The Huffington Post has a preview of how the DNC will campaign in the midterm election. They plan to explicitly link the agenda of the Tea Party movement to the Republican Party:
Democrats are planning to link the tea party and Republicans, overlapping the two groups to paint the GOP as a party of extremists and the grassroots activists as tools of the establishment.
Democratic National Committee sources say the party’s strategy is to pose the November midterm elections as a contest between Democrats and a joint GOP-tea party plan for the country. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the official launch of the plan Wednesday by DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.
Democrats plan to cite tea party activists’ statements and GOP support and introduce a “Republican-Tea Party Contract With America,” a send-up of the 1994 GOP Contract With America that helped Republicans win control of the House for the first time in four decades.
Democrats plan to say the tea party is “the most potent force in Republican politics,” as stated on the DNC website:
“For the better part of the past year, Republicans have tried to come up with a new agenda for the American people with mixed results. However, with the Tea Party now the most potent force in Republican politics, and with the recent launch of the Tea Party Caucus on Capitol Hill garnering the support of Republican leaders like National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Pete Sessions and Republican Caucus Chair Mike Pence, the Republican Party agenda has become clear. Republican leaders and Tea Party supported Republican candidates can now rally around the “Republican Tea Party Contract on America” as the blueprint for how they would govern.”
Democrats plan to point to the Tea Party Caucus on Capitol Hill and its high-powered members, including Rep. Pete Sessions, who runs the GOP’s effort to elect House candidates, and Republican Caucus Chairman Mike Pence. Both have voiced support for the Tea Party Caucus and have been strong supporters of lawmakers who have wrapped themselves in its anti-tax, smaller-government, libertarian cloth.
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busboy33 // Jul 28, 2010 at 12:41 pm
“Democrats are planning to link the tea party and Republicans, overlapping the two groups to paint the GOP as a party of extremists and the grassroots activists as tools of the establishment.”
Boy . . . that’s going to take alot of creative effort. However shall they get people to believe such an outrageous idea? They’re going to be doing alot of Photoshopping to get Jeff Sessions at a Tea Party rally, or a bunch of Republicans in the Tea Party Caucus. Really. Gonna take alot of effort.
I believe this is technically known as the “Shooting Fish in a Barrel” or the “Slow-Motion Target” strategy.
dante // Jul 28, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Don’t worry, all of those Democrats in the Tea Party Caucus will stand up and debunk this rumor, once and for all.
TAZ // Jul 28, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Link them, seriously, there is a need to link them?
You couldn’t unglued the tea partiers from todays Republican party with the jaws of life…….
CitizenWhig // Jul 28, 2010 at 2:56 pm
The DNC’s 2010 platform: Water is wet.
But seriously, the DNC needs to make this connection for the voter. The media has shied away from making this point, most likely because no media outlet wants to appear “biased” by reporting facts that poke holes in the perception of the Tea Party as a grass roots movement. Fox News and talk radio win again. The conservative media put the objective press back on their heels and in an attempt to demonstrate their objectivity, they bend over backwards to give all points of view an equal place at the table, regardless of the legitimacy of the perspective (e.g., the grass roots nature of the Teal Party movement).
msmilack // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Excuse me for asking but what is the big news here considering that the Tea Party IS Republican? Obviously, not every Republican belongs to the Tea Party but it seems pretty clear that members of the Tea Party vote Republican — there would be no room for them in the Democratic Party. Also, the one Democratic candidate the Tea Party tried to endorse declined their support.
balconesfault // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Excuse me for asking but what is the big news here considering that the Tea Party IS Republican?
That’s not the issue – the issue is whether there is any real way to distinguish between the policy agenda of the Tea Party, and the policy agenda of the Republican Party.
I mean, someone might argue that virtually every Greenpeace member votes Democratic (unless there’s a non-astroturf Green Party candidate on the ballot) … but you would be laughed out of the house if you ever tried to make the claim that Greenpeace sets the policy agenda for the Democrats. Hell, the Democrats hardly listen to MoveOn, no matter how much money and energy that organization brings to the party.
Now, the question is whether the linkage between the policy agenda of the Tea Party and the Republican Party will be helpful or harmful when competing for the votes of Independents and conservative Dems.
I’d argue that once a candidate actually tries to articulate what the policy agenda of the Tea Party is in a coherent fashion, rather than just relying on posters at rallies and bumper stickers and talk show ramblings to do so, he/she not only has a hard time competing for the votes of Independents and conservative Dems, but for the votes of moderate Republicans as well.
And THAT is the point of the Democratic strategy to make the linkage clear. Republican candidates will be faced with either selling the Tea Party agenda without getting prospective voters running to the other side of the aisle, or defining their differences with the Tea Party without turning the Tea Partiers against them. Since the latter don’t seem like a particularly forgiving lot.
busboy33 // Jul 28, 2010 at 5:37 pm
@msmilack:
“Excuse me for asking but what is the big news here considering that the Tea Party IS Republican?”
Shhhhh. We’re not supposed to know. Its a secret. They’re still in the closet.
Yes, its blatantly obvious to the entire planet that these two have been humping in the hallways since that first office party all those months ago, but they’ll still deny it no matter what. It’s kinda cute, in a hopelessly desperate sort of way.
So we all kind of agreed to let them come out when they are ready. Y’know . . . no pressure or expectations or anything. So just pretend it isn’t obvious, no matter how obvious it is.
And remember, there is no specific direct written link between the GOP and the Tea Party. Like, no recording of someone saying, “Now, as the GOP, how shall we manipulate the Tea Party to further our ends?”. So everything else is just coincidence.
