"Okay guys, you checked this place for bugs? Are all the lines secure?" James Carville said to the small contingent in the room which included Harold Ickes, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Terry McAuliffe besides Carville himself.
"It's all right, James, calm down. We had the FBI checks for bugs three times. We can say what needs to be said. In fact, Hal, why don't you start. We've got no time to waste," Terry Mcauliffe said after all attendees were seated. Ickes cleared his throat and began.
"What we've got here are obstacles of the tallest order. Beginning with," Ickes said then paused and looked pointedly at McAuliffe, "no Democratic presidential candidate worth a spit in the dark."
McAuliffe looked annoyed but said nothing.
"Since it looks like we're stuck with Kerry the least we can do is have him get off of that Heinz money and help out his own cause. This is why, despite Terry's objections, we chose Kerry over Edwards. Only problem guys, Kerry is really an unlikeable guy."
The rest of the group nodded approval. None of them particularly liked John Kerry either. But there was the Heinz money and how sweet was it to use a dead Republican's money to run against a live Republican president?
The unspoken thought jolted Ickes to continue. He had to make the group understand just what a formidable Republican president they were up against.
"Don't believe any of that spin out there about this next election being a close one. Hell, WE planted the spin. Americans LIKE this President. Also, and this is the real battle, this president has the face on their TV screens on September 11th. Americans are loathe to change a president in the middle of a war. And for John Kerry? Come on guys. Terry, I ought to have your head for this."
"So what do you suggest, Hal?" Hillary said in a no-nonsense, some would call it bitchy, tone.
Hal looked at his papers and continued. "The only chance the Democrats have of winning the White House in 2004, and it's a slim one, is to do nothing but attack Bush for eight months straight. THAT part McAuliffe got straight when he shortened the primary season."
MCAuliffe glowed at Ickes' praise, late though it came.
Harold cleared his throat again. "It's not any one thing that's going to bring Bush down. It's screaming about his National Guard story, then moving on to every failure in Iraq, and the minute," with this Ickes paused and took a sip in water, " ...the minute he brings up 9/11 gang, we've got to go after him with guns blazing. It doesn't matter what rinky-dink scandal, which of our mouthpieces we gotta get out there, hell we may have to make up stuff out of whole cloth. But we gotta beat, we gotta pound, we gotta be outraged. Terry, you got that 9/11 widow gang set to go? Do they have their talking points? Have they practiced Terry?"
McAuliffe nodded, annoyed again.
"Gang, it's the constant little attacks, the short-lived but vicious, vicious, vicious. We gotta encourage viciousness, anger and hatred. No, we're not gonna get any die-hard Republicans. But give me a moderate soccer Mom in Iowa and over time if she's hears too much during the Today show, stuff about National Guard, stuff about making politics out of 9/11, stuff about no Bin Laden....day in and day out and mean, mean, mean, well that soccer Mom, after a while she's gonna be brushing her teeth and she's gonna decide she's heard enough about Bush. She used to think he's a great guy but after all the attacks, damn, this time she's either not going to vote at all because this lady ain't gonna like Kerry either, or she'll hold her nose and vote for Kerry. Either way, getting enough of those soccer moms to suspect something ain't right about their hero Bush, it's the only way we got a shot."
The group sat in silence, bathed in the words and what they knew they had to do.
"I gotta question," Bill said. "Suppose this thing backfires on us? Suppose that soccer Mom isn't as stupid as we think she is? There is the internet and talk radio. Suppose the Democratic party is seen for ...," Bill paused then completed his thought, "...for what we're really doing."
Ickes shrugged. As usual, Bill was a political animal. He knew what they were doing was dangerous. Ickes looked to the group and said quietly.
"What choice do we have?"