme Court. Therefore, "justice is not about empathy." Reframe the word "empathy" and it not only disqualifies Sotomayor; it delegitimizes Obama's central moral principle, his approach to government, his understanding of the nature of our democracy, and progressive politics in general. [...]

The attack on feelings is of a piece with the old attack on "bleeding-heart liberals." And one step away from Cheney's attack on Obama and defense of torture. [...]

What about Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a racist? It is linked directly to the personal feeling argument: because of her personal feelings for her own kind - Latinos and women - she will discriminate against white men. [...]

The real target here goes beyond Sotomayor. In the last election, conservative populists moved toward Obama. Conservative populists are working people, mostly white men, who have conservative views of the family, of masculinity, and of the military, and who have bought into the idea of the "liberal elite" as looking down on them. Right now, they are hurting economically, losing their jobs and their homes. Empathy is something they need. The racist card is an attempt to revive their fears of affirmative action, fears of their jobs - and their pride - being taken by minorities and women. The racist attack has a political purpose, holding onto conservative populists. [...]

Radical conservatives know that Sotomayor will be confirmed. They also know that their very understanding of the world is being threatened by Obama's success. [...]

Above all, Democrats should be aware that the attack on Sotomayor is not just about Sotomayor. It is an attack on the basis of our democracy and must be answered.

There was much, much more. Please go read

The Republicans' "fetid wading pool"

By GottaLaff

Fetid. Isn't that a great word? Fetid. Now let's use it in a sentence:

"One of the reasons why Barack Obama's political team is so confident," Marc Ambinder observes, "is that even while some of Obama's signature policies are viewed with healthy skepticism, Republicans are still splashing around in a fetid wading pool. Obama has room to maneuver because Republicans are giving him room. And while Rove was a master at strategic communications, his lessons didn't seem to stick. Take the appearances in the public square of Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh..."

Oh, ouchers! And I mean that in the best way, as in, "It hurts so fine".

"Limbaugh's ratings have surged since the White House made him the subject of their derision, which is exactly what the White House wanted. The more Republicans identify with Limbaugh, the better; the more Republicans apologize for Limbaugh, the better... So as Democrats focus on Limbaugh, Cheney and Rove, the result is a twofer; remind independents of why they voted for change and continue to perpetuate the Republican identity crisis."

I adore brilliance, don't you? I knew that you did. Oh, and before I forget:

Suh....


nap!