Just play along.
msmilack // Jul 28, 2010 at 9:54 pm
balconesfault
Excellent point, thanks.
You are right about the Tea Partiers not being very forgiving. I noticed today that they lashed out at M. Bachmann for endorsing a Missouri Republican whom the Tea Party had not selected. Bachmann apparently believed she was free to make her own choice separate from the Tea Party much as Sarah Palin has been able to do — the Tea Party has pretty much let Palin get away with it with minor complaints. Not so much for Bachmann. It will be interesting to see what happens next though there isn’t much follow through with the Tea Party precisely because of their lack of an agreed upon agenda and lack of organization. But you are right that the distinction between the GOP and the Tea Party is about policy and one that means more to the GOP than it does to the Democrats so it’s probably an effective strategy for the Dems to link them and frankly why shouldn’t they considering how much pandering the GOP has been willing to do for the Tea Party in the first place? It’s not that different from linking the GOP to Beck and Limbaugh.
msmilack // Jul 28, 2010 at 9:58 pm
busboy33
You wrote: “And remember, there is no specific direct written link between the GOP and the Tea Party. Like, no recording of someone saying, “Now, as the GOP, how shall we manipulate the Tea Party to further our ends?”
I had kind of forgotten that link, that of course when this started the GOP was very anxious to get the votes of the Tea Party which is why Michael Steele and others were showing up at their rallies and Sarah Palin and Bachmann were encouraging the Tea Party to declare their votes were for Republican candidates.
DirtyLibrul // Jul 29, 2010 at 3:25 am
As easy (and fun) as this is to ridicule, it’s actually a really good sign if you’re a Democrat. Lots of people are afraid to mess with the Tea Party so Tim Kaine and company coming out with this ad means they A) aren’t afraid of the TP, are B) ready to play rough (*for Democrats!), and C) are willing to speak truth to crazy. This may not seem like much to some, but it is.
drdredel // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:49 am
As long as the democrats don’t go too far and start doing anything that would be seen as kicking a cripple, I’m all for it. The tea party is a big joke but if we make too much fun of them they will appear like the mentally retarded kid that all the others are making fun of. No need to go there.
Democrats Link Tea Party to Republicans | FrumForum | The Daily Conservative // Jul 29, 2010 at 10:17 am
[...] link: Democrats Link Tea Party to Republicans | FrumForum Share and [...]
rbottoms // Jul 29, 2010 at 11:50 am
The
Tea PartyRepublican Party has gone f*****g insane.balconesfault // Jul 29, 2010 at 11:56 am
“if any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor” from a “foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen”
Did these Einsteins consider that this would, well, deny citizenship to any future Einsteins?
We know that the Texas Republican Party Platform (which calls for outlawing sodomy, strip clubs, and all pornography) is loony tunes. Now Iowa joins them. Who’s next?
busboy33 // Jul 29, 2010 at 3:09 pm
And WHY the concerted and repeated attempts to remove a duly-elected President?
I mean, its definittely not because he’s Black. We’ve established that.
So what else about him is unique when compared to the other Presidents that have all come before him, so unique that it merits such a unique response from the opposition? I mean, trying to surreptitiously slip in retroactive citizenship nullification, specifically and explicitly targeted for the sole purpose of getting rid of Obama? Pretty serious. So what merits that?
Aside frome the Black thing, I mean. Cuz its not that. That would be silly.
p.s.: They DO realize that the rule couldn’t be ex post facto, so it would have absolutely no effect of Obama’s citizenship, right?
p.p.s.: So when Bill Gates receives a Lifetime Achievement from the British Telecommunications Industry . . . are we kicking him (and his gazillions of dollars in capital) out? M0re buisnessmen get “foreign awards” than politicians — get those buisnessmen!
NH // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:13 pm
HO HUM DAVID FRUM SPREADING FUD, what a DUD!
Yeah like you leak out your strategy before you actually tell the lie?
And Frum is all too willing to go along with it.
People didn’t buy the astroturf, racism, or old rich people accusations and they aren’t buying this either.
FRUM, you need to quit writing or at least stop calling yourself a ‘journalist’.
NH // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:15 pm
OH by the way, if anyone is linked with those nasty tea partiers who just would like smaller, more honest, and solvent government, heaven forbid!
THIS IS FAR SUPERIOR THAN TO HAVE THE END OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THE COMMUNIST TERRORISTS IN POWER AS WE HAVE NOW!
Can you say Democratic Socialist Caucus?
My God… since when is the Constitution something scandalous but having your whole Dem party taken over by murderous nazi socialists NOT????
NH // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:16 pm
busboy33 is an example, a perfect one, of the clueless ignoramuses in this country!
balconesfault // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:23 pm
NH proves that the Tea Party message is best conveyed with screaming, terse sentences filled with hyperbolic accusations, and invective.
It comes off a little worse for wear when you quit using all-caps and try to explain exactly how the Tea Partiers would govern in a comprehensive manner.
rbottoms // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Governing is for p******s, let’s start with the hangings!
GEValle // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I wish the Republicans would link the TEA PARTY to the Republicans…
busboy33 // Jul 29, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Am I?
Look mommy! NH said I was perfect!!
Thanks. You’re extra-special too!
(btw, the rhyming? Awesome.)
drdredel // Jul 30, 2010 at 11:05 am
Leave poor nh alone. You have no idea what hardship he had to overcome to be able to string words together into semi coherant sentences. Not everyone has the benefit of an IQ over 50 you know!