The Message

In New Jersey, Thomas Kean, Jr. is running for the Senate on the Republican ticket. But he never mentions the word “republican” in his speeches or in his campaign literature. His platform is that he thinks Iraq is a disaster and that he will be an “independent” and “reform” politician. Republicans in close races are all claiming their newly found independence of the administration. If they get away with this approach, the result will be that Hastert, Boehner, and Frist will continue to control Congress, and once the election is over, the odds are great that the rubber stamping of Bush policies will be no different that what has occurred in the past six years.

While asserting their independence from the administration, they continue to parrot the only message that they think will defeat Democrats because it worked in the last three elections. Dana Milbank of The Washington Post characterized this Republican pre-election message in these words: "Vote Democrat and Die."

Nancy Pelosi last week said that capturing Osama bin Laden wouldn't make us safer. President Bush said "he's not the issue" and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "If he were gone tomorrow, the same problem would exist". What is different about these statements? Not much, but to Republicans, Pelosi’s statement bordered on treason.

Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) wondered whether Democrats are "more interested in protecting terrorists than in protecting the American people." Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) stood next to a poster of Pelosi and her words about bin Laden and demanded: "Where do your loyalties lie?" House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said Democrats "are confused about who the enemy actually is."

The Democrats as usual are broadcasting a number of messages, no one of which is clearly resonating with the public. This is self-defeating in the face of an election where they have their best opportunity in six years. What they should be doing is screaming that the past six years of Republican rule have been a disaster for the United States – incompetence in strategic decision making, pursuing the wrong enemy, diminishing our prestige, and spectacularly wasting lives and money.

Some Democrats appear to be realizing what they need to do to counter Republican assertions. John Kerry yesterday spoke about the Bush Administration’s “cut and run” policy in Afghanistan. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a middle of the road Democrat who has supported Bush much more than most Democrats, reacted to the Republican charges with words that ought to become a mantra for every Democrat:

America is not tired of fighting terrorism. America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican Party that has sent $6.5 billion a month to Iraq when the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, that led this country to attack Saddam Hussein when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. And Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that, despite documented mistake after mistake after mistake . . . never admit that they ever do anything wrong.