Posted on 02/13/2006 6:03:15 PM PST by Libloather
Democrats add a new C to corruption
By Josephine Hearn
As Democrats mull when and how to introduce an election-year agenda, some party leaders have already begun to broaden the now-familiar Democratic refrain of a “culture of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and cover-up” to add a new alliterative element: costs.
The shift in language reflects some frustration among Democrats that their steady drumbeat on corruption isn’t connecting with voters as much as they’d like.
The new phrase allows them to segue from ethical abuses to pocketbook issues such as prescriptions drugs, energy prices and tuition costs, where they contend that Republicans have fallen under the sway of industry lobbyists and rewarded special interests to the detriment of average voters.
“There is a very focused determination [to] educate the public … that this isn’t just some inside-the-Beltway thing but that it has a direct relationship to their lives,” a House Democratic leadership aide said. “I think we’ve recognized the need to do this for a while, but we are clearly now making the very aggressive transition.”
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), began talking about the “costs of corruption” in December. House Democrats embraced it in January, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came aboard earlier this month, according to a search of the Lexis-Nexis news database.
“The culture of corruption in Washington, D.C., has a cost to the American people,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) intoned earlier this month. “We’ll stop the cost of corruption to the American people, whether it is in home heating oil, gas prices or in the price of prescription drugs.”
A poll done in late January by Democracy Corps, a nonprofit organization associated with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which does internal polling for the DCCC, found that only 44 percent of likely voters thought corruption in Washington was a very serious problem and that only 29 percent were very concerned about Abramoff’s dealings with elected officials. But when pollsters linked corruption to prescription-drug costs, gas prices or the cost of home heating oil, 66 percent or more of respondents were very or extremely upset.
“What bothers people the most about corruption is not the fouling of the process but the impact on real things — energy prices, the Iraq war and Medicare reform. Those are ‘facts’ that upset people the most,” Democracy Corps principals Stan Greenberg and James Carville wrote in a Jan. 31 memo to supporters. “The corruption scandal is all about energy, Iraq, and the prescription drug mess — the dominant issues for the public.”
Democratic strategists say the new phrase helps combine two aspects of their message: Republican corruption and the squeeze on the middle class.
“It is one phrase that encapsulates the general feeling, something that describes what corruption means and how it affects people,” said a Democratic strategist who works on developing messages.
A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, however, argued that Democrats have made their own ethical missteps.
“Democrats have one major obstacle in their way, and that’s the culture of hypocrisy that pervades the Democrat Party from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to [Rep.] William Jefferson [D-La.],” the spokesman said, alluding to recent media reports about Reid’s contacts with associates of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the fact that Jefferson is the target of an FBI sting.
In recent months Democrats have been test-driving different parts of their election-year message. Last fall they began using the slogan “We can do better” to frame the 2006 elections as a referendum on Republican-controlled government.
Giving the Democrats’ official response after the president’s State of the Union address earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine repeatedly stressed that “There is a better way.”
Democrats and their allies will begin stepping up their discussion of the price of corruption in coming weeks.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee, is working on a report called “America for Sale: The Cost of Corruption” that is expected to draw ties between Republicans’ harsh parliamentary tactics and perceived shortcomings in recently passed bills, such as the 2003 prescription-drug measure. Democrats complain that the act does not allow the Medicare program to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.
The Campaign for America’s Future, a liberal advocacy group, will feature “cost of corruption” in one of its issue campaigns, focusing on recent budget cuts to student loans and on higher gas and drug prices, a spokesman said.
The group tied ethical lapses to pocketbook issues in an ad campaign last month targeting Reps. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and has plans to buy more ads elaborating on the same theme, as well as to hold news conferences and issue reports.
“We’re connecting the dots for everyday people who are paying a price for this corruption at the pharmacy and the pump,” affirmed the spokesman, Toby Chaudhuri. “The corrupt policies that got us into this fix are not going to get us out.”
Americans are stoopid and don't vote for RATS often enough...
Boy, these catchy new buzz-words are just about enough to persuade me to vote for the Dem next time.
Using a few words with a common first letter must be their long-awaited "Plan"
no wonder IKE went and played golf often, after he found out he couldn't kill the demonrats.
The problem is that Dems really do believe the American public is stupid enough to believe that they are free from the same corruption they blame on Republicans. One would have to be deaf dumb and blind not to realise both parties are corrupt but the Republicans arent into killing babies or giving the US to terrorists.
Wrong about the Republicans not giving the US to terrorists. When the next attack comes, it will come from the South, more than likely.
As long as the Dems focus on so-called catchy slogans, and not on ideas, the GOP is in good shape.
I FORCED myself to listen to the leader of the Wisconsin Dem Par-tay, Joe Weineke, on talk radio this morning.
The longer he talked, the more sarcastic and shrill he became. He's a total joke. And guess what? Every State has a Dem leader just like him! Tee-Hee!
If we Pubbies don't do any more damage to ourselves in the near future, we're going to waltz into 2006 and 2008 backwards and in high heels ala Ginger Rogers.
These people (the Dems, on ALL levels) are bonkers. Their hatred for the current administration, coupled with their lack of vision on any issue and their scarey and psychotic "leadership" at the national level (Dean, Pelosi, Reid, et al) is a joy to behold.
If we screw this up, when ALL of the stars in the Heavens are alligned in our favor, we deserve to fail.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Is it true yet?
Cultureofcorruptioncultureofcorruptioncultureofcorruption...
"Using a few words with a common first letter must be their long-awaited 'Plan'"
No doubt inspired by The Irrelevant Jesse Jackson..
That's what's supposed to capture my imagination and energize me to go out and vote Democratic????
There isn't a sane American anyplace who believes they can do better on the war, on taxes, on home ownership, on the economy, on life, on 2nd amendment, and on judges.
Democrats: "We can do damage...serious damage...is the real truth."
Important fact about dims that will NEVER change. When they talk about out of control spending, and deficits, they are really stating that WE NEED TO RAISE YOUR TAXES!
They will never overcome, because they will never "come over" to reason.
They also HATE America!
LLS
When they speak of doing better, you had better take them to mean themselves personally!!!
LLS
You could be right, but I am not sure the Republicans are alone in this, It seems to me that both parties wont be happy until America is a part of a great North American Country made up of Mexico and Canada and the US. They sure are working to facilitate it no matter what the voters want.
Not being ridiculous at all. Have you read the 10 Most Wanted List? Do you realize how many murders, kidnappings, felonies are committed by illegals each and everyday in the US? They are called illegals because illegals break the law. You would probable also enjoy my tagline.
The voters mean nothing to either political party. Politicians are interested in one thing only, and that is their gravy train with all the perks. If public opinion meant anything to politicians the illegal(s) mess would not exist. The last attack came from the north, I anticipate the next to come from the south. I hope I'm wrong and there is no attack, but all the experts agree, an attack is on the way. The expert's thoughts, and I hope the experts are wrong. (Rant off)
IslamoNazis have ALREADY come into America, from Canada, crossing into more populated sections, by going through Indian lands, WITH IMPUNITY, before 9/11! The Indians didn't give a damn. Then, some of them recognized photos of terrorists, on 9/12!
Do, at least try, to get your head out from beneath that pile of muck and see reality for what it is, and not what your own imaginings of it are.
And FWIW...lots of criminal illegals come here by ship and plane; it isn't only through the Southern border that they come.
You drive people away from your side, by being blind to ALL of the facts and denying them to boot!
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